Regarding Kate being beloved and admired and influential... Before this thread ups and dies, I want to post these. It's not anywhere near complete, I could find many more just by culling through old fanzines, but thanks to a very kind person at the Kate Bush forum who gathered these together, I present these to this thread. [QUOTE]The Duet The healing power of Don't Give Up. By [B]Peter Gabriel[/B] "When I first heard Wuthering Heights I thought it was extraordinary, very unique at the time. So I was fascinated from the start. Then, during the '80's her songwriting evolved. She was exploring territory with rhythm and sound that I was playing around with, so there was a common interest and approach. The song Don't Give Up (off Gabriel's So album, 1986) came out of an odd place, I'd been going through a break-up and looking at the dustbowl photos of Dorothea Lange, so I'd got this idea about dealing with unemployment, the deperation of that, but also the support you can get from a partner. I realised it needed to be a duet and I wanted something evocative and emotional - Kate's voice was both of those things. She came down to where I was recording, which was in a farmhouse near Bath. She was very nervous at first and wasn't relaxed in her singing and wanted another shot at it. So we did, but there was a vunerability there that helped the song. Am I aware of the prurient rumours about the session (i.e. that there was a romantic clinch across the mixing desk)? Oh yes, and for better or worse they were never substantiated. Probably for the worse from one point of view! It's a song that means a lot to people. A well-known comic came up to me and said they were going to commit suicide until they heard the song. Kate's voice provides this reassurance that things can get better. I had a lot of letters from people saying that. My favourite Kate Bush song? Thats a tough one. For now, I'll say The Man With The Child In His Eyes: beautiful melody, and lyrically it paints pictures. She's always been away in her own world, which is 90 per cent her strength, 10 per cent weakness. She doesn't expose herself to the outside world as much as I think would benefit her, but it gives her music this rich internal feeling that people plug into." [/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]RUFUS WAINWRIGHT[/B] MOJO magazine, issue 145, December 2005 “Kate Bush is an original and there’s a real danger that you become clouded when you listen to her. So many people try to copy her – no names, except for me! I’ve copied her later in my, erm, oeuvre. And I intend to copy her more! You listen to her singing and you realise that what appears to be affected energy, this possession she’s under, is real. It rings true. She uses a lot of tricks, but they come from a true place. She seems to write off the cuff, very liberal with the forms and structures, but once you get behind them you realise the songs are very well built, very soundly structured, like Running Up That Hill, which is probably my favourite, although all her music has stood up well. “I wonder if she’s been away so long because she was worried about becoming an imitation of herself? I guess she took the sabbatical so as not to sing like some drag queen imitating Kate Bush... It’s strange, I first heard of her because my mom [Kate McGarrigle] had written a song referring to the Brontës earlier in the ‘70s, so when she heard Wuthering Heights mom was always a bit, ‘We did that first’. “But I became aware of her greatness when I was staying with mydad [Loudon Wainwright III] in West Hampstead and he was obsessed with the Peter Gabriel duet, Don’t Give Up [off Gabriel’s So album, 1986].Then in the mid-’90s I moved to New York as a proper young gay man and I discovered this clan of Kate Bush fanatics and I fully understood and accepted her for the legend she is. Her attitude towards love and society’s treatment of love is very combative and most gay people can connect with that. Now my sister Martha is very influenced by Kate and Martha influences me more than ever, so... Anyway, is she touring? Get out there, Kate!” [/QUOTE] [quote] VARIOUS [url]www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,22875-1831244,00.html[/url] The Times of London October 22, 2005 The word on the Bush telegraph As Kate Bush releases her first CD in 12 years, Stephen Dalton discovers from other musicians what makes Kate great Musical movements have waxed and waned, former peers wasted away, but somehow Kate Bush has endured. In fact, in the 12 years since her last album release, she has become more influential than ever, as memories of the leotard-clad teenage warbler from the early 1980s have faded, to be replaced by a genuine appreciation of her musical talents. With the arrival of Bush’s new album, Aerial, a sprawling double-CD of pagan poetry, artists from every genre and generation are lining up to pay homage to the faerie queen of British pop. Her perfectionist mastery of arranging and producing, her ability to juggle music with motherhood, her lyrical hinterland of heightened emotion