CLASSIC ALBUM
NEVER FOR EVER
KATE BUSH’S STARTLING AND EMOTIONAL THIRD ALBUM WAS ABOUT FREEDOM, TELLING STORIES, TRANSIENCE, AND ALSO ALL ABOUT TAKING CONTROL OF HER OWN SOUND THANKS TO MUSICAL FRIENDS AND THE SOUND-MUNCHING, WAVEFORM-CRUNCHING TECHNOLOGICAL WONDER THEY CALLED THE FAIRLIGHT…
PAUL LESTER
Kate Bush’s third album was a transitional release that saw her taking the reins in the studio, with a little help from engineer Jon Kelly. She remembered moving into Abbey Road’s Studio 2 – “the land of The Beatles, tea, smiles and sticky buns” – where she used a notepad with a page for each song on which she would write requirements for instruments, effects, harmonies and so on, which she would list and tick off as appropriate. “It helps my memory, and keeps some kind of logical working order,” she said.
“The responsibility as a producer was something I felt a great deal,” she added. Not that it was all hard work: one of the main problems, apparently, was that she and the musicians were simply “having too much fun”, working in the studio until the early hours.