Kate Bush (born Catherine Bush 30 July 1958) is an English singer-songwriter, musician and record producer. Her eclectic musical style and idiosyncratic vocal style have made her one of the United Kingdom's most successful solo female performers of the past 30 years. Bush was signed by EMI at the age of 16 after being recommended by Pink Floyd's David Gilmour. In 1978, at age 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights", becoming the first woman to have a UK number-one with a self-written song. She was also the most photographed woman in the United Kingdom that year.
After her 1979 tour — the only concert tour of her career — Bush released the 1980 album Never for Ever, which made her the first British solo female artist to top the UK album charts and the first female artist ever to enter the album chart at No. 1. In 1987, she won a BRIT Award for Best British Female Solo Artist. She has released nine albums, three of which topped the UK Albums Chart, and has had UK Top 10 hit singles with "Wuthering Heights", "Running Up That Hill", "King of the Mountain", "Babooshka", "The Man with the Child in His Eyes" and "Don't Give Up".
In 2002, Bush's songwriting ability was recognised with an Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. In 2005 she released Aerial, her first album in 12 years. The album earned her a BRIT AwardGrammy Awards. nomination for Best Album and another for Best Solo Female Artist. During the course of her career, she has also been nominated for three
Wuthering Heights, The Kick Inside and Lionheart
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As part of her preparation for entering the studio, Bush toured pubs with the KT Bush Band. However, for her debut album The Kick Inside (1978) she was persuaded to use established session musicians, some of whom she would retain even after she had brought her band-mates back on board. Her brother Paddy Bush played the harmonica and mandolin, unlike on later albums where he would play more exotic instruments such as the balalaikadidgeridoo. Stuart Elliott played some of the drums and would become her main percussionist on subsequent albums. and
Bush released The Kick Inside when she was 19 years old, but some of the songs had been written when she was as young as 13. EMI originally wanted the more rock-oriented track "James and the Cold Gun" to be her debut single, but Bush insisted that it should be "Wuthering Heights". Even at this early stage of her career, she had gained a reputation for her determination to have a say in decisions affecting her work. "Wuthering Heights" topped the UK and Australian charts and became an international hit. Bush became the first woman to reach number one in the UK charts with a self-penned song.A second single, "The Man with the Child in His Eyes", reached number six on the UK charts. It also made it onto the American Billboard Hot 100 where it reached number 85 in early 1979, but it was Bush's only single to do so for nearly another seven years. "The Man with the Child in His Eyes" went on to win her an Ivor Novello Award in 1979 for Outstanding British Lyric.
EMI capitalised on Bush's appearance by promoting the album with a poster of her in a tight pink top that emphasised her breasts. In an interview with NME magazine in 1982, Bush criticised the marketing technique, stating: "People weren't even generally aware that I wrote my own songs or played the piano. The media just promoted me as a female body. It's like I've had to prove that I'm an artist in a female body." In late 1978, EMI persuaded Bush to quickly record a follow-up album, Lionheart, to take advantage of the success of The Kick Inside. Bush has often expressed dissatisfaction with Lionheart, feeling that she needed more time to get it right. The album was rushed out of the studio in Nice on the French Riviera, making this her only album to be wholly recorded outside the UK. The album was produced by Andrew Powell, assisted by Bush. While it has its share of hits, most notably "Wow", it did not garner the same reception as her first album, reaching number six in the UK album charts. Lionheart is the first record on which her then-boyfriend Del Palmer worked as a bassist. Palmer went on to play bass or to engineer and record every album since.
Bush was displeased with being rushed into making the second album. She set up her own publishing company, Kate Bush Music, and her own management company, Novercia, to maintain complete control over her work. The board of directors of these companies was herself and members of her family. Following the album's release, she was required by EMI to undertake heavy promotional work and an exhausting tour, the only one of her career. The tour, named The Tour of Life, began in April 1979 and lasted six weeks. Typical of her determination to have control, she was involved in every aspect of the show's production, choreography, set design, and staff recruitment. The shows were noted for her dancing, complex lighting and her 17 costume changes per show. Because of her intention to dance as she sang, her sound engineers used a wire coat hanger and a radio microphone to fashion the first headset mic to be used by a rock performer, at least since the Swedish group Spotnicks used a very primitive version in the early 1960s.
However, Bush disliked the exposure and the celebrity lifestyle associated with promotional work, given that her main priority was making music. As she moved into producing her own work, Bush began a slow and steady withdrawal from public life. It was at this stage of her career that she developed a perfectionist approach; she spent long periods of time in the studio and only met the media when albums were released. Bush would disappear for up to four years while honing new material, which led to rumours in the media concerning her health or appearance. In the past, stories of weight gain or mental instability have been disproved by Bush's periodic reappearance.
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