and ripe sensuality — all have been interpreted as defiantly feminine, even feminist statements. Significantly, Bush crosses gender taste barriers with an ease that the likes of Alanis Morissette and Dido do not. Her music has already enjoyed a mini-comeback this year, thanks to the Futureheads, whose spiky cover version of her 1985 classic Hounds of Love performed better in the charts than her original. meanwhile, Coldplay admitted they were “trying to recreate” Bush’s 1985 hit Running Up That Hill for their own recent chart-topper, Speed of Sound. Even the most macho performers see her as a rule-breaking maverick. The rapper Tricky, notorious for recording with gangsters, considers Bush a genius on a par with the Beatles, while the former Sex Pistol John Lydon has called her “f****** brilliant” and “a true original”. Bush’s eclectic musical agenda has also helped to sustain her fanbase over the years. Few artists have worked with such a diverse army of collaborators, from Eric Clapton to Nigel Kennedy, from Prince to Peter Gabriel, from Bulgarian choirs to Rolf Harris. ... [B]ALISON GOLDFRAPP[/B] Electro-stomp princess “When I was growing up Kate Bush was the one. All the boys fancied her at school, all the hippies smoked bongs and listened to her music. I got into her a little later. I think she’s a genius. I love her because she is nothing to do with fashion, she is so self-contained. My favourite album is Hounds of Love, it’s the ultimate concept album. I took a lot of drugs listening to that album, E mainly. So much so that when I listen to it now I can start to feel sick very quickly.” [B]BJÖRK [/B] Fellow vocal and sartorial adventurer “There were so many records in my parents’ house, so I saw a lot of album covers. I thought they were all macho and occupied with power, things I didn’t like. I guess that’s what I found fascinating about Kate, she stuck out. She created her own look and produced her own sound.” [B]ROY HARPER [/B] Grumpy folkie and Bush collaborator “She was such a precocious talent, she arrived ready-made. With her voice going to such incredible heights, she was immediately a standout. We were recording at Abbey Road at the time, and as soon as I heard her I knew I had a piece I’d love her to sing. We put feelers out and she came back within five minutes. Then I found out that her brothers had been into me for all of her childhood, so she came super quick. You get the sense when you meet her that she is the real thing. She’s a million miles away from Charlotte Church, who is a classically trained female singer of no small ability. But Kate has a lot more than that in terms of artistic integrity. She is an artist in the deepest sense.” [B]ALEXANDER BALANESCU[/B] Eponymous founder of string quartet “I met Kate Bush through Michael Nyman, who was asked to do some string arrangements for her. I was very excited about the prospect of working with Kate as I knew and loved all her records. Kate is indeed a perfectionist but in an unerringly musically intelligent way, and with an infectious, positive enthusiasm. I was amazed by her ability to hear tiny details, seeking not only technical perfection but also the right spirit for a particular piece. “I think Kate Bush’s work transcends musical borders. Of course it’s a kind of pop music, but a music with lots of layers, holding the attention for many repeated hearings. Also, I have always found her use of her extraordinary voice very interesting. She seems to use it as an instrument, always seeking to expand its possibilities.” [B]BARRY HYDE[/B] Singer with the Futureheads “She is totally underrated as an arranger and singer. Some of her songs are perfectly arranged and quite complicated. She makes great pop songs with excellent production. And we were all born in the early 1980s, so Kate Bush was around all of us to a varying degree.” [B]KELE OKEREKE[/B] Singer with indie rockers Bloc Party “I only discovered Kate Bush two years ago. I was staying at a friend’s house in Spain while he was away, and all he had in his collecton were Prince and Kate Bush records. I listened to all her albums from start to finish and was completely transfixed, amazed by their theatrical intensity, their sense of story and attention to detail. These artists were able to sculpt their decisions without having to run them past people. They were able to do what they wanted.” [B]BIG BOI[/B] Half of hip-hop pioneers OutKast “My uncle introduced me to Kate Bush when I was about 14 years old, and that opened my mind up. She was so bugged out, man! But I felt what she was talking about in the songs. My uncle would explain what the song stood for. Like The Man With the Child in His Eyes and all that @#%$. I would be like, ‘Wow! She’s so f*****’ deep!’ I was infatuated with her, man. Still am, and hopefully on the next record you’re gonna hear OutKast and Kate Bush do at least two or three songs. I gotta track her down! I just found out she was producing all that @#%$ herself, man! She’s so f*****’ dope and so underrated and off the radar.” [B]DIDO[/B] Classically named global megastar “When I was 13, I got a record player for Christmas, so I went out and bought Hounds of Love by Kate Bush and Diamond Life by Sade, which both remain absolute classics. Those are two women who have the right idea: they have a life, they have great careers, and they make records when they want to make records.” [B]TRICKY[/B] Trip-hop pioneer “I don’t believe in God, but if I did, her music would be my bible. Her music sounds religious to me. She should be treasured more in this country than the Beatles. That she isn’t is probably down to her own personality, because she can — and does — walk away from everything, and not make albums, and I respect her for that. Just to live your life and not play the game — to me, that’s success.” [B]DAVE GILMOUR[/B] Pink Floyd guitarist who “found” Bush “As a teenager, Kate couldn’t be ignored. She was obviously, to me, a great talent and it would have been criminal of me to have ignored her. Having said that, she would have made it anyway, one way or another. After her success I was inundated with tapes of girl singers. But when I listened to them, I never heard another Kate.” [/quote] [quote] [B]JOHN CALE[/B] [url]www.insidebayarea.com[/url], November 2005 (link no longer active) "I mean, I look at music production from the point of view of what's going on in general, and all the exciting ideas are in hip hop, with Dr. Dre and (Neptunes mastermind) Pharrell Williams. Although I did just hear the new Kate Bush album [Aerial], and I thought that was a really elegant piece of work, just gorgeous." [/quote] [quote] [B]DAN HAWKINS[/B] ‘Classic Rock’ Magazine – Dec 2005 (issue 87) Dan Hawkins On Kate Bush The Darkness Guitarist On An Artist That All The Band Like. "I really like Kate Bush. The Kick Inside [her 1978 debut] is the album of hers i've listened to most. I actually got into it through the 80s version of Wuthering Heights; they re-did it for the best-of album [The Whole Story, released in '86]. And at the time, I thought it was the only version in existence, because when you're a kid you're not totally aware of an artist's heritage. Then, years later, somebody told me it wasn't the original, which was on The Kick Inside. The original is so much better than the reworked version. They just put 80s reverb on what is one of the most soulful performances ever - and what an amazing arrangement." "We used to listen to The Kick Inside a lot in the studio when we were getting ready to make our debut album, Permission To Land. It's one of those records you stick on in the morning while you're getting stuff together. Not many things tie The Darkness together - we don't all enjoy the same bands - but on some occasions our tastes coincide. We're all AC/DC fans and we also love listening to Kate Bush, oddly enough." "She had a very sexy stage show when she first started out, and it's strange how she's become such a woman of mystery. It's weird how outgoing her art is, and how reclusive she is. I can understand it, though, to some extent. You can pretend to be a very outgoing person and you can invent a persona for yourself, but after a certain period of time you think it's easier to be yourself. And the next progression might be to think it's much easier not to do anything, or talk to anyone." "If I met Kate Bush, what would I say to her? Blimey. I don't get star-struck with many people. I've met a lot of my heroes; it just doesn't faze me. But there's so much intrigue about Kate Bush, because she has almost completely disappeared from the limelight. I don't know how I would handle it. I guess I'd treat her the same as anyone else. But I'd have to watch my Ps and Qs. I imagine she wouldn't like swearing very much. So I'd be pretty much f*cked, really!" [/quote] [quote] [B]COLDPLAY[/B] music.yahoo.com/read/news/19771811 Coldplay singer Chris Martin said that the band's current single, "Speed Of Sound," was written in the summer of 2004 and inspired by two very different women--British songstress Kate Bush and Martin's daughter, who was just a few months old at the time. "That's a song where we were listening to a lot of Kate Bush last summer, and we wanted a song which had a lot of tom-toms in it," Martin said. "I just had my daughter up also, and was kind of feeling in a sense of awe and wonderment, so the song is kind of a Kate Bush song about miracles." [url]www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/coldplay%20steal%20drums%20from%20kate%20bush[/url] Bass player GUY BERRYMAN explains, "We were listening to a Kate Bush song called Running Up That Hill and we were really trying to recreate the drums on that song for this song, and the chords. "Some bands are reluctant to admit that they take things from other artists and bands that they listen to and we're shameless in that respect, we don't mind telling." [/quote] [quote] VARIOUS www.musichead.com.au/site/artist.asp?actID=20372&newsID=16622&month=undefined&RandomNo=0.22335527447964293 Quoted in musichead Australia, 18 October 2005 [B]BJORK:[/B] She's got her own universe which is complete and she's not polluted