Kate Bush

At 66 years old, Kate Bush has this physical status:

Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer-songwriter and record producer.

With her debut single "Wuthering Heights," she became the first female artist to achieve a UK top-one with a self-written song in 1978.

She has since released 25 UK Top 40 singles, including top-ten hits "The Man with the Child in His Eyes," "Running Up That Hill," "Don't Give Up" (a duet with Peter Gabriel) and "King of the Mountains."

All ten of her studio albums made it to the top ten in the United Kingdom, including the UK number one albums Never Forever (1980), Hounds of Love (1985), and the compilation The Whole Story (1986).

She was the first female artist to enter the UK album charts and the first female artist to reach the top of the chart at number one.

After Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour helped produce a demo tape, she was signed to EMI Records.

The Kick Inside, her debut album, was released in 1978.

Bush gradually achieved artistic autonomy in album making and has produced all of her studio albums since The Dreaming (1982).

Between her seventh and eighth albums The Red Shoes (1993) and Aerial (2004), she had a hiatus.

She attracted interest again in 2014 when she opened her concert residency Before the Dawn, her first appearance since 1979's The Tour of Life. A variety of artists have been influenced by Bush's eclectic and experimental musical style, experimental lyrics, and literary themes.

She has been nominated for 13 British Phonographic Industry awards, including Best British Female Artist in 1987, and has been nominated for three Grammy Awards.

In 2002, she was awarded the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music.

In October 2017, she was selected for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018.

In the 2013 New Year Honours for services to music, Bush was named Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE).

Personal life

Danny McIntosh, a guitarist, is married to Bush. They have a son, Albert McIntosh, who was born in 1998. Bush was in a relationship with bassist and sound engineer Del Palmer from the late 1970s to the early 1990s.

Bush is a former resident of Eltham, southeast London. She migrated to Sulhamstead, Berkshire, in the 1990s and bought her second home in Devon in 2004. Bush is a vegetarian. In 1999, she was raised as a Roman Catholic.

Rumours of Bush's health or appearance have arisen over the time between albums. The amount of time between albums was a little overwhelming, according to BBC Radio 4: "It's so frustrating that the albums take as long as they do." I wish there weren't such big differences between them. "I think it's important that things are flawed, I think it's important that they are flawed, so that makes a piece of art interesting." She reiterated the importance of her family's life.

In the 2014 concert Before the Dawn, Bush's son Bertie appeared prominently. Raven Bush, her nephew, is a violinist in the English indie band Syd Arthur.

Several of Bush's songs have allusions to political and social concerns, such as "Breathing" which addresses the fear of nuclear war and "Army Dreamers" which examines the loss of mothers of children who have been in the military during war. Both the tracks "Wow" and "Kashka from Baghdad" have references to gay and LGBT topics. Bush said in a 1985 interview with The NewMusic, "I've never felt I've written from a political viewpoint, but it has always been an emotional viewpoint that may not have to do with a political context."

During the 1979 UK general election campaign, Bush, who at the time was on a live concert tour of the United Kingdom, posed for a portrait with Labour Prime Minister James Callaghan. When asked about her political convictions in a 1985 interview with Hot Press, Bush said she preferred not to write about how she voted and added, "I don't think I am a political thinker at all." I don't fully know politics.

The Carnage Continues: in the Comic Strip Presents episode "Ken," she produced and performed on the theme song "Ken." In this case, Ken Livingstone, the former head of the Greater London Council, and the lyrics parodied the theme from Shaft, as a satirical reflection on how Hollywood glamourizes and fictionalizes political figures.

In an interview in which Bush was asked about women being afraid of holding political office, Canadian news magazine Maclean's published an article. Unlike the United States, Theresa May, the UK's female prime minister, was confirmed to be the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom a few months before. "I actually love her and think she's amazing," Bush said in the interview. I think it's the best thing that's happened to us in a long time... It's wonderful to have a woman in charge of the country. She's incredibly aware, and I think it's a good thing at this moment in time." Bush made a clarifying statement on her website in 2019 that she was not a Conservative Party supporter and did not endorse any political parties. "I haven't made political remarks in interviews over the years," she wrote. My reaction to the interviewer was not meant to be political, but rather in the protection of women in power."

