Kate Bush

Kate Bush (born Catherine Bush; 30 July 1958) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic ^Idiosyncrasy vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful 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, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut song "Wuthering Heights ^{Wuthering Heights (song)} ," becoming the first woman to have a UK number-one with a self-written song.

After her 1979 tour—the only concert tour of her career—Bush released the 1980 album Never for Ever, which made her the first British solo female artist to top the UK album charts and the first female artist ever to enter the album chart at No. 1.
In 2002, Bush's songwriting ability was recognised with an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. In 2005 she released Aerial ^{Aerial (album)} , her first album in 12 years. The album earned her a BRIT Award nomination for Best Album and another for Best Solo Female Artist. During the course of her career, she has also been nominated for three Grammy Awards.

 
Early life

Bush was born in Bexleyheath, Kent, to English physician Robert Bush and his Irish ^Ireland wife, Hannah Daly. A proposed Marine Bill, if passed, would mandate an access corridor that would allow anyone to traverse part of her Devon property.

In an interview with Weekend Australian, published in December 2005, Bush stated that Aerial was not meant to be her last work and that she wished to continue writing and recording music. On 13 March 2006, EMI re-released all Bush's previous albums, including her greatest hits album The Whole Story, on compact disc with cardboard cases made to look like the original vinyl pressings. In 2007, it was reported that Bush had met Placebo ^{Placebo (band)} after they had recorded a cover of "Running up that Hill" and told them she liked their version. She sent what was described as a "very amusing" good luck message to BBC Radio 2 disc jockey Mark Radcliffe after his show moved to a new time slot and also wrote the foreword for the David Bowie Special Edition of Mojo ^{Mojo (magazine)} magazine. That same year Bush recorded a song for the film adaptation of The Golden Compass ^{The Golden Compass (film)} entitled "Lyra", played over the end credits of the film.

Bush along with Elbow ^{Elbow (band)} and Vampire Weekend paid tribute to Peter Gabriel for Mojo magazine's ^{Mojo (magazine)} April 2010 issue.Bush's music has also been eclectic, using various styles of music even within the same album. Her songs have spanned across genres as diverse as rock ^{Rock music} , pop ^{pop music} , alternative ^{alternative rock} and art rock. Even in her earliest works where the piano was a primary instrument, she wove together many diverse influences, melding classical music ^{European classical music} , rock, and a wide range of ethnic and folk sources, and this has continued throughout her career.

In an interview with Melody Maker magazine in 1977, she revealed that male artists had more influence on her work than females, stating: Every female you see at a piano is either Lynsey De Paul, or Carole King. And most male music—not all of it but the good stuff—really lays it on you. It really puts you against the wall and that's what I like to do. I'd like my music to intrude. Not many females succeed with that. Like artists in the prog rock genre, Bush rejects the classic American style of making pop music, which was adopted by most UK pop artists. Influenced by the vocal style of the singer Bryan Ferry, Bush sings with an overtly English accent, and her lyrics tend to be more unusual and less clichéd than American-style pop lyrics, often employing historical or literary references. The musical instruments used in her songs and the way instruments are played commonly differs from the American norm. It has been observed that even the more joyous pieces are often tinged with traces of melancholy, and even the most sorrowful pieces have elements of vitality struggling against all that would oppress them.

Bush is not afraid to tackle sensitive and taboo subjects. "The Kick Inside" is based on a traditional English folk song (The Ballad of Lucy Wan ^{Lizie Wan} ) about an incestuous pregnancy and a resulting suicide; "Kashka from Baghdad" is a song about a homo***ual male couple; Out ^{Out (magazine)} magazine listed two of her albums in their Top 100 Greatest***est albums list. "The Infant Kiss" is a song about a haunted, unstable woman's almost pedophiliac infatuation with a young boy in her care (inspired by Jack Clayton's film The Innocents ^{The Innocents (film)} (1961), which had been based on Henry James's famous novella The Turn of the Screw); and "Breathing ^{Breathing (song)} " explores the results of nuclear fallout from the perspective of an unborn child in the womb. Her lyrics have referenced a wide array of subject matter, often relatively obscure, as in in "Cloudbusting", which was inspired by Peter Reich's autobiography, "Book of Dreams", about his relationship with his father, Wilhelm Reich, and G. I. Gurdjieff in "Them Heavy People", while "Deeper Understanding", from The Sensual World, portrays a person who stays indoors, obsessively talking to a computer and shunning human contact.

