KATE BUSH

Random and bite-sized facts on all things on the mythical Kate Bush. Totally random but totally fascinating if you're into it. Do you know Kate Bush now?

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KATE BUSH WAS DISCOVERED BY DAVID GILMOUR

When Kate Bush was still a teenager, a friend of her family gave David Gilmour a tape of her songs. Gilmour was impressed and helped her make professional demonstration recordings before she was signed to EMI.

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DAVID GILMOUR PAID FOR KATE BUSH'S FIRST PROFESSIONAL DEMOS

When Kate Bush was 16, David Gilmour arranged and paid for her first professional recording sessions. The recordings were made at AIR Studios with engineer Geoff Emerick, who had worked extensively with The Beatles.

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KATE BUSH WAS SIGNED TO EMI WHEN SHE WAS 18

Kate Bush signed with EMI in 1974, when she was 16, but the company did not immediately rush her into making an album. She was given time to develop as a musician and performer before recording her debut.

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SHE SPENT YEARS DEVELOPING HER SONGS BEFORE HER DEBUT

After signing to EMI, Kate Bush was able to continue writing and developing her material rather than being pushed straight into recording an album. During this period she wrote many of the songs that would eventually appear on The Kick Inside.

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KATE BUSH STUDIED DANCE WITH LINDSAY KEMP

Kate Bush studied mime and movement with Lindsay Kemp, the influential dancer, mime artist and teacher who had also worked with David Bowie. His approach to movement had a lasting effect on Bush's stage performances and visual work.

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SHE WAS ALREADY PERFORMING IN PUBS BEFORE SHE WAS FAMOUS

Before her recording career took off, Kate Bush performed with a band called the KT Bush Band in pubs and clubs around London. The experience gave her a chance to develop her stagecraft in front of live audiences.

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KATE BUSH WROTE MANY OF HER FIRST SONGS AS A TEENAGER

Many of the songs that eventually appeared on The Kick Inside had been written by Kate Bush while she was still in her teens. By the time the album was recorded, some of the material had already been part of her repertoire for several years.

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THE KICK INSIDE WAS RELEASED WHEN BUSH WAS 19

The Kick Inside was released in February 1978, shortly before Kate Bush's twentieth birthday. The album contained songs she had written years earlier, including “Wuthering Heights”, “The Man with the Child in His Eyes” and “Them Heavy People”.

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WUTHERING HEIGHTS WAS INSPIRED BY A BBC ADAPTATION

Kate Bush wrote “Wuthering Heights” after seeing a television adaptation of Emily Brontë's novel. She was particularly struck by the image of Cathy appearing at Heathcliff's window and used the character's words and emotions as the starting point for the song.

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WUTHERING HEIGHTS WAS WRITTEN IN JUST A FEW HOURS

Kate Bush wrote “Wuthering Heights” late one evening after watching the television adaptation. She has recalled that the song came to her very quickly, with much of it written in a matter of hours.

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WUTHERING HEIGHTS BECAME A NUMBER ONE SINGLE

“Wuthering Heights” reached number one on the UK singles chart in March 1978. Kate Bush became the first woman to reach number one in Britain with a self-written song.

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KATE BUSH CHANGED HER MIND ABOUT THE FIRST WUTHERING HEIGHTS VIDEO

The original promotional video for “Wuthering Heights” featured Kate Bush performing the song in a white dress. She later made a second version in which she wore red and performed the choreography against a much simpler background.

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THE MAN WITH THE CHILD IN HIS EYES WAS WRITTEN WHEN BUSH WAS 13

Kate Bush wrote “The Man with the Child in His Eyes” when she was only 13. The song was recorded several years later for The Kick Inside and became one of the most striking examples of how mature her songwriting already was as a teenager.

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ELTON JOHN'S PRODUCER WORKED ON THE KICK INSIDE

The Kick Inside was produced by Andrew Powell, who had worked extensively with Alan Parsons and had produced Elton John's album arrangements. Powell helped shape Bush's early recordings while allowing the unusual character of her songwriting to remain intact.

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IAN BAIRNSON PLAYED A KEY ROLE ON KATE BUSH'S EARLY RECORDS

Guitarist Ian Bairnson, a member of The Alan Parsons Project, played extensively on Kate Bush's early records. His guitar work became an important part of the sound of The Kick Inside and Lionheart.