In April 2021, Bush was one of 156 signatories to Prime Minister Boris Johnson's open letter urging a revision in the text of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to make royalty payments for streaming closer to the amount paid for radio broadcast.

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Life and career

Bush was born in Bexleyheath, Kent, on July 30th, 1958, to Robert Bush, an English doctor, general practitioner (1920–2008), and Hannah née Daly (1918–1992), an Irish staff nurse, daughter of a farmer in County Waterford. She and her elder brothers, John and Paddy, grew up in a 350-year-old former farmhouse in East Wickham, which neighbors Bexleyheath. Bush's mother was an amateur traditional Irish dancer, her father was an amateur, Paddy worked as a musical instrument maker, and John was a poet and photographer. Both brothers were active in the local folk music scene. She was raised as a Roman Catholic.

Bush studied at the Goldsmiths College karate club, where her brother John was a karate tutor. Because of her squeaky kiai, she became known as "Ee-ee" in the area.

Bush learned to play piano at the age of 11. She also studied violin in a barn behind her parents' house and learned the piano. She began writing songs and then began writing her own lyrics.

In nearby Abbey Wood, Bush attended Convent Grammar School, a Catholic girls' school. During this period, her family made a demo tape with over half of her songs on display, but this was turned down by record labels. David Gilmour, a close friend of Gilmour and the Bush family, attended the performance by Ricky Hopper, a Pink Floyd guitarist. Gilmour, who was empressed, helped the 16-year-old Bush record a more professional demo tape. Bush made three albums, which was paid for by Gilmour. Andrew Powell, Gilmour's companion, and sound engineer Geoff Emerick, who had been in charge of Bush's first two albums, all contributed to the tape, as well as Geoff Emerick, who had worked with the Beatles. Terry Slater, the EMI executive who was signed Bush, was sent the tape.

The British recording industry had reached a point of stagnation. Progressive rock bands were extremely popular and visually focused rock performers, and record labels looking for the next big thing were considering experimental performances. Bob Mercer, the managing director of EMI's group-repertoire division, retained Bush for two years. According to Mercer, Bush's writing was good enough to be published, but he was concerned that if the album fell, it would be demoralizing and if it were not profitable, and if it was successful, Bush was too young to worry. Gilmour, on the other hand, denied this version of events in a 1987 interview, blaming EMI for bringing the "wrong" suppliers to use first.

EMI gave Bush a huge advance, including enrollment in interpretive dance lessons taught by Lindsay Kemp, a former David Bowie coach, and mime training with Adam Darius. Bush spent more time on schoolwork than recording for the first two years of her employment. She dropped out of school after doing her mock A-Levels and completing ten GCE O-Level qualifications.

Bush conceived and performed shows of over 200 songs, some of which became bootlegs, during the Bush period. She fronted the KT Bush Band at London public houses from March to August 1977. Del Palmer (bass), Brian Bath (guitar), and Vic King (drums) were among the band's members. In August 1977, she released her first album.

Bush was convinced to use established session players instead of the KT Bush Band for her debut album, The Kick Inside (1978). And after she had brought her bandmates back on board, she retained some of them. Paddy, her brother, was a member of the harmonica and mandolin. Stuart Elliott debuted on some of the drums and became the main drummer on subsequent albums. The Kick Inside was first published when Bush was 19 years old, with some songs written when she was 13. EMI had intended for "James and the Cold Gun" to be her debut single, but Bush, who had already established herself in decisions about her work, maintained that it should be "Wuthering Heights." Bush produced two music videos with similar choreography to accompany the song. When wearing a white dress in the novel that inspired the song, the studio version sees her performer in a dim room with mist, implying that her character is a ghost. (As in the case with Cathy in the book that inspired the song). Bush dances in Salisbury Plains, inspired by the novel's moors, even as dressed in a red jacket.

The Kick Inside alone in the United Kingdom sold over a million copies. "Wuthering Heights" debuted on the UK and Australian charts and became a worldwide hit. Bush became the first British woman to reach the top of the charts with a self-written song. "The Man with the Child in His Eyes" made it to the top of the US Billboard Hot 100 in early 1979, where it went on to win the Ivor Novello Award in 1979 for Outstanding British Lyric. Bush was the first female artist in pop history to have written every track on a million-selling debut album, according to Guinness World Records.

