FEATURE:
My Name Is, But Not Me…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Brian Aris
The Importance of Kate Bush’s First Three Albums
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I am going to bring in…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Gered Mankowitz
an interesting podcast that recently went out. It sort of ties in a bit with a recent feature Tom Doyle published in MOJO. He release the fascinating and must-buy biography, Running Up That Hill: 50 Vision of Kate Bush. I would suggest people buy that copy of MOJO. It talks about Kate Bush’s early career. The first few albums. We get some insight into The Kick Inside and Lionheart from 1978; revelations about 1980’s Never for Ever, in addition to facts about 1979’s The Tour of Life. Also go and get his book. He is someone who knows a lot about Kate Bush. He has interviewed her more than once. Most memorably in 2005 around the release of Aerial. It was interesting reading the MOJO feature, as it takes us away from Hounds of Love. Something that gets more focus, it is interesting focusing on that period between 1978 and 1980. A transformative one for Kate Bush. The feature includes, near the end, a quote from Kate Bush from 1980. Wrestling with fame and celebrity, she knew that her name carried weight and there was fame around her but, as the title suggest – “My name is, but not me”. She said that she was just being me. She said that in September 1980 when Never for Ever was released. Saying that as people literally queued down the street in London’s Oxford Street to get a copy signed. Bush said how it was frustrating that things that were transient in her mind for so long were suddenly becoming solid. The thing that she released into the world and could not change. When in the mind, everything can be edited or made better or different. When people hear it, they make judgement and it sort of defines who she is.
It was interesting. Not that Kate Bush has disowned those first three albums. A lot of artists do that. They hit a peak – usually more than three albums in – and then dismiss those early works. I don’t think any huge artist in history has hit their best within the first three albums. Maybe Radiohead and a few others are exceptions. It normally takes a bit longer. For Kate Bush, she released her debut album when she was nineteen. By the age of twenty-two, she has released threes studio albums, toured in the U.K. and Europe, promoted her work around the world and had this accelerated growing up in the public eye. It is easy to see why she was struggling with fame, being grounded and what her work symbolised. Whether it was true to her. I love going back pre-The Kick Inside. Reading the MOJO feature, we learn that the KT Bush Band did small gigs at the Rose of Lee pub. I did not know that Bob Mercer of EMI caught one of the performance and, in April 1977, put the band in De Wolfe Studio in Soho and did some recording. Nothing from that session made it onto record. One song, Dear Dead Days, is one of those great lost gems. Those musicians did not play on The Kick Inside. Sessions for that album began in July 1977. The KT Bush Band played around Fulham, Chelsea, Putney. They did one-nighters in East Sussex and Essex. I think that all the background and backdrop goes into the first two albums. How there are these fascinating photoshoots. Gered Mankowitz shot Bush between 1978 and 1979. These iconic photos. She had, as Mankowitz explained to MOJO, these strong collaborative ideas and presented a sensual image. She was always energetic and burned up any space given. Such fun and productive shoots. There were informal shoots like one at her family home at East Wickham Farm in May 1978. Bush sat by the door on at the piano. One, where she picked up a gun from the mantlepiece – not sure why – and was stood on a bearskin rug. In 1980, Andy Philips photographed Bush outside the EMI offices in Manchester Square. No hair or make-up at all: just Kate Bush spontaneous and natural. All of this texture and personality feeds into the two 1978 albums and Never for Ever.
I have dropped in a couple of interviews from the time to see how Bush approached questions and what she was being asked. I feel like she is a bit down or less warm to The Kick Inside, Lionheart and Never for Ever. Maybe a slightly tough journalistic circuit and increased demands. Not enjoying too much working with producer Andrew Powell. Thinking she was not being listened to. Her music not being presented as it should be. It is clear that, from the debut album, Bush was so astute and was drinking everything in. In the control room, she was so interested and you knew that even then she wanted to produce her own albums. Perhaps that is why she has a slightly downbeat view towards that time. I am fascinated by all of it. One of the more interesting segments of the Tom Doyle MOJO piece is how, in 1978, before the release of Lionheart, Bush invited Brian Bath (who was in the KT Bush Band and played on Lionheart but more fully on Never for Ever) to her flat where she was living in Brockley. They worked on guitar parts and structuring the songs. Bush convinced EMI and Andrew Powell to use her band for Lionheart. Musicians including Brian Bath and Del Palmer travelled with her to France to record. They recorded two backing tracks – for Kashka from Baghdad and Wow – before there was a rethink. Bush wanted her band because she could communicate better with them and, as a result, get something purer and more fitting to her style. I feel the fact the band from The Kick Inside came out to the Super Bear Studios near Nice and took over soured the mood. Bush knowing, at that moment, that she did not want the same producer for her third album.
Never for Ever is a lot more of what Bush wanted in an album. She produced with Jon Kelly. It is a magnificent album that reached number one in the U.K. It is very timely the feature in MOJO. When many people are drawn towards Hounds of Love (her fifth studio album, it was released in 1985) and that is the starting point for so many, there is this new evaluation and spotlight of her first three albums. So much detail and insight. A good companion to the MOJO spread is the new podcast from Music Maps – the Rock n Roll Book Club. They use a particular place as a jumping-off point of conversation. We were sent to East Wickham Farm as Tom Doyle chatted about her early albums and The Tour of Life. I picked up some stuff from that episode I was not aware of. Although not explicitly named at the time, instead of the Hammersmith Odeon – where she ended the run -, there were plans to use a beautiful venue that was hanger-like. The only one that logically fitted the description is Alexandra Palace in London. Bush felt sick when she released how small she would be compared to the vastness of that space! There were plans at one point to incorporate robots into the set. Already there was magic, mime, theatre, dance and poetry. Tom Doyle also said how many people get wrong the circumstances in which lighting assistant engineer Bill Duffield died after the warm-up date at Poole Art Centre. The truth is, as it was a new venue and it was quite cutting-edge, they had this flooring that was retractable. It seemed that a panel was left open so, when he was looking around the venue – which was not properly and adequately lit -, he did not see the gap there. Falling fifteen foot onto concrete, Duffield was taken to hospital and died days later. Maybe there are memories like that which impact how Kate Bush sees her first few albums.
It is hard to say. Perhaps she was so young and still trying to find her own voice. Not yet producing alone, it was a period of evolving and growing. I do feel that there is so much to enjoy and discuss regarding that period between 1978 and 1980. It was so busy and eventful. Three fantastic and different albums came from that period. I suppose it would have been quite strange going from, a few years earlier, at school and in a comfortable family home to being this artist that everyone knew. Traveling around the world and her life being turned upside down. At the same time, Kate Bush had a vision of her own music and perhaps felt that she was not being heard or given enough control of her material. Go and order a copy of MOJO and explore what Tom Doyle writes about the period and this birth of a unique and compelling artist. I would also advise people to listen to the albums. The Kick Inside, Lionheart and Never for Ever are wonderful and so different to anything around at the time. Even though she did go onto produce and release more commercial successful albums – and ones she was happier with -, you cannot underestimate and discount her first three albums. They are important statements. That tussle between her name being known and worldwide. Kate Bush wanting to remain private and grounded. She was not this starry celebrity. So many conflicts and tussles. You can see why she may look at 1977 through to 1980 as a bit murky, tiring and not her finest years. If some saw her as this phenomenon or strange artist, Bush simply said she was being herself. Who she had always been. She wanted to take more control, spread her wings and focus on the music. After the success of Never for Ever, she was definitely…
GRANTED that wish.