THE EARLY YEARS

KATE BUSH IS ONE OF POP’S MOST GROUNDBREAKING PERFORMERS. HER SONGWRITING, HER ECLECTICISM, HER THEATRICAL FLAIR AND HER UNIQUE VOICE INSPIRED A GENERATION OF SONGWRITERS AND PERFORMERS, FROM TORI AMOS TO BJÖRK TO FLORENCE + THE MACHINE. THROUGH HELP AND HARD WORK, THE YOUNG GIRL FROM KENT AVOIDED THE TRAPS THAT BEFALL MANY MUSICAL PRODIGIES…

IAN RAVENDALE

Kate Bush was born on 30 July 1958, and brought up in her family’s farmhouse in East Wickham in Kent. It was a creative – and supportive – environment. Her elder brothers Paddy and John were involved in the local folk scene; her father Robert, a doctor by profession, played the piano. Kate began learning piano at 11 and also played the organ and, early on, the violin. With encouragement from her parents and brothers it seemed inevitable that Kate would take her interest in music further and she began writing her own songs at a startlingly young age.

Guitarist Brian Bath, who would later play with Kate in their pub rock group and join her on her 1979 tour, was close to her brother Paddy and heard his friend’s little sister demonstrating her skills very early on. “Kate was around, and I heard her play piano. She’s six years younger than me… when I first met her, she was 12! A tiny little thing… I’d be jamming with Paddy and she’d run into the room. With a bit of luck you might get to hear her play the piano in one of the rooms of this big house the Bushes had. I introduced Del Palmer to everyone.” (Palmer went on to have a long-term relationship with Kate from the late 70s to the early 90s and also engineered and played bass on many of her albums.)

“I HEARD KATE AROUND 1971 OR ’72… SHE PLAYED ONE OF HER SONGS ON PIANO. I COULDN’T MAKE HEAD OR TAIL OF WHAT SHE WAS DOING. SHE WAS IN A DIFFERENT AREA COM PLETELY”

BRIAN BATH

Young Kate’s talents were not kept in the dark. The family got in touch with Ricky Hopper, a university friend of John Bush’s. He’d worked for Transatlantic Records and had industry contacts. Kate’s demos at this point were very basic; she was only 14, and hadn’t yet found her own style. “My tapes were more morbid and more negative. They were too heavy,” she later said. “The old songs were quite different musically, vocally and lyrically. You’re younger and you get into murders.” Of these early songs, only The Man With The Child In His Eyes and Need Your Loving (renamed Passing Through The Air) would survive.

Nothing came of Hopper’s initial attempts at drumming up interest in Kate. However, another of his university friends was Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour. The pair had become reacquainted at Hopper’s wedding, and Ricky sent the guitarist a copy of Kate’s demo. Wanting to give something back to new artists trying to make it in the music industry, Gilmour listened to the tape. It interested him enough to arrange to meet Kate and watch her perform.

A star in waiting: Kate Bush at her family’s home in East Wickham, London, 26th September 1978

© Getty

He drove down to the Bush residence and, without Kate knowing, listened to her playing some of her songs on the family piano. She was then told that David had been in the next room listening and she played again, this time in front of him. In the early 70s, Gilmour was one of the biggest rock stars in the world, and, as Bush later admitted : “I was absolutely terrified and was trembling like a leaf! He came along to see me and he was great, such a human, kind person. And genuine!”

Shortly after her 15th birthday David invited Kate along to his home studio to record some of her songs with him plus the bass player and drummer from the band Unicorn. The plan was to get Kate a publishing deal and a tape was also recorded with just her and a piano.