Bob Mercer criticized Bush's less popular in the US on American radio stations, claiming that there were no outlets for Bush's visual appearance. EMI capitalized on Bush's appearance by releasing a poster of her in a narrow pink top that emphasised her breasts. "People weren't even aware that I wrote my own songs or played the piano," Bush said in an interview with NME in 1982: "People were certainly not aware that I wrote my own songs or performed the piano." I was just marketed as a female figure in the media. It's as if I've had to prove that I'm an artist in a female body." EMI advised Bush to record Lionheart, a follow-up album from late 1978, to profit from the popularity of The Kick Inside. Andrew Powell produced the album, with Bush as an assister. Although it generated strong sales and spawned the hit single "Wow," it did not achieve the same success as The Kick Inside, peaking at number six in the UK album charts. She went on to express dissatisfaction with Lionheart, saying that it had taken longer than it had expected.

To keep control of her work, Bush created Kate Bush Music and her own management company, Novercia. The board of directors was made up of members of her family and Bush herself. Following Lionheart's debut, she was required by EMI to do extensive marketing work and an exhausting tour. The Tour of Life started in April 1979 and lasted six weeks. The Guardian described it as "an extraordinary, hydra-headed beast" that blends music, dance, poetry, mime, burlesque, and theatre. The show was co-devised and performed on stage with magician Simon Drake. Bush was instrumental in every facet of the production, choreography, set design, costume planning, and staffing. The performances were noted for her dancing, complicated lighting, and her 17 costume changes per show. Sound engineers made a headset microphone from wire coat hanger and a radio microphone; it was the first use by a rock performer since the Spotnicks used a basic version in the early 1960s.

In September 1980, Bush's second foray into production, co-producing with Jon Kelly, was released. It was her first performance as a producer on her first album, Live on Stage, which was released after her tour the previous year. The first two albums had resulted in a distinct sound on every track, with orchestral arrangements sustaining the live band's sound. The variety of styles on Never for Ever is much more diverse, ranging from the straightforward rocker "Violin" to the wistful waltz of hit single "Army Dreamers" to the wistful waltz.

Never Forever was her first album to feature synthesisers and drum machines, in particular the Fairlight CMI, to which she was first introduced when providing backing vocals on Peter Gabriel's eponymous third album in early 1980. It was her first appearance in the UK album charts, making her the first female British artist to achieve that position, as well as the first female artist to reach the top of the charts. "Babooshka," the album's top-selling single, debuted at No. 1. The UK Singles Chart ranks 5th in the UK Singles Chart. "December Will Be Magic Again" was released by Andrea In November 1980, she performed the single "December Will Be Magic Again," which at No. 1 in the United States. In the UK charts, the 29th place is 29th.

The Dreaming, Bush's first album made by herself, was released in September 1982. She experimented with production methods, resulting in an album that showcases a variety of musical styles and is famous for the Fairlight CMI's near-exhaustive use. The Dreaming attracted mixed reviews in the United Kingdom, and analysts were baffled by Bush's dense soundscapes that made it "less accessible." Bush said, "She's gone mad" album in a 1993 interview with Q magazine. However, the album debuted as the first to make the US Billboard 200 chart, despite only reaching No. 0 on the charts. 157 people were killed in the 157th century. The album debuted at No. 1 in the UK album chart. The 3rd is to date her lowest-selling album, with "only" a silver disc on display.

The first single from the album, "Sat in Your Lap," was the first single to be released. It came before the album by more than a year and topped at No. 94. In the United Kingdom, there are 11 in the country. Rolf Harris and Percy Edwards were stalled at No. 67 on the title track, which continued at No. 1 in the U.S. The third single, "There Goes a Tenner," stalled at No. 48, while the third single, "There Goes a Tenner," stalled at No. 10. 93, despite EMI and Bush's promotion, but it was a 93. In Europe, the track "Suspended in Gaffa" was released as a single, but not in the United Kingdom.