Comedy is also a big influence on her and is a significant component of her work. She has cited Woody Allen, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and The Young Ones ^{The Young Ones (TV series)} Her songs have occasionally combined comedy and horror to form dark humour, such as murder by poisoning in "Coffee Homeground", an alcoholic mother in "Ran Tan Waltz" and the upbeat "The Wedding List", a song inspired by François Truffaut's 1967 film of Cornell Woolrich's The Bride Wore Black about the death of a groom and the bride's subsequent revenge against the killer.Bush's only tour took place 2 April – 13 May 1979, after which she gave only the occasional live performance. Several reasons have been suggested as to why she abandoned touring, among them her reputed need to be in total control of the final product, which is incompatible with live stage performance, a rumour of a crippling fear of flying, On 28 December 1979 BBC TV aired the Kate Bush Christmas Special. It was recorded in October 1979 at the BBC Studios in Birmingham, England. As well as playing songs from her first two albums, she played "December Will Be Magic Again", and "Violin" from her forthcoming album, Never for Ever. Peter Gabriel made a guest appearance to play "Here Comes the Flood", and a duet of Roy Harper's "Another Day" with Bush.

In 1982 Bush participated in the first benefit concert in aid of The Prince's Trust alongside artists such as Madness ^{Madness (band)} , Midge Ure, Phil Collins, Mick Karn and Pete Townshend.
On 25 April 1986 Bush performed live for British charity event Comic Relief, singing "Do Bears... ?", a humorous duet with Rowan Atkinson, and a rendition of "Breathing ^{Breathing (song)} ". Later in the year on 28 June 1986 she made a guest appearance to duet with Peter Gabriel on "Don't Give Up ^{Don't Give Up (Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush song)} " at Earl's Court, London as part of his "So" tour. In March 1987, Bush sang "Running Up That Hill" at The Secret Policeman's Third Ball ^{The Secret Policeman's Balls} .

On 17 January 2002, Bush appeared with her longtime champion, David Gilmour, singing the part of the doctor in "Comfortably Numb" at the Royal Festival Hall in London.Bush has appeared in many innovative music videos designed to accompany her singles releases. Among the best known are those for "Running Up That Hill", "Babooshka ^{Babooshka (song)} ", "Breathing", "Wuthering Heights ^{Wuthering Heights (song)} ", "Them Heavy People", "The Man with the Child in His Eyes", which was the 55th video ^{First music videos aired on MTV} played on the first day of MTV, and "Cloudbusting", featuring actor Donald Sutherland, who made time during the filming of another project to take part in the video. EMI has released a few collections of her videos, including The Single File, Hair of the Hound, The Whole Story, and The Sensual World, as well as an abridged concert video of her 1979 tour Live at Hammersmith Odeon.

In 1993, she directed and starred in the short film, The Line, the Cross & the Curve, a musical co-starring Miranda Richardson featuring music from Bush's album The Red Shoes, which was inspired by the classic movie of the same name ^{The Red Shoes (film)} . It was released on VHS in the UK in 1994 and also received a small number of cinema screenings around the world. Overall it was a critical failure. In recent interviews, Bush has said that she considers it a failure, and stated in 2001: "I'm very pleased with four minutes of it, but I'm very disappointed with the rest." In a 2005 interview she went as far as to describe the film as "A load of bollocks."