by things so much, and she's got a lot of integrity and hasn't compromised. And I guess as a woman I have to say she's an incredible producer. It does happen a lot to ladies that they're looked at as people who turn up and sing and then go home and cook, but she's definitely one who was an incredible producer and had her own sound which is a collection of feminine things. You see a lot of female singers but they're singing in a macho environment, just like drums and bass and macho stuff, and they're like visitors in a man's world, and it's kind of impossible to talk about Kate Bush without mentioning that. I like a lot of male music, but I have to say that's something which is really rare and from my own experience I think it's harder than you think it is to not be a visitor, but to be a guest in your own house. [B]ALISON GOLDFRAPP:[/B] The first time I heard her I was 15. The hippies in my local town used to smoke a lot of bongs and listen to Kate Bush, and I thought she was amazing. And I did rather a lot of drugs to Hounds of Love, I have to admit. What I really loved about her music was that it was so fantastical, there was something unapologetic about the melodramatic-ness of them. I think Kate Bush is a genius. And I use that word with confidence, because it is a word that gets thrown around a lot for people that don't deserve it. I think she writes amazing lyrics, it's nothing to do with fashion or what we're told is cool, it's beautiful and intelligent and no-one else has done anything like it and probably no-one else will do anything like it. [B]ROSS FROM THE FUTUREHEADS:[/B] I think the most remarkable thing about Kate Bush is that she's so amazing as an arranger, producer and songwriter and singer. To be excellent at any of those things would be remarkable in it's own right, but when you combine those talents and pull it off... I think she's massively underrated really. (On their Hounds of Love cover) It's funny how it's been our biggest single, and it's one of the ones people come to the show to hear. If there's any way that by us doing a version of the song we've turned younger people onto Kate Bush, then that's quite a cool thing. [B]JOHN LYDON: [/B] "A true original" [B]TORI AMOS[/B], Q Magazine May 1998: "[W]hen I heard her I was blown away by her. There's no question." [B]TORI AMOS[/B] "If you're going to be compared to somebody, you know... she's wonderful. She does what she does incredibly well and I've always admired her." [/quote] [quote] [B]ANTONY HEGARTY from Antony and the Johnsons[/B] [url]www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,11710,1645991,00.html[/url] "The first singer for me was Kate Bush. When I was seven and we lived in Holland, Kate Bush came out with Wuthering Heights, and it was the first single I ever bought. I still have it. Even though she was only about 16, she just had that aura about her, especially to a child of seven, like she was some sort of mother, or older sister. She was so magical: the world she inhabited was, especially poetically, a sort of fairyland. It was very sensuous and very pagan, and she sang so high - it was madcap. She was so beautiful. You know that slow motion cartwheel that she does in that video? I was doing that for all the neighbours. I'd just put on a sheet and try to do the cartwheel. She was probably my first role model. When I started the I Am A Bird Now album, I said that I wanted it to be intimate, like Cat Power's covers album. In hindsight, though, I think it's more like The Dreaming by Kate Bush." [/quote] =================================================================================================== [quote] [B]PATRICK WOLF[/B] [url]www.thisisfakediy.co.uk/articles/2970.html[/url] [I]Of all the artist's you've been compared to - Kate Bush, David Bowie, Morrissey - which have you found the most flattering?[/I] I think Kate Bush, of course. The only thing I know about David Bowie is Labyrinth, which is a fantastic movie, but music-wise it's not something I'm really inspired by at all. So, yeah, Kate Bush - I think she's very brave, not many English musicians have really dared to be as English as her. She's very focussed on beauty and magic, and she's a poet, and she doesn't give a @#%$, and I'm very, very happy to be equated with her. [/quote] [QUOTE] VARIOUS The Independent, 21 October 2005 enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/features/article320996.ece IS KATE BUSH STILL RELEVANT? [B]MUTYA FROM SUGABABES[/B] I think she is still relevant. It's nice to see people reinvent themselves. She was a great performer and a great singer. I like that song, you know the one, "It's me, I'm Cathy..." I love that song. I remember listening to it growing up. I think our older fans like her music. [B]KT TUNSTALL[/B] I'm really looking forward to Kate Bush's return - I'm no expert on her work but I know some of it and I think she's an incredibly original and talented artist. Anyone who writes most of an album like her first album, The Kick Inside, at 15 years old has got to be pretty special. [B]KATIE MELUA[/B] Of