Welcome to the Kate Bush forum!
This thread is here for the purpose of giving newbies useful information about the forum and Kate Bush. Feel free to ask anything you have on your mind, we are glad to help!
So, who is this Kate Bush person?
Kate Bush (Catherine Bush, CBE. Born on 30 July, 1958 in Bexleyheath, Kent) is a British singer-songwriter known for her expressive 3-octave voice, idiosyncratic and literary lyrics, and eclectic and meticulous musical and production style. She has acquired a large number of devoted fans since her debut in 1978 with the surprise hit "Wuthering Heights", which was number one in the British music charts for four weeks. As time passed, her albums have come less and less frequently, but her fans continue to be patient, because they are rewarded with such fine music.
Popularity
In her native UK and much of Europe Kate became a household name and (
frequently impersonated)part of the 70s and 80s pop scene. Her record of chart success includes:
14 UK top 20 singles from
Wuthering Heights at #1 in 1978 to
King of The Mountain at #4 in 2005
All 10 albums at #6 or above in the UK with just two albums not making the top 3. She has also released a greatest hits album,
The Whole Story certified 4x platinum, a compilation box set,
This Woman's Work which features her first 6 albums and two discs of bsides, and two live recordings:
On Stage Ep from 1979, and
Live At Hammersmith Odeon originally just released on home video in 1981, but re-released on CD in 1994.
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numbers from wikipedia
What has Kate been up to?
She's playing live shows. This is not a joke. It's a real thing. We're still all rather a bit in shock about it.
There's a whole thread where you can see just how in shock we are.
At the end of 2012, Kate was awarded a CBE in the Queen's 2013 New Year's Honours list for her services to music. News articles quoted her as saying, "
It's a great surprise and I'm really delighted. Thanks to everyone who's encouraged and supported my work over the years.". CBE stands for Commander of the Order of the British Empire, which is the highest honour you can get in the
Most Excellent Order of the British Empire without actually being Knighted. You can see the official citation on
this PDF from the Cabinet Office website.
Her latest album, "
50 Words For Snow" was released on the 21st of November 2011. The album featured
Sir Elton John, Andy Fairweather Low and Stephen Fry.
In 2011 she also released an album called
"Directors Cut", where she reworked tracks from
The Red Shoes and
The Sensual World. There's
a whole thread about this release, with far more info. The special edition of the release also contains the original two albums. Clips of the reworked tracks are being uploaded fairly frequently (usually weekly on a Monday) to the
official Youtube Channel, and the full video for the lead single off the album,
Deeper Understanding, has just been released! The first video from Kate Bush since 2005's
"King Of The Mountain".
In publicity for the
"Director's Cut" release, she has mentioned working on new material also, which will be on an upcoming album of new material. There's no other info about that release at this time.
She wrote a song called
Lyra for the soundtrack of the film
The Golden Compass, which was released on December 7, 2007. Her most recent album Aerial was released in November 2005, featuring the single King of The Mountain. Reaction to the album was overwhelmingly positive. Kate was nominated for Best Female Solo Act and Best Album for Aerial for the 2006 Brit Awards and various other music awards in Germany and the Netherlands.
Kate is quite publicity shy. Her commitment to living a normal life allows her to devote time to her son Albert (Bertie), and to her family life. She did make a few personal public appearances in the past few years. She was recognised with the "Best Classic Songwriter" award in the Q awards in 2001, and she appeared in the award ceremony. She talked about her life after the Red Shoes in the December 2001 issue of Q magazine. [this can be linked to here:
http://www.unforumzed.com/showthread...ull=1#post1061 ]
For other interviews with Kate go here -
http://gaffa.org/reaching/ro_int.html
On May 23rd 2002 Kate also received the Ivor Novello award for Outstanding Contribution To British Music By A Songwriter. Kate also appeared live for the first time in almost 15 years singing Comfortably Numb as David Gilmour's special guest at his Royal Festival Hall concert on January 18th 2002.