In 1994, Bush provided the music used in a series of psychedelic-themed television commercials for the soft drink Fruitopia that appeared in the United States. The same company aired the ads in the United Kingdom, but the British version featured Elizabeth Fraser of Cocteau Twins instead of Bush.

Several collections of Bush's music videos have been released on VHS, most notably The Single File, which contained videos predating the Hounds of Love album; Hair of the Hound, containing videos concerning that album; and The Whole Story, a career video overview released in conjunction with the 1986 compilation album of the same title. In late 2006, a DVD documentary titled Kate Bush Under Review was released by ***y Intellectual, which included archival interviews with Bush, along with interviews with a selection of music historians and journalists (including Phil Sutcliffe, Nigel Williamson, and Morris Pert). The DVD also includes clips from several of Bush's music videos. As of 2008, a DVD collection of Bush's videography from 1978 to 2005 had yet to be released.

On 2 December 2008 the DVD collection of the fourth season of Saturday Night Live including her performances was released. A three DVD set of The Secret Policeman's Balls benefit concerts that includes Bush's performance was released on 27 January 2009.In 1990, Bush starred in the black comedy film Les Dogs, produced by The Comic Strip for BBC television. Aired on 8 March 1990, Bush plays the bride Angela at a wedding set in a post-apocalyptic version of Britain. While Bush's is a silent presence in a wedding dress throughout most of the film, she does have several lines of dialogue with Peter Richardson in two dream sequences. In another Comic Strip Presents film, GLC, she produced the theme song "Ken", which includes a vocal performance by Bush. She also produced all the incidental music, which is synthesizer based.

Bush wrote and performed the song "The Magician", in a fairground-like arrangement, for Menahem Golan's 1979 film The Magician of Lublin.
In 1999, Bush wrote and recorded a song for the Disney film Dinosaur ^{Dinosaur (film)} , but the track was ultimately not included on the soundtrack. According to the winter 1999 issue of HomeGround, a Bush fanzine, it was scrapped when Disney asked her to rewrite the song and she refused. Also in 1999, Bush's song "The Sensual World" was featured prominently in Canadian filmmaker Atom Egoyan's film "Felicia's Journey". "The Man with the Child in His Eyes" is on the soundtrack for the 2007 British romantic comedy film Starter for 10 ^{Starter for 10 (film)} .

Bush provided an original song, "Lyra", for the closing credits of the 2007 film The Golden Compass ^{The Golden Compass (film)} . The song is written and produced by Bush in her own studio and features the Magdalen College ^{Magdalen College, Oxford} Choir. The title refers to Lyra Belacqua, the lead character in the film. Bush writing on her website called the trilogy "a masterpiece" and said she was "thrilled" to be asked to write the song. According to Del Palmer, Bush was asked to provide the song at very short notice, and the whole project was completed in 10 days. "Lyra" was nominated for the International Press Academy's Satellite Award ^{Satellite Awards} for original song in a motion picture.Bush provided vocals on two of Peter Gabriel's albums, including the hits "Games Without Frontiers ^{Games Without Frontiers (song)} " and "Don't Give Up ^{Don't Give Up (Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush song)} ", as well as "No Self-Control ^{No Self Control (Peter Gabriel song)} ". Gabriel appeared on Bush's 1979 television special, where they sang a duet of Roy Harper's "Another Day". She has sung on two Roy Harper tracks, "You", on his 1979 album, "The Unknown Soldier", and "Once", the title track of his 1990 album. She has also sung on the title song of the 1986 Big Country album The Seer ^{The Seer (album)} , the Midge Ure song "Sister and Brother" from his 1988 album Answers to Nothing, Go West ^{Go West (band)} 's 1987 single "The King Is Dead" and two songs with Prince ^{Prince (musician)} – "Why Should I Love You?", from her 1993 album The Red Shoes, and in 1996, the song "My Computer" from Prince's album Emancipation ^{Emancipation (album)} . In 1987, she sang a verse on the charity single "Let It Be ^{Let It Be (Ferry Aid song)} " by Ferry Aid ^{Let It Be (Ferry Aid song)} . She sang a line on the charity single "Spirit of the Forest" by Spirit of the Forest in 1989. In 1995, Bush covered George Gershwin's "The Man I Love ^{The Man I Love (song)} " for the tribute album The Glory of Gershwin. In 1996, Bush contributed a version of "Mná na hÉireann" (Irish ^{Irish language} for Women of Ireland) for the Anglo-Irish folk-rock compilation project Common Ground: The Voices of Modern Irish Music. Bush had to sing the song in Irish, which she learned to do phonetically. Artists who have contributed to Bush's own albums include Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, David Gilmour, Nigel Kennedy, Gary Brooker, and Prince ^{Prince (musician)} . Bush provided backing vocals for a song that was recorded during the 1990’s titled Wouldn't Change a Thing by Lionel Azulay, the drummer with the original band that was later to become the KT Bush Band. The song, which was engineered and produced by Del Palmer, is available for download and will be on Azulay’s upcoming CD.