course she's still relevant. I wasn't actually in the country when her music first came out, so I only discovered it three or four years ago. What's amazing is that something like "Wuthering Heights" still sounds so different. I actually saw her about nine months ago, we were just passing at an industry event and I went up to her and said I was a big fan and asked her about the new record. She was really excited about it but quite nervous because she felt that everyone was hyping it up a bit and she just wanted to bring out an album. You know, she's a musician. [B]HUSSEIN CHALYAN[/B], fashion designer For me, it's not important how well the songs will be received because I think she's already an amazing influence in what she's done. I listen to her stuff a lot while I sketch and I think there is a weird sense of emotional encouragement in her work. There's something therapeutic in her voice and in her attitude, so that sometimes just listening to it can encourage youor give you some kind of energy. [B]BJORK[/B] To me, Kate Bush will always represent the age of exploring your sexuality, when you change from a girl to a woman. I guess that's what I found fascinating about Kate, she totally stuck out. She created her own look and sound. There's a timelessness to her music. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]NIGEL KENNEDY[/B] gaffa.org/reaching/i89_mm2.html "She's just a great musician, so inspired in her attitude to music. I think she's one of the greatest composers of the century in my opinion. That's another type of music that relates to my way of thinking. You can call it classical, whatever, it just takes in influences from all over." [B]ELTON JOHN[/B] (from liner notes of Elton John’s Christmas Party) "We have lunch together! She's adorable. Kate had a child and brought the child up, that's why she's been away for so long. She's a very elfin-like woman. Kate is one of the greatest innovative artists. She's influenced almost every female artist since. Stevie Nicks, Madonna, Tori Amos - she's influenced each of them."[/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]KEISUKE OHTA[/B] - Japanese violinist/composer/chat show host "So far, I mostly worked with my friends, and some other people. It's high time that I make my own music. It'll be like British rock or punk, maybe not punk, but something like Sting, Peter Gabriel, and Kate Bush. I love them. That's what my music will look like."[/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]LEAH ZICARI[/B] - New York singer/songwriter/guitarist my biggest influences and favorite artists through the years are/have been Joni Mitchell, Pat Metheny, Shawn Colvin, Rickie Lee Jones, Heart (the earlier years), Michael Hedges, Pat Martino, Sarah McLaclan, Tori Amos, Kate Bush… [/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]CHARLOTTE MARTIN[/B] "I am a hardcore Kate Bush follower as well as Peter Gabriel and The Cure. My upcoming album, On Your Shore is very much influenced by Peter’s Security and Kate’s Hounds of Love." Also from the article 'Charlotte Martin spent a good part of her teenage years obsessively studying the work of Kate Bush. She's more than a fan; she's a devout follower of Bush's mystical songbook of art and romance, from which she gained enough confidence to find her own voice and style. Now in her late twenties, Martin bows to her idol while composing a theatrical and fearless presentation on her RCA full-length debut, On Your Shore. The copper-toned chills of the album's title track and the sword dance of "Limits of Our Love" make that promise, too. Echoes of Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill," "Sat in Your Lap," and "Experiment IV" slightly reverberate throughout, but only in flattery. On Your Shore breathes with a similar kind of energy that's in those particular songs, highlighting the notion that grasping for something that you believe in and doing it with every fiber of your being, regardless of the outcome, is worth it. Martin wanted to make an album that matters as much as any Kate Bush record meant to her. She couldn't have gotten it any better. As Tori Amos and Sarah McLachlan get older, there's room for others to step in.'[/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]NIGEL GODRICH[/B], music producer Q magazine, no.184, Awards 2001 issue What was the best thing about 2001? "Meeting Kate Bush. I'm in awe of her. Her records fundamentally enforced what I am as a person. When you listen to stuff as a teenager, you identify with elements in the music. There's a real hidden wisdom there. It's beautifully written. If she needs anyone to mix her new album, I'm after the job."