Kate Bush

: This article is about the singer/songwriter. Kate Bush is also a character in the Japanese anime television series, Victory Gundam.

Biography

Overview

While still attending St. Joseph's convent school in Welling, South East London where she studied the piano and violin, Kate Bush caught the attention of David Gilmour of Pink Floyd, who helped fund her first demo sessions. She signed a contract with EMI when she was 16. However, in the first two years of her contract, Bush did not release an album, but instead completed her time at school and had lessons in dancing, mime, and music. During this time, Bush wrote and made demos of close to 200 songs, which today can be found on bootleg recordings (often known as the Phoenix Recordings). She also performed at various small venues in and near London under the name KT Bush Band.

Related Topics:
Welling - London - David Gilmour - Pink Floyd - EMI - Dancing - Mime - Music - Phoenix Recordings

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Her first album, The Kick Inside, was released in 1978, and featured songs she had written during the previous two years, including the single "Wuthering Heights", which topped the UK charts and became an international hit. A period of intense work followed. A second album, Lionheart was quickly recorded; Bush has often expressed disatisfaction with it, feeling she needed more time to get it right. Then there was the endless promotional work and an exhausting tour, the only one of her career. Kate disliked the exposure and the celebrity lifestyle, feeling it was taking her away from her main priority: making music. A slow and steady withdrawal from public life began as she moved into producing her own work with Never for Ever and developed a perfectionistic, painstaking approach to making music which would see her ensconced in the studio for long periods and only needing to face the glare of the press when the subsequent albums were released. Wild rumours would fly while she was engaged in her work - usually that she had ballooned in weight or had gone mad. Then she would re-emerge for a brief period, slim and seemingly sane, before retreating to the studio once more.

Related Topics:
The Kick Inside - 1978 - Lionheart - Never for Ever

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

A pattern began to form in the eighties where Kate would disappear for up to four years while she honed her new material until it was ready for release. After the release of The Red Shoes in 1993 there was no reason to suppose that she wouldn't reappear in three or four years with another set of songs. But the period of silence that followed her seventh studio album was much longer than anyone had anticipated.

Related Topics:
Eighties - The Red Shoes - 1993

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Bush dropped out of the public eye for many years, although her name occasionally cropped up in the media in connection with rumours of a new album release. There were also unconfirmed reports that she had suffered a nervous breakdown. The press continued to speculate wildly about what she was up to. The press viewed Kate as an eccentric recluse, sometimes drawing a comparison with Miss Haversham, from Charles Dickens' Great Expectations. Others argue that she was simply trying to give her young son a normal, happy childhood, away from the world of show business: Bush gave birth to Albert, known as Bertie, fathered by her guitarist and current partner Danny MacIntosh, in 1999. She didn't release the news of his birth to the press and it was over two years before the story broke. On the few occasions she has spoken to the press since Kate has made it clear how happy motherhood has made her.

Related Topics:
Nervous breakdown - Charles Dickens - Great Expectations

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On 31 August, 2005, EMI put speculation to rest and confirmed that Kate's eighth studio album Aerial will be released on a double CD on 7 November, 2005 internationally and 8th November in the USA, after a single release "King of the Mountain" on 24 October. The song has been available for download since 27 September on all major internet pay-for-download services including Napster, Rhapsody, and iTunes.

Related Topics:
31 August - 2005 - EMI - 7 November - 8th November - USA - 24 October - 27 September

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~