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KATE BUSH'S FIRST ALBUM REACHED NUMBER THREE

The Kick Inside reached number three on the UK album chart. It remained in the chart for more than a year and established Bush as a major new songwriter rather than simply a one-hit performer.

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THE HOUNDS OF LOVE WAS INSPIRED BY A 1957 HORROR FILM

Kate Bush said the title track of Hounds of Love was partly inspired by the 1957 British horror film Night of the Demon. She described the black-and-white film as a particular favourite and said the idea of the demon appearing in the trees helped inspire the song.

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THE OPENING OF HOUNDS OF LOVE COMES FROM NIGHT OF THE DEMON

The voice heard at the beginning of “Hounds of Love” comes from Night of the Demon. The words “It's in the trees! It's coming!” are heard during a séance scene in the film and were used by Bush as the eerie opening to the song.

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NIGHT OF THE DEMON WAS RELEASED AS CURSE OF THE DEMON IN AMERICA

Night of the Demon was released in the United States under the title Curse of the Demon. The film was directed by Jacques Tourneur and stars Dana Andrews as an American psychologist investigating a mysterious satanic cult in Britain.

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KATE BUSH TURNED A HORROR FILM'S DEMON INTO A METAPHOR FOR LOVE

Although the film concerns supernatural evil, Bush used its frightening imagery for a very different subject. In “Hounds of Love”, the idea of being pursued by something coming through the trees becomes a metaphor for the fear of falling in love.

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THE TITLE TRACK STARTS WITH A HORROR FILM BEFORE THE MUSIC EVEN BEGINS

The opening of “Hounds of Love” deliberately creates the feeling of a horror film before the song itself gets underway. The voice from Night of the Demon is followed by the pulsing rhythm and Bush's vocal, turning the familiar language of horror into something about romantic fear.

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NIGHT OF THE DEMON WAS NOT THE ONLY FILM TO INFLUENCE KATE BUSH

Film was a recurring source of inspiration for Kate Bush. Night of the Demon influenced “Hounds of Love”, while The Red Shoes later inspired both her song of the same name and her 1993 film The Line, the Cross and the Curve.

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WUTHERING HEIGHTS WAS WRITTEN WHEN KATE BUSH WAS ONLY 18

Kate Bush wrote “Wuthering Heights” when she was 18. It became the extraordinary opening statement of her career, appearing on her 1978 debut album The Kick Inside.

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KATE BUSH WAS INSPIRED BY A FILM VERSION OF WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Bush was inspired by a screen adaptation of Emily Brontë’s Wuthering Heights, particularly the intense final moments involving Catherine. The 1970 film starring Timothy Dalton and Anna Calder-Marshall is the adaptation most often identified with the song, although the exact screen version has been disputed.

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SHE HAD READ THE BOOK BEFORE WRITING THE SONG

Kate Bush later rejected the idea that she had never read Wuthering Heights. She explained that she had read the novel but had “worked backwards” — writing the song first after being affected by the screen version, then checking whether she had captured the feeling of the story correctly.

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SHE WROTE THE SONG FROM CATHERINE'S POINT OF VIEW

“Wuthering Heights” is sung as Catherine Earnshaw calling to Heathcliff from beyond the grave. Bush turned the novel's supernatural element into the central voice of the song, with Catherine unable to let go of Heathcliff even after death.

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THE SONG WAS ALMOST IMMEDIATELY RECOGNISABLE AS SOMETHING COMPLETELY NEW

Rather than treating the Brontë story like a conventional literary adaptation, Bush gave Catherine an extraordinarily high, piercing vocal and a melody that seems to float between pop song and ghost story. The result sounded unlike almost anything else in the British charts in 1978.

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WUTHERING HEIGHTS BECAME KATE BUSH'S FIRST NUMBER ONE

“Wuthering Heights” reached number one in the UK singles chart, making Bush the first woman to reach the top of the British singles chart with a song she had written herself.

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KATE BUSH'S PERFORMANCE MADE CATHERINE LOOK LIKE A GHOST

Bush's first “Wuthering Heights” video has become almost as famous as the song. Dressed in white and dancing in an open landscape, she performed an exaggerated, almost otherworldly version of Catherine, making the character's longing and desperation physical.

