FEATURE:
Kate Bush’s Never for Ever at Forty-Four
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush photographed attending the British Rock and Pop Awards in February 1980/PHOTO CREDIT: Syndication/Mirrorpix/Getty Images
Celebrating a Record-Setting Album
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IT is not often now…
where you will get artists setting records for an album’s achievements. In terms of the sales and weeks at number one. You feel that everything that could happen regarding setting records has already been done. Kate Bush has set a few in her time. In 2014, Bush became the first woman to have eight of her albums in the Official Albums Chart at the same time. That was after the success of Before the Dawn. Take it back to 1978 when she became the first U.K. female artist to have a number one single with a self-written song. Someone whose sheer originality, talent and timeless appeal and popularity means that you can not bet against Bush setting another record. It is no surprise that there was this momentum after Wuthering Heights went to number one. Her first two albums, 1978’s The Kick Inside and Lionheart, both went into the top ten of the U.K. album chart. Maybe it was a matter of time before Kate Bush got a number one album (I am referring to the U.K., as The Kick Inside reached number one in a couple of nations). She reached number one in 1985 with Hounds of Love. The same in 1986 with The Whole Story (her greatest hits collection). The Sensual World, The Red Shoes, and Director’s Cut reached number two. All of her studio albums have reached the top ten albums charts here. If some albums have not got huge critical acclaim or have been slightly overlooked, that is not the case when it comes to the public. As far as EMI were concerned, like any record label, it is sales and commercial success that means the most. They are not necessarily looking at reviews and seeing those as a mark of success and achievement. All the same, there was something amiss after the release of Never for Ever on 8th September 1980.
I maintain Bush’s third studio album is her most underrated. It is one of her best. Contemporary reviews were a mixture of positive and some more reserved or less positive takes. To be fair, most of the reviews were encouraging. That was a step up from the more muted response to Lionheart. It was clear Kate Bush was inspired keen to move her sound on. Never for Ever has familiar strands and sounds, yet it was a bigger and more ambitious album compared to her first two. A wider sound and lyrical palette. If there was this exhaustion after Never for Ever’s release that carried into The Dreaming, there was probably a more positive energy going from The Tour of Life into Never for Ever. Even though Bush was tired, there was that energy and desire to create an album following time on the road. You can hear the passion and inspiration through the album. The promotion for Never for Ever was fairly intense. Over the following week after its release, Kate Bush undertook a record signing tour of the U.K. One of the most notable examples of the acclaim and popularity she had from fans was at Oxford Street, London. There were massive queues of fans waiting to get the album signed. Bush then visited Europe to promote Never for Ever. The album entered the U.K. album chart on 20th September, 1980. It reached number one. It held that position for only a week, yet it was in the chart for a long time. It was the first ever album by a British female solo artist to top the U.K. album chart, as well as being the first album by any female solo artist to enter the chart at number one. In 1980, that seems extraordinary!
Kate Bush had come from a hugely adored and acclaimed tour and into the studio where that momentum continued. Never for Ever reached number one. Setting a record and with this huge fanbase with her, I do think that EMI should have had more faith. Consider the fact they were not keen on Bush’s solo-producing The Dreaming. I don’t think it was concern for her mental health or a feeling she might get buried. I feel there was this doubt around her ability and talent. As she was co-producer – with Jon Kelly – on a number one album, why were there any barriers?! I do feel there was hesitancy from EMI for Bush to produce Hounds of Love as The Dreaming did not perform as commercially well as Never for Ever. It got to number three but did have some mixed reviews. I still think there was some reluctance for EMI to let Bush take on the challenge of The Dreaming. She was still very young, though she had more than proved herself. How much personal care and conversation was there?! EMI wanted Bush to promote Never for Ever as much as possible and take it to as many people as possible. I didn’t hear of any particular reward from EMI following Bush’s record-setting number one album. In terms of a budget and supporting their artist, I do keep thinking it would have been great if EMI celebrated Never for Ever’s success and did show more love to Kate Bush. Perhaps they did. However, I get the feeling that there was not a huge amount of allowance. If they ‘allowed’ Bush to produce The Dreaming, they were still strict about completion time. Released two years after Never for Ever, that feeling that she still needed to produce albums every year. Shouldn’t such a commercial success like Never for Ever have meant Bush was more than a commodity or someone who was making the label money?! It doesn’t sit too easy!
