Kate Bush
Kate Bush about to perform at Comic Relief 1986
Background information
Birth name	Catherine Bush
Born	30 July 1958 (1958-07-30) (age 49)
Origin	Bexleyheath, Kent, UK
Genre(s)	Alternative rock, Art rock, Pop rock
Occupation(s)	Musician, vocalist, songwriter, record producer
Instrument(s)	Vocals, piano, keyboards
Years active	1975–present
Label(s)	EMI
Website	www.katebush.com

Kate Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic lyrics have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful and original solo female performers of the past 30 years. Bush was signed by EMI at the age of 16 after being recommended by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour. In 1978, at age 19, her début song "Wuthering Heights" topped the UK charts for four weeks and made her the first woman to have a UK number one with a self-written song.

After her 1979 tour, which was the sole tour of her career, she released the 1980 album Never for Ever, which made her the first solo female British singer to top the UK album charts. In 1987, she won a BRIT Award for Best British Female Solo Artist. She released eight albums, three of which topped the UK album charts, and has UK top ten hit singles with "Running Up That Hill", "King of the Mountain", "Babooshka", "The Man with the Child in His Eyes", and "Don't Give Up".

In 2002, her songwriting ability was recognised with an Ivor Novello Award for "Outstanding Contribution to British Music". In 2005, she released Aerial, her first album in 12 years. The album was a UK success and earned her BRIT Award nominations for "Best Album" and "Best Solo Female Artist". She has also been nominated for three Grammy Awards.

Biography

Early life

Bush was born in Bexleyheath, Kent, to English physician Dr. Robert Bush and his Irish wife Hannah. She was raised in their farmhouse in East Wickham, on the border of Kent and London, with her older brothers, John and Paddy. Bush came from an artistic background; her mother was a former Irish folk dancer, her father was an accomplished pianist, her brother Paddy worked as a musical instrument maker, and John was a poet and photographer. Both brothers were involved in the local folk music scene. Her family's musical influence inspired the young Kate to teach herself to play the piano at age 11. She soon began writing her own tunes and eventually added lyrics to them. At school, she was encouraged to take violin lessons, but the piano was her passion.

In the mid-1970s, while she was attending St. Joseph's Convent Grammar school in Abbey Wood, London, David Gilmour of Pink Floyd was given a demo tape of Bush's songs by Ricky Hopper, a mutual friend of Gilmour and the Bush family. Impressed with what he heard, Gilmour helped her get a more professional sounding demo tape recorded that would be more saleable to the record companies. The tape was produced by Gilmour's friend Andrew Powell, who would go on to produce Bush's first two albums. At the age of 16, Bush was signed up by EMI after being recommended by Gilmour. For the first two years of her contract, Bush spent more time on schoolwork than making an album. She left school after doing her mock A-levels and ten GCE O-Level qualifications. In 2005, Bush stated in an interview with Mark Radcliffe on BBC Radio 2 that she believed EMI signed her up before she was ready to make an album so that no other record company could offer her a contract. After the contract signing, EMI forwarded her a sizable advance which she used to enrol in interpretive dance classes taught by Lindsay Kemp, who was also a former teacher of David Bowie.

Bush also wrote and made demos of close to 200 songs, a few of which today can be found on bootleg recordings and are known as the Phoenix Recordings. From March to August 1977, she fronted the KT Bush Band at public houses around London. The other three band members were Del Palmer (bass), Brian Bath (guitar) and Vic King (drums). She began recording her first album in August 1977., although two tracks had been recorded during the summer of 1975.

1978–1979

Her first album, The Kick Inside, was released in 1978 and featured songs she had written during the previous several years, including her début single, the high-pitched and ethereal "Wuthering Heights", which topped the UK and Australian charts and became an international hit. In doing so, Bush became the first woman to reach number one in the UK charts with a self-penned song. EMI originally wanted the more rock-oriented track "James and the Cold Gun" to be her début song, but Bush insisted that it should be "Wuthering Heights". Even by this early stage of her career, she had gained a reputation as being determined to have a say in decisions affecting her work. The album was released when she was 19 years old, but some of the songs had been written when she was as young as 13. Two of the demos she recorded with Gilmour were included on the album: "The Saxophone Song" and "The Man with the Child in His Eyes".

Bush's cinematic and literary influences, two qualities considered her trademarks, were most obvious in "Wuthering Heights". The song was not initially inspired by Emily Brontë's novel, but by a television adaptation, although she did read the novel later to, in her own words, "get the research right." She makes reference to Gurdjieff in "Them Heavy People" and acknowledges David Gilmour's support in "Strange Phenomena", while the title song is based on the Ballad of Lizie Wan, the story of a girl who kills herself after being impregnated by her brother. The album is also rather open about sexual matters, particularly on the erotic "Feel It" and "L'Amour Looks Something Like You". A second single, "The Man with the Child in His Eyes", was released to another warm reception, reaching #6 on the UK charts. It also made it onto the American Hot 100 Billboard Charts where it reached #85 in early 1979, but it was Bush's only single to do so for nearly another seven years. She did, however, perform the song along with "Them Heavy People" (another track from the album) on NBC's Saturday Night Live on December 9, 1978. "The Man with the Child in His Eyes" went on to win her an Ivor Novello Award in 1979 for "Outstanding British Lyric".

As part of her preparation for entering the studio, Bush toured pubs with the KT Bush Band. However, for the album she was persuaded to use established session musicians, some of whom she would retain even after she had brought her bandmates back on board. On The Kick Inside, her brother Paddy Bush played the harmonica and mandolin, unlike on later albums where he would play more exotic instruments such as the balalaika and didgeridoo. Stuart Elliot played some of the drums and would become her main percussionist on subsequent albums, along with session drummer Charlie Morgan, who later went on to work regularly with Elton John. Preston Heyman was credited with some subsequent studio work but mostly performed on Bush's live tour of 1979.

EMI capitalised on Bush's appearance by promoting the album with a poster of her in a tight pink top that emphasised her breasts. In an interview with NME magazine in 1982, Bush criticised the marketing technique, stating, "People weren't even generally aware that I wrote my own songs or played the piano. The media just promoted me as a female body. It's like I've had to prove that I'm an artist in a female body." In late 1978, EMI persuaded Bush to quickly record a follow-up album, Lionheart, to take advantage of the success of The Kick Inside. Bush has often expressed dissatisfaction with Lionheart, feeling that she needed more time to get it right. The album was rushed out of the studio in Nice on the French Riviera, making this her only album to be wholly recorded outside the UK. The album was produced by Andrew Powell, assisted by Bush. While it has its share of hits, most notably "Wow", it did not receive the same reception as her first album, reaching number six in the UK album charts.