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Kate Bush

Biography

One of the most successful and popular solo female performers of the past 20 years to come out of England, Kate Bush is also one of the most unusual, with her keening vocals and unusually literate and complex body of songs. As a girl, Catherine Bush studied piano and violin while attending the St. Joseph's Convent Grammar School in Abbey Wood in South London. She also amused herself playing an organ in the barn behind her parents' house. By the time she was a teenager, Bush was writing songs of her own. A family friend, Ricky Hopper, heard her music and brought Bush to the attention of Pink Floyd lead guitarist David Gilmour, who arranged for the 15-year-old Bush to record her first demo. With Gilmour's help, Bush was signed to EMI Records at age 16, though the company made the decision to bring her along slowly. She studied dance, mime, and voice, and continued writing. She also began thinking in terms of which of the 200 or so songs she'd written would be part of her first recording, and by 1977, she was ready to begin her formal career, which she did with an original song, "Wuthering Heights," based on material from Emily Bronte's novel (and more directly inspired by Bush's seeing the 1970 film directed by Robert Fuest and starring Timothy Dalton and Anna Caulder Marshall).

The song would set a pattern for much of her future work, which was filled with literary and other external thematic allusions, and sometimes made even fans feel as though her lyrics ideally would come with footnotes -- heady stuff for a teenage rock singer in the late '70s. Her precocity was demonstrated by the approach she took to the song, deliberately affecting what she felt -- in her mid-teens -- was the voice of a ghostly Cathy, whom she regarded as a dangerous, grasping figure, reaching out to her lover even from the grave. "Wuthering Heights" rose to number one on the British charts when it was released in 1978, and Bush became an overnight sensation at the age of 19. Her debut album, The Kick Inside, a collection of material that she had written from 15 onward, some of it displaying extremely provocative and sophisticated sexual references and images, reached number three and sold over a million copies in the U.K.

Bush's second album, Lionheart, reached number six but didn't achieve anything like the sales totals or critical acclaim of its predecessor, and in later years Bush regretted the rush involved in planning and recording that album to capitalize on the success of her debut. In England during the spring of 1979, Bush embarked on what proved to be the only concert tour of her career to date, playing a series of shows highlighted by 17 costume changes, lots of dancing, and complex lighting. Bush was also apparently the first rock performer (at least since the days in the early '60s when Sweden's Spotnicks experimented with a more primitive version of the technology) to make use of a wireless voice microphone, which freed her up to move around the stage as few singers before her had been capable of doing. The tour proved both exhausting and financially disastrous, and ever since then Bush has avoided any but the most limited live concert appearances, primarily in support of certain charitable causes. This absence from the concert stage and the extended periods -- often as much as three to five years -- between albums, and the dense, reference-filled nature of her songs and lyrics, have also resulted in Bush becoming one of the more enigmatic pop artists in England since the Beatles; her relatively private personal life has only added to the mystique surrounding her. But her relative aloofness and her unusual sound and approach to pop music also made it more difficult to "explain" or encapsulate her work in a few words to the uninitiated, especially in America, where radio play and television exposure proved much harder to come by during the first few years of her career.

By the start of the 1980s, Bush was established as one of the most challenging and eccentric artists ever to have achieved success in rock music, with a range of sounds and interests that constantly challenged listeners, encompassing literature, art, poetry, cinema, history, and all manner of other subjects. "Babooshka" (1980) became her first Top Five single since "Wuthering Heights," and her subsequent album, Never for Ever, entered the British charts at number one in September of 1980. During this period, Bush began co-producing her own work, a decisive step toward refining her sound and also establishing her independence from her record company. Although 1982's The Dreaming reached number three, the single "There Goes a Tenner" failed to reach the charts, and most observers felt that Bush had lost her audience. Bush was unfazed by the criticism, and even began taking steps to make herself more independent of her record label by establishing a home studio, this partly in response to EMI's huge studio charges on her previous records -- from the mid-'80s onward, Bush was free to spend her time at her leisure working out her sound, and it seemed to pay off with her next release.

After two years' absence, Bush re-emerged in August of 1985 with "Running Up That Hill," which became her second biggest-selling single. The accompanying album, Hounds of Love, the first record made at her 48-track home studio, debuted on the British charts at the number one position in September of 1985 and remained there for a full month, and soon after "Running Up That Hill" gave Bush her long-awaited American breakthrough, reaching number 30 on Billboard's charts. By this time, in England Bush was ranked alongside of Madonna in terms of her musical impact, "Running Up That Hill" having bumped "Like a Virgin" out of the number one chart position. The changes in her sound and her development as a writer/performer were showcased in the January 1987 best-of collection The Whole Story, for which she also re-recorded the lead vocal for "Wuthering Heights" to bring the song more in line with her sound as it was in her twenties (she later admitted that she would have liked to have done something similar with several of her other early recordings done when she was in her teens). The album also featured her latest single, "Experiment IV," whose lyrics were built on a science fiction storyline that was echoed in the video, which Bush directed with a cast of familiar movie performers, and which came out like a miniaturized musical version of a Quatermass-like chiller. That same year, Bush won the Best British Female Artist award at the sixth-annual BRIT Awards in London.

