FEATURE:
Kate Bush: The Tour of Life
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at the Q Awards on 29th October, 2001/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images
The Q Awards, 2001
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I have written about this before…
but I wanted to come back to a pretty big and important event from Kate Bush’s career. After The Red Shoes came out in 1993, there was a period when Kate Bush was out of the public eye. There was the odd single release and thing here and there but, for the first time in her career, there was a very long gap where we did not know if another album would come. Of course, Bush did release a double album in 2005. Aerial was released that year but she wrote some of the album way before then. However, in 2001, there was not really any expectation Kate Bush would bring us new music. The longest gap she left between albums to that point was between The Sensual World in 1989 and The Red Shoes in 1993 (there was also a four-year gap between Hounds of Love in 1985 and The Sensual World). We have had a longer gap since. Bush has not yet followed up on 2011’s 50 Words for Snow. However, there have been interviews with her since. She gave us her Before the Dawn residency in 2014. Bush’s most recent interview was near the end of last year. However, it was quite unexpected that we would hear from her in 2001. Not to repeat too much of what I have said before. However, I did want to mention a 2001 appearance at the Q Awards and an interview around that. It had been about seven years since Bush was last seen in public. Since 1994, things had been pretty quiet. It is amazing that journalists might struggle to recognise Bush after that time. It is like if Paul McCartney went away for seven years, you would still be able to recognise him after that time. The truth was Bush had not changed radically. She was still the same distinct and engaging person she was in the 1990s. However, now, there was a fresh energy and impetus. She became a mother in 1998 and was enjoying caring for her son, Bertie. There must have been some hesitation around appearing in public and doing any interviews after such a long time away.
However, it was journalist John Aizelwood that was tasked with interviewing Bush in a challenging year. In September 2001, there were the terrorist attacks in the U.S. Less than two months later, the Q Awards took place. It was a very strange atmosphere. Perhaps not as rowdy and charged as years previous, I guess there was a feeling of sombreness and fear in the year. Kate Bush must have felt affected by what happened in the U.S. so might not have been quite in the mood to do an interview of speak positively. In spite of the time period, she did give her time to Q and John Aizelwood. The journalist was worried he would not recognise Bush. However, he did instantly. She was dressed down in jacket and trousers. This expectation that she would be in something eye-catching and starry. A woman now in forties, not much has altered. Bush noted Aizelwood and waved him over. They were at Harrods. She ordered a pot of tea and they sat down to chat. It was an interesting time for her. The year previous, in 2000, Peter Gabriel let slip that Bush had a child. This set the press in a frenzy. Maybe she felt she needed to do some press and speak after the sort of hysteria from the tabloids. This feeling that Bush had hidden a child away and this was scandalous. She had also been tipped to win a Q award, so she used the occasion to do her first press interview since 1994. John Aizelwood noted how Bush seemed keen to do the interview and it was not forced. Four years almost to the date until she released a new album, this was an occasion for Bush to buy herself a bit of time. EMI would have been excited for her to do the interview too. Aizelwood briefly met Kate Bush’s husband Danny McIntosh and son Bertie. They went off to shop. Bush told Aizelwood that she didn’t always want children but she looks at her son and knows that magic exists. She gave birth to him. Clearly, this was a very different artist to the one who was giving interviews in 1993 and 1994.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush and John Lydon
One of the points that came out of the interview is how Bush was drained following The Red Shoes. The batteries had run out and she needed “to restimulate”. Sending time watching bad sitcoms and quiz shows, she wanted to be in a position where there were no demands. She saw friends occasionally but she was flat and needed time away. I am paraphrasing from a chapter in Tom Doyle’s Running Up That Hill: 50 Visions of Kate Bush book. He dedicated a chapter to 2001 and that interview/award appearance. Aizelwood was told that Bush lived in a flat in central London. She told him where but asked she did not print it. She had gone to see films and shows but kept life pretty undramatic. It was not too long until family and motherhood was on her mind. Aizelwood did get out of Bush that she was working on a studio album. Comparing her to director Stanley Kubrick – who died in 1999 -, she said how she adored him and how he had creative control. When pressed about the album and when it will arrive, Bush did not give too much away. It would be four years until she released Aerial so it was quite a gamble revealing that information and there being such a long period until anything arrived. Bush said she didn’t want to discuss something that was not finished. I am a tad confused as to when the Q Awards took place in 2001. I thought it was November but, as Tom Doyle writes, Bush arrived early at the Park Lane Hotel ahead of the award ceremony on 29th October, 2001. Our of practice being in front of photographers, rather than the mandatory and somewhat outdated red carpet process – where artists and actors pose for the cameras and give short interviews to everyone – Bush rushed down and inside. That is what every one of us would do but, as there was expectation she would chat, she was booed by the assembled press and crowd.