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SHE LATER MADE A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT VIDEO

Bush subsequently made a second video for “Wuthering Heights”, wearing a red dress and performing the dance against a much darker background. The two versions have become part of the song's mythology, with the white-dress performance generally being the more famous.

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THE KICK INSIDE OPENED WITH A SONG ABOUT A DEAD WOMAN CALLING HER LOVER

There is something remarkable about Bush's choice of opening single. At 19, she arrived with a number-one song in which she played the ghost of Catherine Earnshaw, singing across the boundary between life and death. It was hardly conventional pop-star material.

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MIRANDA RICHARDSON STARRED ALONGSIDE KATE BUSH

Miranda Richardson starred alongside Kate Bush in The Line, the Cross and the Curve, the 1993 musical short film written and directed by Bush. Richardson plays a mysterious woman who appears through a mirror and gives Bush's character a pair of enchanted red shoes.

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MIRANDA RICHARDSON PLAYED THE MYSTERIOUS WOMAN

Richardson's character is a mysterious and threatening figure who emerges from a mirror and gives Bush the red shoes that become central to the story. The film turns the idea behind The Red Shoes into a surreal modern fairy tale.

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THE FILM WAS BUILT AROUND SONGS FROM THE RED SHOES

The Line, the Cross and the Curve was made as a visual companion to Bush's 1993 album The Red Shoes. Several of the album's songs are incorporated into the film, including “Rubberband Girl”, “And So Is Love”, “The Red Shoes” and “Moments of Pleasure”.

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THE RED SHOES WERE INSPIRED BY THE 1948 FILM

The Red Shoes was itself inspired by Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger's 1948 film of the same name. Bush had been deeply affected by the film's story of a ballerina whose enchanted shoes force her to dance, and used the idea as the starting point for her own album and film.

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LINDSAY KEMP ALSO APPEARED IN THE FILM

Lindsay Kemp, who had taught Bush mime and movement when she was younger, appears in The Line, the Cross and the Curve as a mysterious guide. His presence links the film directly back to one of the most important influences on Bush's development as a performer.

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MIRANDA RICHARDSON AND KATE BUSH WERE BOTH WORKING IN A FAIRY-TALE WORLD

Richardson's character and Bush's character are drawn into a deliberately theatrical world of mirrors, magic, dance and transformation. The film allowed Bush to turn the themes of The Red Shoes into something much stranger and more personal than a conventional music video.

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STRANGER THINGS GAVE KATE BUSH A SECOND LIFE ON THE CHARTS

Kate Bush's “Running Up That Hill” became one of the defining songs of Stranger Things season four. The 1985 song was used as a crucial part of Max Mayfield's story, helping her fight her way back from Vecna's psychic grip.

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THE DUFFER BROTHERS BOTH WANTED RUNNING UP THAT HILL

Stranger Things creators Matt and Ross Duffer have said that “Running Up That Hill” was their top choice for Max independently of each other. Music supervisor Nora Felder also suggested the song, and the brothers immediately agreed that it was the right one.

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MUSIC BECAME A WEAPON AGAINST VECNA

The Duffers originally knew that Max would be cursed but had not initially planned to use music as the way to fight Vecna. They eventually decided that music could reach someone even in a catatonic state, making Max's favourite song part of her escape.

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KATE BUSH WAS ALREADY A STRANGER THINGS FAN

When “Running Up That Hill” became a sensation through the series, Bush revealed that she had watched Stranger Things from its first season. She said she thought the song might get some attention from its appearance in the show, but never imagined the reaction would be anything like what followed.

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BUSH CALLED THE SONG A TALISMAN FOR MAX

Bush said she thought it was a lovely way for the song to be used, describing it as “a kind of talisman” for Max. She also said she found the use of the song very touching.

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RUNNING UP THAT HILL FINALLY REACHED NUMBER ONE

“Running Up That Hill” originally reached number three in Britain when it was released in 1985. After appearing in Stranger Things, it returned to the UK chart and reached number one in June 2022, 37 years after its original release.

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IT BROKE KATE BUSH'S OWN LONG-STANDING CHART RECORD

Its return to number one created an extraordinary chart record. There were 44 years between Bush's first UK number one, “Wuthering Heights”, in 1978 and “Running Up That Hill” in 2022 — the longest gap between number-one singles by an artist in the history of the UK Official Singles Chart at the time.