In October of 1989, Bush's first new album in almost four years, The Sensual World, reached the British number two spot, and received an unprecedented promotional push in America, where she signed with Columbia Records for her future releases. Bush's next album, The Red Shoes (1993), inspired by the 1948 film by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger, debuted in the American Top 30, the first time one of her albums had ever charted that high -- Bush made a rare personal appearance in New York that December, an autograph signing at Tower Records on the Lower East Side, and the resulting line of admirers stretched almost six blocks, and required her to extend her appearance by several hours (she was still delighted and amazed by the procession five hours into the event). It would be another 12 years before Bush would resume her recording career. Rumors of a new album began circulating in the late '90s. During this time, Bush became a mother and quietly retreated to her countryside home on Berkshire, Reading, England. In 2005, Bush finally released her follow-up to The Red Shoes, the double-disc set Aerial. ~ Bruce Eder, All Music Guide

Continued…

Selected Discography

Aerial
2005

King Of The Mountain
2005

Hounds Of Love
1998

The Red Shoes
1993

The Sensual World
1989

The Whole Story
1986

The Dreaming
1982

The Kick Inside
1978

Lionheart
1978

The Golden Compass

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krae74 says:

10-08-2009

I love her impact in the story telling...li k e a young woman mezmerized with her dance partner, of whom she finds out in a paper...that she danced with Hitler!!! Just the tip of her iceberg of talent... I did not realize she started recording so young...

brian_lafour says:

10-04-2009

brilliant

wisegalbangb a n g says:

edited on 09-18-2009

I first heard this wonderous artist 30 or so years ago; Eric Idle introduced her on Saturday Night Live. She blew me away, and continues to do so! She has a song "Rolling the Ball" (I think that is the title) and the way her voice floated and whisped through the heights of my soul was (in her song)to take me to places in my heart I had never seen before! How do you spin and weave a silk scarf from ether and light? Kate can. She is rare, precious, genuine and wonderful. Spread the word.

boogiespeed says:

09-06-2009

I love you Kate. I always have.
Since I first heard you in Montana... in 1982

-Douglas, the Scot

Baxter Julienne Harris says:

08-21-2009

You're thirty-five and you type like that? I'm nine years old and I type like Hugh Jackman in Swordfish!

Sergio R. Mora says:

edited on 08-04-2009

Kate is the original musical "Goddess" of this century. I want to give all the credit to Joni Mitchell, but I just can't - Kate is something on a whole 'nother level. But then again, maybe Kate wouldn't exist if Joni didn't come before her, and then Tori may have never showed up in the 90's either if the two didn't come first. But on the other hand I actually believe these women would have made their own art without the others ever existing. But it's funny how pop-culture evolves..

hvcloutier says:

05-19-2009

im a 35 year old male from america....a n d i have just discovered kate bush....WOW. what can i say. she has captured my heart. theres nothing quite like kate. shes the real thing. i hope she has more 2 come....

drbrucemacdo n a l d says:

05-09-2009

"Hounds of Love" in 1985 grabbed me and is still my all-time favorite album. Next best is "Sensual World." I tell my daughter -- she sings -- that it all started with Kate Bush: The emotive voice; crazy, sensual antics on stage (search for her on YouTube); composer and singer and arranger and dancer. And all this in one literate, intelligent, feminine, gracious package. Going to play "The Big Sky" now...

Silver Kittygirl says:

edited on 05-03-2009

From the bizarre to beatific...v e r y much an icon to genius. If you haven't discovered her video called The Red Shoes you have missed out. Find it somewhere, it will be worth the expense. Glad to see newer material from her.

azraider says:

03-25-2009

I <3 Kate ~ nuff said =)

picklesprite says:

03-21-2009

I love the way Kate Bush can conjure worlds, I infinitely admire her songwriting ability, and I am fond of--all right, I covet her voice. However, I have to agree with my father that it's a specific taste (he really dislikes her voice. He says if you're going to sing high you should at least have a voice that sounds good.)