Bush was worried that the public were booing her. John Aizelwood reassured her they did not but she was already deflated. This special occasion did not get off to the best of starts! It was a busy and existing year for music. Musicians including Liam Gallagher, Damon Albarn, Cher, members of Manic Street Preachers and Radiohead were all at the ceremony. Word got round that Kate Bush was there. It must have been this moment of joy for them but also a feeling they might be upstaged! Maybe impetus that they should be on their best behaviour too! One might expect everyone there to be fawning and invade her privacy. The only artist who maybe crossed that line was Elvis Costello, who walked over to her table and gave her his phone number in the hope he would collaborate with her – to this date they never have. Fanboying over Kate Bush, she must have been taken back by all this interest! Considering her previous album came out in 1993 and it did not get a great reception, it just showed how loved and relevant she was – even when she was not releasing music. Her musical peers were pleased to see her. Midge Ure presented the Classic Songwriter Award to Kate Bush. Recalling the first time he met her, when Bush’s name was read out, everyone in the room for on their feet applauding this moment. I love how Bush’s first words were “Ooh, I’ve just come (cum)”. This was a line from The Fast Show. Bush always a fan of comedy. Not what anyone would expect from her, it perhaps took away some understandable nerves! Once the rapture died and Bush chatted to Donavon, she was whisked upstairs where she had her photo taken with John Lydon. A fan of each other’s work, when Lydon collected his Inspiration Award, he declared how much he loved Kate Bush and her music. Quite a magic and strange evening at the Park Lane Hotel! Lydon was interviewed after he left the stage. He was not happy how artists were clearly indebted to her – he was not kind about Tori Amos –, and he said how Bush was a true original. Not someone abiding by slavish rules.
Like Elvis Costello, Lydon was rendered someone quiet and spellbound by Bush. The same man who arrived at the ceremony in a horse-drawn rag and bone cart and was very much as punk as you’d expect was now polite and well-mannered! Unlike Elvis Costello, John Lydon was not trying to get Bush to work with him. Instead, it was two friends sharing a moment together. Nigel Godrich (the Beck/Radiohead producer was at the helm for the latter’s 2000 album Kid A and 2001’s Amnesiac) was also trying to creatively hook up with Kate Bush. Noting how as a teenager he identified with her music, I guess he wanted to produce or mix her next album. Bush was doing things on her own and, though touched, would never invite or satisfy these unsolicited requests. Before John Aizelwood said goodbye to Kate Bush, she revealed her proudest achievement of 2001 was quitting smoking. Something she did for her son I am guessing, Bush also confessed the last record she purchased was Bob the Builder’s Can We Fix It? Bush said she and a few people were going for drinks. She did not say where. Aizewlood concluded how things spiralled out of control. First badly and then really well. She was very happy there and there was ample proof that she was loved. Maybe that night spurred her creative process and expanded her ambitions regarding Aerial. That people were genuinely excited about what was coming next. Aerial did arrive in November 2005. Perhaps those who attended the Q Awards in 2001 felt Bush was just about to release new music. There would be a wait. However, when Aerial did arrive, we could understand why it took quite a while to come to light. I think about the 2001 award appearance and wonder if there will be an occasion soon where Bush gets an award and shows up. You would hope that the BRITs would have made an award for her. I think that the NME Awards should make some space for her. Any excuse to honour Kate Bush! It would be worth it to have a repeat of the 2001 Q Awards and…
THAT wonderful night.