SADIE SINK BECAME A KATE BUSH FAN

Sadie Sink, who plays Max, had not previously been familiar with Kate Bush. She listened to “Running Up That Hill” repeatedly while preparing for the role and later said she had become a huge Bush fan, even singling out the “Wuthering Heights” video as a favourite.

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KATE BUSH WROTE SONGS AT AN EXTRAORDINARY RATE AS A TEENAGER

Kate Bush was already writing prolifically before she became famous. Between 1973 and the release of her debut album in 1978, she is reported to have written around 120 songs, most of which were never officially released.

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HER FIRST LIVE PERFORMANCE WAS AT HER BROTHER'S ART COLLEGE

Kate Bush's first known live performance took place in 1976 at the London School of Furniture, where she performed as part of a show connected with her brother Paddy's final-year work. She was still only 17.

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SHE ONCE USED A FAIRLIGHT TO TURN A RIFLE INTO A DRUM

Kate Bush began working with the Fairlight sampling machine while making Never for Ever. On “Army Dreamers”, she sampled the sound of a rifle being cocked and used it as part of the percussion.

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PERCY EDWARDS MADE ANIMAL SOUNDS FOR THE DREAMING

For The Dreaming, Bush brought in Percy Edwards, the famous professional animal impersonator. He provided animal sounds for the title track, including sheep, dingoes and Australian magpies, as well as the sound of a kangaroo being run over.

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KATE BUSH WAS ALREADY USING SAMPLING BEFORE IT BECAME A POP CLICHÉ

Bush's use of the Fairlight on The Dreaming placed her among the early generation of pop musicians using sampling as a creative instrument rather than simply as an effect. She used recorded sounds, voices and fragments of noise as part of the musical composition itself.

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SHE BECAME THE SOLE PRODUCER OF THE DREAMING

Kate Bush became the sole producer of The Dreaming, a major change in the way she worked. She later described the album as a huge creative leap forward because she was taking complete control of the production for the first time.

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THE FIRST KATE BUSH TOUR HAD A MICROPHONE HIDDEN IN A HEADSET

For the 1979 Tour of Life, Bush needed to sing while dancing and moving freely. She and her live sound engineer developed a headset microphone so that she would not have to hold a conventional microphone during the performance.

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THE HEADSET WAS ALMOST MADE FROM A COAT HANGER

Bush recalled suggesting that the new headset microphone should be patented. Her sound engineer apparently replied that there was little point because the basic construction was essentially an old coat hanger bent into shape.

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TAXI DRIVERS ONCE BROKE INTO HER LIVE SHOW

During the early Tour of Life performances, Bush's wireless microphone system could occasionally pick up local taxi-radio transmissions because they were operating on the same frequency. The unexpected conversations were sometimes heard through the theatre's sound system.

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KATE BUSH'S CHILDHOOD MUSICAL HERO WAS ELTON JOHN

Although Bush became associated with experimental art-pop, one of her earliest musical heroes was Elton John. She has recalled listening to his music while growing up and being particularly inspired by his songwriting and piano playing.

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SHE APPEARED ON CHILDREN'S TELEVISION MORE THAN YOU MIGHT EXPECT

During the first part of her career, Bush occasionally appeared on children's television programmes, something that seems surprising in retrospect given the mysterious and theatrical image that later surrounded her. In 1978 she performed “Kashka from Baghdad” on Ask Aspel.

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SHE ONCE WROTE A SONG ABOUT ILLEGAL PARROT SMUGGLING

John Lydon once wrote a song for Kate Bush called “Bird in Hand”. Its subject was the illegal export of South American parrots. The song was never released by Bush.

SHE USED A VERY UNUSUAL INSTRUMENT ON HER RECORDS

Bush's records contain instruments that are rarely heard in mainstream pop, including the Japanese tupan, the kabosy, the lirone, boobams and the strumento de porco. Her arrangements often mixed unusual traditional instruments with modern studio technology.

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KATE BUSH TURNED DOWN THE CHANCE TO SUPPORT FLEETWOOD MAC

In 1978, Kate Bush was offered the chance to support Fleetwood Mac on their enormous Rumours tour in America. She turned it down, choosing instead to develop her own live show on her own terms.

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KATE BUSH'S FIRST TOUR WAS FAR MORE THAN A CONCERT

The 1979 Tour of Life combined music with dance, mime, poetry, magic and theatre. Bush played different characters during the show, which featured 17 costume changes and 24 songs.