Heather Athan says:

edited on 03-18-2009

I think this expresses my feelings for Kate Bush, her song writing, and her singing very well:

"For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror
which we are barely able to endure, and it amazes us so,
because it serenely disdains to destroy us."
— Rainer Maria Rilke (Duino Elegies)

wylie.gerrar d says:

02-25-2009

Kate is outstanding; my muse. I saw her on SNL about 30 years ago performing songs from "The Kick Inside" and bought the album as soon as I could find it. She is inspiring and reaches to the very core of my emotions. Now, can we talk about her voice?!?

lukester337 says:

02-25-2009

I fell in love with the voice when I first heard it over 20 years ago and, shortly thereafter, seeing her perform hooked me forever. She is, indeed, one of a kind, but certainly worthy of emulation.

Sean says:

02-13-2009

It's rare if a day goes by and I don't listen to at least a little bit o' Kate. I can't imagine there ever being many Kate-less days for as long as I walk this earth. So wonderful.

rayraywint says:

10-21-2008

Kate inspired me to begin a now hugely successful career in audio and video production. Thanks Kate... Love you forever!!!

merrimagdeie n e says:

07-28-2008

She'll always be my favorite. She inspired me to take the piano up again...than k you Kate! xoxo

Herald of Facts & Opinions says:

07-18-2008

So.... the great Katie.
With a name like Bush, you know she has to be great!

The little drama queen added so much to pop music, especially in the visual department.

jmjomalley says:

07-17-2008

'Heavy People'...in the early 70's she was the musical guest on SNL...She was live performing a 'MTV video' years before there was such a thing. Dancing wispy guys, large medicine balls, Kate in a trench coat and a fedora dancing and such a cool song..Heavy People. It was everyones first exposure to Kate, and it was amazingly unusual. Wuthering Heights will stand for all time. It haunts even 30 + years later

junk558 says:

edited on 09-24-2008

1985, hounds of love, that's were it all started. she opened up a whole new world for me. she became the scale i measure every female artist from that point on.

Michael says:

06-21-2008

Im Cloudbusting Daddy....

jayc73 says:

edited on 06-14-2008

A true artist. Her music never gets old or boring. Each song remains as pure as the first kiss. You can listen to "Hammer Horror" and still feel like you're a kid again watching a movie, trembling with fear. She is a treasure, a person unique, a genius.

Robert says:

05-25-2008

......her backing ensemble sounds like barn-dwellin g animals and implements.. . . . . . . b u t in a good way.......al s o bovinespeak. . . . . . . m o o o o o .

La Biatch Magnifica says:

05-09-2008

Just awesome. What a freaky, surreal mama she is. The way she can viscerally scream while still maintaining a good tune is real talent.

erikalovesem a i l says:

04-27-2008

I remember listening to her music while home after school, getting lost in it. She was a healer for me. Her music gave me inspiration and it gave me a sense of the world beyond what I knew then.

sejoseph says:

04-08-2008

I have missed her voice in her absence. I hope that we will never have to wait as long again.

Tim says:

edited on 03-25-2008

She's been a favorite ever since seeing her on Saturday Night Live (circa 1978 or 1979) in a gold lame pant-suit, stretched atop a grand piano. I was 14 or 15 at the time and what an impact. I wanted to BE her! She has influenced the music I listen to ever since and I return to her work over and over.

Rachel Ann Provan says:

03-17-2008

I love her singing Wuthering Heights.

CRUZ says:

03-10-2008

been bustin' out albums since the 70s wow... and I am just hearing about her now... I am sorry. I must of been under a rock. Just wow.

f ~~SPIDER~~la n d says:

02-24-2008

I really think my life wouldn't be worth living without her music. The BEST of the best...ever! ! ! ! ! ! !

raj5 says:

01-23-2008

She's a pure genius, the greatest of all rock artists ever (maybe not counting the Beatles, since there would be no rock music at all without them).

mulvanmch says:

edited on 01-14-2008

kate bush,singer/ s o n g w r i t e r i have to say she is my alltime fav female singer.i have allmost all her albums thers just somthing about her i like/love so much. i really like her earley tunes so if you do fancie listening to one of her albums ide recommend the kick inside,1979. t h e n try hounds of love 1998 then the whole story 1986.:-).

captn_jack00 7 says:

01-08-2008

Amazing versatility. . s m a r t women are sexy sweet and provacative! Love the work she did with peter gabriel too...

viner48x16 says:

12-17-2007

.... mmmmmm . . yes!! the senusal world

Kaylene G says:

11-21-2007

Kate Bush is so amazing. She is a singer, song writer, and a composer which is a rare quality these days. I would recommend Hounds of Love as a first purchase. She has one of the most amazing voices of any artist. Also if you love origionality then Kate Bush is on her own pedestal. She was far ahead of her time. She still is!

Robert Bonilla says:

11-20-2007

Mmmmmmm..... .

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