Bush stumbled way beyond her own personal experience for inspiration in her storytelling tradition. For "There Goes a Tenner," a Vietnam War documentary film about the lives of Indigenous Australians on "The Dreaming," she drew on old crime films. "Houdini" is about the magician's death, and Stephen King's book "Get Out of My House" was inspired by his book The Shining.

In 1985, Hounds of Love was born. She built a private studio near her house in the midst of high costs of recruiting studio space for her previous record. Hounds of Love eventually topped the charts in the United Kingdom, knocking Madonna's Like a Virgin from the top of the charts in the UK, taking the top spot from that position.

Two very different sides of the album make use of the vinyl and cassette formats. Five "accessible" pop songs on Hounds of Love's first two albums include "Running Up That Hill," "Cloudbusting," "Hounds of Love," and "The Big Sky." "Running Up That Hill" climbed to No. 93. 3 in the UK charts and reintroduced Bush to American listeners, with a whopping number at No. 83. In November 1985, the Billboard Hot 100 reached the number 30. Bush has stated that she wanted to name the album "A Deal With God" at first, but that the record company was hesitant because some people might mistakenly believe it was "a sensitive term," but that "for me, this is actually A Deal With God." The second half of the album, "Idylls of the King," about King Arthur's reign, is the second of the series, and it is seven interconnecting songs mixed in a single piece of music.

At the 1986 British Academy Awards, the album received awards for Best Female Solo Artist, Best Album, Best Single, and Best Producer. Bush and Peter Gabriel hit the UK Top Tension "Don't Give Up" in the same year (Dolly Parton, Gabriel's first attempt to perform the female vocal, was turned down) and EMI's "greatest hits" album, The Whole Story, was released in the United Kingdom. Bush provided a new lead vocal and refreshed backing track on "Wuthering Heights" and released "Experiment IV," a new single that was included in the compilation. Dawn French and Hugh Laurie were among those included in the Experiment IV video. Bush received the award for Best British Female Solo Artist at the 1987 British Academy Awards.

The Sensuous World, which was first released in 1989, was dubbed by Bush herself as "her most sincere, personal album." "Heads We're Dancing," one of the tracks that was influenced by her own black humour, follows a woman who dances all night with a charming stranger only to discover in the morning that he is Adolf Hitler. The title track was influenced by James Joyce's book Ulysses. Sensual World went on to become the country's biggest-selling album, receiving an RIAA Gold award four years after its introduction for 500,000 copies. It climbed to the top of the United Kingdom album charts, ranking it at number two. In the John Hughes film "This Woman's Work," a new track from the album, "This Woman's Work," was included, and a slightly altered version appeared on Bush's album The Sensible World. Since being featured in a British television commercial for the charity NSPCC, the song reached number eight on the UK download chart in 2005.

This Woman's Work was published in 1990; it included all of her albums with their original cover art, as well as two discs of all her singles' B-sides from 1978 to 1990. Bush unveiled a cover of Elton John's "Rocket Man," which ranked number 12 in the UK singles chart and ranked second in Australia in 1991. The Observer newspaper's readers named it the best coverage ever in 2007. The B-side featured another John Carroll's "Candle in the Wind." She appeared in Les Dogs, a black comedy film made by The Comic Strip for BBC television in the same year. In a post-apocalyptic Britain, Bush plays bride Angela.

The Red Shoes, Bush's seventh studio album, was released in November 1993. Bush's album debuted at number 28 in the United States, despite the fact that "Rubberband Girl," the album's only song to make the US singles chart, debuted at number 88 in January 1994. The album reached number two in the United Kingdom, and the songs "Rubberband Girl," "Moments of Pleasure," and "And So Is Love" (featuring Eric Clapton on guitar) all made it to the top 30. Bush penned and appeared in the short film The Line, the Cross and the Curve, which featured tracks from her album The Red Shoes, which was inspired by the 1948 film of the same name. It was released on VHS in the United Kingdom in 1994 and has also been shown at a handful of cinema screenings around the globe.

The initial idea had been to tour with The Red Shoes of London, but it didn't come to fruition. Bush planned to produce her songs live, with less studio work that would have characterized her last three albums and would have been too difficult to recreate on stage. With some followers claiming to have discovered new complexities in the lyrics and emotions, the result polarized her fan base, who had adored the intricacy of her earlier works.

