EARLY 1980S

AFTER TWO DECENT-SELLING ALBUMS AND FOUR CHARTING SINGLES, SOME ARTISTS MIGHT HAVE TAKEN THEIR HANDS OFF THE WHEEL. NOT KATE BUSH, WHOSE NEXT TWO PROJECTS, NEVER FOR EVER AND THE DREAMING, REVEALED AN ARTIST GROWING STEADILY MORE SELF-RELIANT AND INCREASINGLY INTENT ON STEERING HER SHIP TOWARDS DEEPER AND MORE CHALLENGING WATERS…

PAUL LESTER

Kate Bush, who once described herself as “the shyest megalomaniac you’re ever likely to meet”, may only have released two albums in the first half of the 80s, but their influence was enormous and pervasive. Whereas her two previous 70s albums, The Kick Inside and Lionheart, presented her as still something of a novelty-cum-curio, albeit a waywardly talented one, the new decade saw Bush finally being taken seriously as a supremely self-contained singer, songwriter, musician and producer.

She began the first few months of the first year of the decade being given a multitude of accolades. She was voted Best Female Artist in the Record Mirror poll, Best Female Singer in the NME and Best Female Singer in Sounds. She won Top Female Artist in the Music Week Annual Awards at the Dorchester Hotel, Top Female Singer at the British Rock and Pop Awards (later the BPI Awards) at the Café Royal, while at the Capital Radio Awards ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel she was presented with the award for Best Female Vocalist.

IF THE KICK INSIDE AND LIONHEART PRESENTED BUSH AS SOMETHING OF A NOVELTY-CUM-CURIO, THE NEW DECADE SAW HER BEING TAKEN SERIOUSLY AS A SELF-CONTAINED SINGER, SONGWRITER, MUSICIAN AND PRODUCER

But for Bush the work was its own reward. And in January 1980 she entered Studio Two at Abbey Road to begin the six-month recording sessions that would complete her third album, Never For Ever, which she had begun creating demos for (of Blow Away, Egypt, Violin and The Wedding List) the previous summer at AIR Studios.

This would mark her second foray into production, following 1979’s On Stage EP (a live recording of four Tour Of Life songs), and she would be aided by Lionheart engineer, Jon Kelly. The co-production held immense significance for her. “I felt so very scared sometimes because of the responsibility,” she admitted. “But it’s as if I’m beginning again.” She added: “I’m free in lots of ways and I’m getting more free, more artistic control.”

Recording was interrupted every now and then – by further recording stints. Bush made a cameo appearance on the self-titled third album (sometimes referred to as “Melt”) by the like-minded Peter Gabriel. She contributed backing vocals to two tracks: Games Without Frontiers and No Self Control, both issued as singles. It was during these sessions that she saw Gabriel experiment with rhythm boxes and the new-fangled, soon-to-be omnipresent piece of 80s kit, the Fairlight CMI digital synthesizer. She also broke off from recording her own album to duet on the track You (The Game Part III), from the Unknown Soldier LP, with British maverick singer-songwriter Roy Harper.