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SHE HELPED DESIGN HER OWN REVOLUTIONARY HEADSET MICROPHONE

Because Bush wanted to dance while singing, the Tour of Life used a specially designed headset microphone that freed her hands. It was one of the technical innovations that helped make the production possible.

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KATE BUSH ONLY TOURED AS A HEADLINER ONCE BEFORE 2014

After the six-week Tour of Life ended in May 1979, Bush did not undertake another full concert tour for 35 years. Her next major run of live performances was Before the Dawn at London's Hammersmith Apollo in 2014.

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SHE ONCE SANG NUTBUSH CITY LIMITS IN PUBS

Before she became famous, Bush performed with the KT Bush Band in pubs around south-east England. Their repertoire was not entirely made up of her own songs: it included covers such as Tina Turner's “Nutbush City Limits”.

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SHE WROTE AROUND 120 SONGS BEFORE HER FIRST ALBUM

Bush was an extraordinarily prolific songwriter as a teenager. Between 1973 and the release of The Kick Inside in 1978, she is reported to have written around 120 songs, most of which were never officially released.

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SHE WAS INVOLVED IN THE CREATION OF THE TOUR'S STAGE DESIGN

Bush was not simply the singer in the Tour of Life. She was involved in decisions about the production, including the set design and programme artwork. The stage included a large ribbed structure representing an egg, which Bush sometimes performed inside.

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THE EGG ON STAGE WAS MEANT TO SUGGEST THE WOMB

The enormous red-satin-covered egg used during the Tour of Life was not merely a visual prop. Its symbolism was intended to suggest the womb and the origins of life, fitting the theatrical world Bush was creating around the music.

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KATE BUSH WAS THE FIRST ARTIST TO USE A FAIRLIGHT IN THIS WAY

Bush became one of the early pop artists to exploit the Fairlight sampler as a genuine compositional instrument. On The Dreaming she used sampled voices, instruments and found sounds as building blocks of the music rather than simply adding conventional studio effects.

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PERCY EDWARDS APPEARED ON THE DREAMING

For the title track of The Dreaming, Bush brought in Percy Edwards, the famous British animal impersonator. He supplied animal sounds including sheep, dingoes and Australian magpies, as well as the sound of a kangaroo being run over.

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PADDY BUSH USED FISHING RODS ON THE SENSUAL WORLD

Kate's brother Paddy Bush contributed an unusual sound to “The Sensual World”. He played two fishing rods, using their swishing sound to create the atmosphere of fly-fishing.

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KATE BUSH'S FIRST LIVE PERFORMANCE WAS AT HER BROTHER'S ART COLLEGE

Bush's first known live performance took place in 1976 at the London School of Furniture, as part of a show connected with her brother Paddy's final-year work. She was still only 17.

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SHE WAS ALREADY WRITING SONGS BEFORE DAVID GILMOUR HEARD HER

By the time a demo reached David Gilmour through a friend of her brother Jay, Bush was already writing songs at a remarkable rate. She later recalled writing about a song a day during her teenage years.

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MTV REJECTED ONE OF HER VIDEOS FOR BEING TOO ESOTERIC

When Bush appeared on Terry Wogan's television show performing “Running Up That Hill”, the performance was used in place of the official video for the American market. MTV had considered the original video too esoteric.

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KATE BUSH WAS INVOLVED IN A CHARITY SINGLE WITH THE RAMONES AND IGGY POP

In 1989, Bush appeared on “Spirit of the Forest”, a charity single featuring an extraordinary collection of artists including Iggy Pop, Kim Wilde, Fish from Marillion, the Jungle Brothers and the Ramones.

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TAXI DRIVERS ONCE BROKE INTO HER LIVE SHOW

During the early Tour of Life performances, Bush's wireless microphone system could occasionally pick up local taxi-radio transmissions because they were operating on the same frequency. The unexpected conversations were sometimes heard through the theatre's sound system.

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KATE BUSH'S CHILDHOOD MUSICAL HERO WAS ELTON JOHN

Although Bush became associated with experimental art-pop, one of her earliest musical heroes was Elton John. She has recalled listening to his music while growing up and being particularly inspired by his songwriting and piano playing.