Bush had been through a series of bereavements, including the death of guitarist Alan Murphy on The Tour of Life in 1979 and her mother Hannah, to whom she was very close. In the ballad "Moments of Pleasure," she and her friends were honoured. However, Bush's mother was still alive when "Moments of Pleasure" was published and broadcast. Bush relates playing the song to her mother, who remarks, "Every old sock meets an old shoe" is a parody, and "couldn't stop yelling."

Kate Bush was forced to look outside the public eye after the launch of The Red Shoes. She had intended to wait for a year but discovered she was preparing on records 12 years before her next album debut. Her name appeared in the media with rumors of a new album debut. Miss Havisham from Charles Dickens' Great Expectations was often regarded by the media as an eccentric recluse, with some drawing a comparison to her. Albert, also known as "Bertie," was fathered by guitarist Dan McIntosh, who met in 1992. Bush received a Q Award in 2001 as the Best Songwriter in the United Kingdom. She was honoured with the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music in 2002, and she performed "Comfortably Numb" at David Gilmour's concert at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

In November 2005, Kate Bush's eighth studio album, Aerial, was released on double CD and vinyl. On BBC Radio 2 two months ago, the album single "King of the Mountains" had its premiere. On the full chart, the single appeared on the UK Downloads Chart at number six, and it will be Bush's third-highest-charting single in the UK, peaking at number four on the full chart. Aerial appeared in the UK albums chart at number three, and the US chart at number 48 is at number 13.

Like Hounds of Love (1985), the Aerial is divided into two sections, each with its own theme and mood. The first disc, entitled "A Sea of Honey," includes a series of unrelated themed songs, including "King of the Mountain"; "Bertie," a Renaissance-style ode to her son; and "Joanni," based on Joan of Arc's tale. Bush sings 117 digits of the number pi in the song "displaystyle.pi ". A Sky of Honey, the second album, features one continuous piece of music describing the event of 24 hours passing by. At the 2006 British Academy Awards for Best British Female Solo Artist and Best British Album, Aerial received two nominations.

Bush was asked to write a song for The Golden Compass soundtrack in 2007, which made mention of lead character Lyra Belacqua. "Lyra" was used in the film's closing credits and was nominated for the International Press Academy's Satellite Award for original song in a motion picture. According to Del Palmer, Bush was asked to compose the song on short notice and the whole job was finished in ten days.

In May 2011, Bush unveiled The Director's Cut, which featured 11 tracks from The Sensible World and The Red Shoes, which were recorded using analogue rather than digital technology. All of the tracks have new lead vocals, drums, and instrumentation. Any of them were lowered to a lower key to accommodate her lowering voice. Three of the songs, as well as "This Woman's Work," have been completely rerecorded, with lyrics often changing in places. Rather than a series of remixes, Bush referred to the album as a new venture rather than a series of remixes. It was the first album on her new label, Fish People, a EMI Records subpoena. The album was also available as a box set containing the songs The Sensible World and the analogue remastered The Red Shoes, in addition to Director's Cut in its single CD version. It debuted on the United Kingdom chart at number two.

On November 21, 2011, Bush's next studio album, 50 Words for Snow, was released. On the duet "Snowed in at Wheeler Street," it features Elton John's high-profile cameo appearance. The album features seven new songs "set against the backdrop of falling snow" and has a total running time of 65 minutes. In what Classic Rock critic Stephen Dalton's "a... supple and experimental affair," the album's songs are based on Bush's deliberately jazzy piano and Steve Gadd's drums, with a modern chamber pop soundscape embedded in crisp piano, minimal percussion, and light-touch electronics in a variety of voices, ranging from shrill to Laurie Anderson-style cooing. Danny Thompson appears on the album, while "50 Words for Snow" features Stephen Fry's voice, reciting a list of bizarre words to describe snow.

Snow's 50 Words received general praise from music critics. The album received an average score of 88, indicating "universal acclaim" at Metacritic, which gives a normalized rating out of 100 to mainstream critics. She was nominated in the Best Female Artist category at the 2012 Brit Awards, and the album received the 2012 Best Album at the South Bank Arts Awards, as well as the Best Album at the Ivor Novello Awards.