Regardless, we need to recognise the significance of Never for Ever’s success. It sounds like it was a great and productive time. With Bush stepping into the producer role, it was this breakthrough. Kate Bush being recognised as this extraordinary talent. Her first album where she was producer going to number one in the U.K. is impressive! I do feel that this sort of success should have seen EMI doing a bit more. Allowing Bush a bit more time to make an album. Not feeling like Bush was taking too much time. I will wrap up in a minute. The Kate Bush Encyclopedia collated interviews where Bush spoke about Never for Ever. Bush pleased that she was producing and had more control over her own work:
“For me, this was the first LP I’d made that I could sit back and listen to and really appreciate. I’m especially close to Never For Ever. It was the first step I’d taken in really controlling the sounds and being pleased with what was coming back. I was far more involved with the overall production, and so I had a lot more freedom and control, which was very rewarding. Favourite tracks? I guess I’d have to say ‘Breathing’ and ‘The Infant Kiss’.
From here on there are big progressive steps. I was starting to take control at this point, making sure I had enough time and getting involved in production.
Love, Trust and Hitler. Tracks (UK), November 1989”.
On 8th September, it will be forty-four years since Never for Ever was released. It was a turning point. From there on, Bush knew that she wanted to produce. The Dreaming was her first solo production, though it is clear that recording Never for Ever was hugely important and had some wonderful moments. It is a brilliant album that contains three of her most successful and strongest singles – Breathing, Babooshka and Army Dreamers.
I think more should be written and said about Never for Ever. The context. Those four months between the end of The Tour of Life and working on the album. The four months after and going into The Dreaming. In fact, Bush started recording The Dreaming the same month Never for Ever was released. That sense of her releasing an album and then almost having to be straight into the studio to follow it. Not really allowed time to chill out and enjoy success. That is something that gets to me. How much of that decision to make another album was Bush’s?! That sense of promoting one album and recording another one was something she faced in 1978. EMI really should have said to Bush to take time out. I would love to have heard conversations after Never for Ever went to number one. Whether it was Kate Bush or EMI that drove the conversation around making an album straight away. Or beginning recording at least! I want to end with a nice segment The Quietus’s feature from 2020. They marked forty years of Never for Ever and opened the feature with these words:
“No one was safe once Kate Bush arrived at Abbey Road, not even the people in the canteen. Sessions on 1980’s Never For Ever were fun but punishingly long, especially when she and her band spent hours playing with their freaky new toy, a Fairlight CMI digital sampler. One day, they smashed all the studio’s crockery and recorded the different timbres of each shattering cup and glass, just so they could play an arpeggio of breaking-shard samples on ‘Babooshka’. It sounded incredible, but not everyone thought the effect justified the means: the kitchen staff were so appalled, writes Graeme Thomson in his fascinating biography Under The Ivy, that Bush apparently grovelled for forgiveness with Belgian chocolates.
Maybe the final confectionery-based detail in that anecdote is too good to be true, just like the apocryphal tale of Bush inviting an excited EMI bigwig to her house to show him what she’d been working on during a long, mysterious hiatus, only to then present him with some freshly baked cakes. What is beyond doubt, though, is how much hard graft went into her third album, and what a huge turning point it proved to be. Despite being overshadowed by what followed, it’s the start of her transformation into a one-of-a-kind auteur, the record that made her later, greater glories possible. Tired of EMI’s conveyor-belt approach to rushing out LPs, Bush assumed more ownership in the studio and changed the way she made music forever. “The whole thing was so satisfying,” she enthused in 1980. “To actually have control of my baby for the first time.” Forty years later, it’s no less significant: Never For Ever isn’t Bush’s best album, but it might well be the most important”.
There is a lot more to explore when it comes to Never for Ever. Its amazing eleven songs. The shift from Bush being produced by someone else to going on tour and heading into the studio to produce. The impact and relevance of her reaching number one. How it set the course for the rest of her career. It was a new phase and chapter. Bush not discarding her first two albums…though there was this feeling that she really had to produce and control her own work. If some see Never for Ever as transition to her peak and mere promise rather than brilliance, I think that Never for Ever is…
STILL an underrated classic.