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SHE APPEARED ON CHILDREN'S TELEVISION MORE THAN YOU MIGHT EXPECT

During the first part of her career, Bush occasionally appeared on children's television programmes, something that seems surprising in retrospect given the mysterious and theatrical image that later surrounded her. In 1978 she performed “Kashka from Baghdad” on Ask Aspel.

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SHE ONCE WROTE A SONG ABOUT ILLEGAL PARROT SMUGGLING

John Lydon once wrote a song for Kate Bush called “Bird in Hand”. Its subject was the illegal export of South American parrots. The song was never released by Bush.

SHE USED A VERY UNUSUAL INSTRUMENT ON HER RECORDS

Bush's records contain instruments that are rarely heard in mainstream pop, including the Japanese tupan, the kabosy, the lirone, boobams and the strumento de porco. Her arrangements often mixed unusual traditional instruments with modern studio technology.

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PETER GABRIEL FIRST WORKED WITH KATE BUSH ON GAMES WITHOUT FRONTIERS

Peter Gabriel first worked with Kate Bush on “Games Without Frontiers”, from his 1980 album Peter Gabriel, commonly known as Melt. Bush provided backing vocals on the track.

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GABRIEL ALREADY KNEW WUTHERING HEIGHTS

Gabriel later recalled that he had heard “Wuthering Heights” before working with Bush and had been impressed by both her extraordinary voice and her songwriting. Their first collaboration came only a couple of years after Bush's debut single reached number one.

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KATE BUSH ALSO SANG ON NO SELF CONTROL

“Games Without Frontiers” was not their only collaboration on Gabriel's third solo album. Bush also provided vocals on “No Self Control”, making her presence on the album more substantial than a single guest appearance.

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DON'T GIVE UP WAS NOT THEIR FIRST COLLABORATION

By the time Gabriel and Bush recorded “Don't Give Up” in 1986, they had already worked together on two songs from Gabriel's 1980 album. Their famous duet was therefore the continuation of a musical relationship rather than an isolated collaboration.

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DOLLY PARTON WAS ORIGINALLY CONSIDERED FOR DON'T GIVE UP

Peter Gabriel originally had Dolly Parton in mind for “Don't Give Up”, partly because of the song's American roots-music influence. Parton declined the invitation, leaving the way open for Kate Bush to take the female vocal.

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PETER GABRIEL SAID KATE BUSH CHANGED DON'T GIVE UP

Gabriel later said that Bush's performance was a major part of the song's power. He explained that her voice brought something to the song that he had not anticipated when he wrote it.

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DON'T GIVE UP WAS INSPIRED BY A PHOTOGRAPH

The starting point for “Don't Give Up” was not a personal conversation between Gabriel and Bush. Gabriel said the catalyst was a Dorothea Lange photograph from the American Depression, which he connected with the high unemployment of Britain in the 1980s.

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KATE BUSH AND PETER GABRIEL WERE FILMED HOLDING EACH OTHER FOR THE ENTIRE VIDEO

The famous video for “Don't Give Up” consists largely of Gabriel and Bush embracing. Directed by Godley and Creme, it deliberately avoids the conventional performance-video format and concentrates on the physical connection between the two singers.

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THE VIDEO WAS SHOT IN ONE CONTINUOUS EMBRACE

The central image of the “Don't Give Up” video is unusually simple: Gabriel and Bush hold each other while the camera moves around them. The apparently effortless performance was carefully constructed and became one of the most memorable music videos of the 1980s.

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DON'T GIVE UP WAS A HIT IN BOTH BRITAIN AND AMERICA

“Don't Give Up” reached number nine in the UK singles chart in 1986. It also became one of Gabriel's best-known songs internationally, helped enormously by the contrast between his troubled verses and Bush's reassuring responses.

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KATE BUSH'S VOICE BECAME THE VOICE OF REASSURANCE

The structure of “Don't Give Up” gives Gabriel the verses, in which the narrator describes failure, unemployment and despair, while Bush repeatedly answers him with reassurance. The musical arrangement therefore mirrors the song's central idea: one voice is struggling while another refuses to let it give up.

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THE TWO LATER PERFORMED TOGETHER ON STAGE

Gabriel and Bush reunited on stage for “Don't Give Up” during Gabriel's Secret World Live period in the 1990s. Their performance of the song was also preserved on the resulting live film and album.