Bush turned down an invitation to attend the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London. Rather, a new vocal remix of her 1985 hit "Running Up That Hill" was performed. In 2013, Bush became the first female artist to have top-five albums in the United Kingdom in five decades.

In March 2014, Bush performed her first live concerts in decades: The Hammersmith Apollo, a 22-night residency in London, from 26 August to 1 October 2014, the first live concerts in decades: Before the Dawn, a 26-night residency in London. In 15 minutes, tickets were sold out in 15 minutes. The concerts received widespread acclaim. On November 25, 2016, the dawn, a collection of recordings from the concerts, Before the Dawn, was released. Bush became the first female performer to have eight albums in the UK Top 40 Albums Chart simultaneously, putting her at number three for simultaneous UK Top 40 albums. Elvis Presley, the only artist standing up to Bush after his death in 1977 and the Beatles, who had 11 in 2009. She had 11 albums in the top 50.

Bush's first book, How to Be Invisible, a collection of lyrics, was released on December 6, 2018. In November 2018, Bush released two box sets of remasters of her studio albums. Rolf Harris's, who had been charged with multiple sexual harassment charges in 2014, was replaced by Bertie Bush's son. On March 8, 2019, The Other Sides, a compilation of rare songs, cover versions, and remixes from the boxsets, was released. It features the previously unveiled track "Humming," which was released in 1975. On September 19, Bush released "Ne t'enfuis pas"/ "Un baiser d'enfant" as a limited-edition promotional single.

Bush became a Fellow of The Ivors Academy in September 2020, the UK's only professional association for writers, composers, and music writers. "She is visionary and iconic, and has left her own magical stamp on the British cultural landscape, which has been praised," Bush said after his award.

Since being integrated into the plot of the fourth season of Netflix's Stranger Things, Bush's 1985 single "Running Up That Hill" gained new traction in May 2022. It became the most streamed song on Spotify in the United States, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the world. Winona Ryder, the actress who portrays Joyce Byers on Stranger Things, said she had been dying for the song to be on television: "I've been obsessed with her since I was a child. "I've been obsessed with her ever since she was a child. "I've also been dropping hints about wearing my Kate Bush T-shirts for the past seven years." "Running Up That Hill" has become extremely popular among members of Generation Z, who were not born when the song was first introduced, and it has appeared in a number of YouTube videos, TikTok says. Bush issued a statement in which Stranger Things were praised and said that the revival was "exciting."

"Running Up That Hill" reached number two on the UK Singles Chart on June 10, 2022, well ahead of its 1985 record of number two. It was the most popular week of the week in the United Kingdom, ahead of Harry Styles' "As It Was," but a pre-existing chart law ruled that older songs were not streamed. Because of the record's continuing sales revival, the Chart Supervisory Committee responded by giving it an exemption from the "accelerated chart ratio" rule. The song debuted at number one in the United Kingdom on June 17th, making it Bush's second top-one in the country, marking its second visit to the country's second number one. In the process, three UK chart records were broken. Bush crossed Tom Jones' 42-year gap between number one and top artists with "Wuthering Heights" in 1978, the first female solo chart-topping artist at 63 years and 11 months. Bush also set the record for a single with the longest time taken to reach number one by a year, beating the previous record set by "Last Christmas" by Wham!

On the US Billboard Hot 100 issue dated 11 June 2022, "Running Up That Hill" re-entered the charts at number eight, surpassing its previous record of number 30 in November 1985 to become Bush's first top-ten hit. A week later, the chart climbed to number four in the United States before falling to number three on July 25. Hounds of Love, the parent album, has also hit a new peak in the United States, debuting at number 21. The song reached number two on the Australian ARIA Charts, becoming her second top-one single in the region. "Running Up That Hill" in France surpassed its previous chart peak of 24, resulting in its ranked No. 3 position. The debut of 'Hounds of Love' on various album charts, despite its being ranked number 1 on Billboard's Top Alternative Albums chart, making it Bush's first top-charging album in her career. The Whole Story went from number 76 to number 19 on the UK Albums Chart on June 10th, peaking at number 17 a week later. Through Rhino, a limited edition CD single was released in September 2022, in this style for the first time ever.

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