Bush declined a request by Erasure to produce one of their albums because "she didn’t feel that that was her area".From the 1980s onward it has become almost standard for individualistic female singer-songwriters to be compared to Bush by the media. She has been noted as an influence on female artists such as Tori Amos, Björk, Alison Goldfrapp, KT Tunstall, Lily Allen, PJ Harvey, and Florence Welch, in addition to acts as diverse as Muse ^{Muse (band)} , and Bloc Party. Paula Cole named Bush as an influence while accepting the Best New Artist Grammy in 1996. Ariel Pink wrote a tribute song for her titled "For Kate I Wait" on the album The Doldrums. The trip-hop ^{trip hop} artist Tricky has said about Bush, "I don't believe in God, but if I did, her music would be my bible". Marc Almond chose "Moments of Pleasure" as one of his 10 favourite songs on Radio 2 in June 2007, saying that the song had a profound influence on him when he was combating drug addiction in New York in the 1990s. In November 2006, the singer Rufus Wainwright named Bush as one of his top ten*** icons. Outside music, Bush has been an inspiration to several fashion designers, most notably Hussein Chalayan.

Many artists around the world have recorded cover versions of Bush songs, including Charlotte Church, The Futureheads (who had a UK top ten hit with a cover of "Hounds of Love ^{Hounds of Love (song)} "), Placebo ^{Placebo (band)} , Pat Benatar, Hayley Westenra, Jane Birkin, Natalie Cole, Ra Ra Riot, Maxwell ^{Maxwell (musician)} , The Church ^{The Church (band)} and Nada Surf. The British dance act Utah Saints sampled a line from "Cloudbusting" for their single, "Something Good ^{Something Good (Utah Saints song)} ", which reached number four on the UK singles chart in 1992. Their remix "Something Good 08" reached number eight on the UK chart in February 2008. British folk singer Jim Moray also references "And Dream of Sheep" in his self-penned track "Longing for Lucy". Progressive ^{Progressive metal} death metal act Novembre also covered "Cloudbusting" on their album Novembrine Waltz. In 2009, John Forté released a hip hop version of "Running Up That Hill". In 1998, a tribute album called "I Wanna Be Kate" was released, featuring mostly un-signed artists as well as Syd Straw, and including covers of 17 songs spanning Kate's career.;Studio albums
*The Kick Inside (1978)
*Lionheart ^{Lionheart (Kate Bush album)} (1978)
*Never for Ever (1980)
*The Dreaming ^{The Dreaming (album)} (1982)
*Hounds of Love (1985)
*The Sensual World (1989)
*The Red Shoes ^{The Red Shoes (album)} (1993)
*Aerial ^{Aerial (album)} (2005)

;Compilation albums
*The Whole Story (1986)
*This Woman's Work ^{This Woman's Work (box set)} (1990)