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KATE BUSH'S CONNECTION WITH GABRIEL BEGAN BEFORE THEIR FAMOUS DUET

The relationship between Bush and Gabriel therefore stretches across three very different moments: her backing vocals on his 1980 album, their celebrated 1986 duet, and their later live performances. “Don't Give Up” is the best-known result, but it was only part of a much longer musical connection.

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KATE BUSH GOT TEN O-LEVELS

Kate Bush was a strong student at school as well as a prolific songwriter. She obtained ten O-levels before leaving school to concentrate on her music and dance.

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SHE WAS FASCINATED BY RELIGION AND THEORIES OF THE UNIVERSE

A 1980 profile of Bush revealed that she enjoyed reading about religious subjects and theories of the universe, alongside much lighter reading such as the Beano. Those interests would later surface in the imagery and ideas running through her songs.

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CLOUD BUSTING NEEDED PERMISSION FROM WILHELM REICH'S SON

“Cloudbusting” was inspired by Wilhelm Reich and his son Peter's memoir A Book of Dreams. Bush contacted Peter Reich before releasing the song, wanting his blessing for the way she had used the story of his father and their relationship.

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BIG BOI TRAVELLED TO BRITAIN LOOKING FOR KATE BUSH

Outkast's Big Boi became such a fan of Kate Bush that he once spent time in Britain trying to find her. They eventually met backstage during Bush's Before the Dawn concerts in 2014.

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KATE BUSH MADE NINE FRUITOPIA COMMERCIALS

In 1994, Bush provided music for a series of television commercials for Fruitopia. She created nine pieces of music for the campaign, giving the advertisements a surprisingly distinctive Kate Bush soundtrack.

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SHE ADVERTISED SEIKO WATCHES IN JAPAN

At the height of her early fame, Bush appeared in television advertising for Seiko watches in Japan. The commercials are a curious reminder of how unusual her image could look when transplanted into another culture's advertising world.

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SHE ONCE DUETTED WITH ROWAN ATKINSON

For Comic Relief, Bush appeared with Rowan Atkinson in the character of a lounge singer on the song “Do Bears...?” The deliberately strange performance was a long way from her usual musical world.

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SHE RECORDED A VERSION OF ROY HARPER'S ANOTHER DAY

Kate Bush recorded Roy Harper's “Another Day” for her 1970s-era work, although her version was not released as part of her original run of studio albums. Harper's songwriting was one of the less obvious influences connected with her early musical world.

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ELTON JOHN WAS ONE OF HER EARLIEST MUSICAL HEROES

Kate Bush has named Elton John as one of her childhood musical heroes. It is an interesting contrast with the highly experimental reputation she later acquired: one of the artists who first inspired her was an enormously successful mainstream piano-led pop star.

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SHE ONCE INTERVIEWED HERSELF FOR HER FAN CLUB

Bush was closely involved with her own fan club magazine and even conducted an interview with herself using the fictional name “Zwort Finkle”. It was another example of how little she relied on conventional celebrity-media machinery.

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SHE DID NOT ANNOUNCE THE BIRTH OF HER SON

When Bush's son Bertie was born in 1998, the news was kept private. The British press did not learn about his birth until around 18 months later, an unusually long period of privacy for an internationally famous musician.

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SHE REFUSED TO LET EMI HEAR HER WORK IN PROGRESS

During the making of Aerial, Bush maintained an unusually private relationship with her record company. EMI chairman Tony Wadsworth could visit her, but Bush would simply chat with him rather than play him unfinished music.

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SHE DESCRIBED HOUSEWORK AS IMPORTANT TO HER NORMAL LIFE

When she was interviewed before the release of Aerial, Bush rejected the image of herself as a mysterious recluse. She said that doing ordinary things such as washing and hoovering was important to her because it helped her function as a normal human being.

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SHE BECAME THE FIRST WOMAN WITH EIGHT ALBUMS IN THE UK TOP 40 AT ONCE

After the success of Before the Dawn in 2014, Bush achieved an extraordinary chart feat: eight of her albums appeared in the UK albums chart simultaneously, a record for a female artist at the time.

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SHE DID NOT RELEASE AN ALBUM FOR TWELVE YEARS

There was a twelve-year gap between The Red Shoes in 1993 and Aerial in 2005. Rather than disappearing from music, Bush spent much of the period working privately and living away from the demands of the music business.

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