[/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]ANJA GARBAREK[/B], Norwegian artist and daughter of famous jazz muscian Jan Garbarek, was interviewed a few years ago, about her favorite record, whch is Never Forever. From the article "Record we never forget" Daddys finding - When I was 10 years old, my dad brought home the album "Never For Ever" by Kate Bush. He thought that this would be something for me, and from the type of person I was and is. And he was very right. He knows me well. Anja Garbarek smiles. Daddy is of course Jan Garbarek. From a plastic bag she pulls out the 23 year old vinyl record. It' a bit worn on the edges, the price tag is still on it. It cost 60 kroner in 1980. The album was also with her when she moved to London a six years ago, and home again to Norway this spring. "Just as John Coltrane went into my dads soul, Kate Bush went into mine. I fell for it immediately. I mean, just look at the cover. There are lots of strange creatures coming out from under her skirt, and on the back-sleeve she is flying around in a bat costume with her tongue out. I have never seen or heard something simmilar. Kate Bush sings with this sweet voice of hers, but at the same time she can get up to distort it and make nasty sounds. Underneath all the sweetness you find the eerie and scary, the slightly macabre, that I have a weak spot for. The particular thing about Kat Bush was also that she cooperated a lot with jazz musicians, and i was used to jazz. To hear her music was for me like binding together two worlds, pop and jazz." - Are you directly inspired by Kate Bush? "My mother and I one of these days, talked about wich women had meant mostly for me vocally. We conluded that it was a mixture of Kate Bush, Laurie Anderson, Dalbello and Billie Holliday. What they have in common is their dramatic expression. that is always something I fall for." [url]www.dagbladet.no/magasine...82902.html[/url][/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]THE FUTUREHEADS' BARRY HYDE[/B] tells the tale behind their showstopping Kate Bush cover. "My parents had Kate Bush's video collection, The Whole Story, which I loved watching as a child. The one for Hounds Of Love is quite scary but also very romantic. Kate and her lover are chased by these men in suits who look like they want to arrest them. In July 2001, The Futureheads went on a squat tour around Germany, Holland and Switzerland. Our bassist Jaff had made a compilation which featured Hounds Of Love. We were travelling with another band, Milky Wimpshake, and I overheard them saying they were going to cover it. We figured we could do a better version. We knew it'd be easy because the song has a lot of momentum. It's like a locomotive train, just building and building. We did a quick arrangement as soon as we got back and started playing it at every gig. I had to change the key because the original is so high, but Kate's version doesn't have any chords per se. It's more of a drone, just two notes at a time. So we worked out these very obvious chords that might be there. We needed something repetitive at the beginning, to create this forward-moving dynamic. So it starts with one voice, very quickly goes to two, then three, and then I come in. Underneath the first verse you've got this staccato a capella refrain that stamps our personality on it. The hardest thing was getting the phrasing right. Her lyrics are so odd! Kate Bush is all about bravery. She has complete control of her imagination and she's not really bothered about commercial success. She just happened to write a few canny massive tunes." [/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]ALISON MOYET[/B] "I'm very impressed by Kate Bush. She is pure uncompromising talent and I can only feel envy at the apparent flawless way she has managed her career. Both commercially and creatively successful and still an enigma."[/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]GORILLAZ[/B] list Aerial as one of the best albums of 2005. Filter magazine, 4 Jan 2006 www.filter-mag.com/news/interior.2907.html 9. Kate Bush – Aerial (Sony) Noodle: “Despite her 12 year gap she still has the talent and creativity to release such an excellent magical album. She’s more a force of nature than a singer/songwriter, with a truly gifted way of sounding like she’s describing a dreamstate rather than….just making songs.” [/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]ANTONY OF ANTONY AND THE JOHNSONS[/B] Observer Music Monthly, December 2005 OMM: What's the best thing you've heard this year? Antony: Kate Bush's Aerial is absolutely exquisite. It's so subtle and it's the kind of record we'll be listening to in 10 years and we'll start to grasp what it was that she was doing.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]KT TUNSTALL[/B] www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/mndwebpages/tunstall%20offers%20brit%20to%20bush_16_02_2006 On winning the 2006 BRIT award for Best British Female Solo Artist: "I'm going to take the head off of this and give it to Kate Bush, because she has such a great musical brain." [/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]KATIE MELUA[/B] The Independent, 23 December 2005 enjoyment.independent.co.uk/music/features/article334766.ece The tracks of my year What are the musicians' albums of 2005? From Kaiser Chiefs to Kanye West via Katie Melua, the stars tell James McNair about the music that has been the soundtrack to their 12 months, and which artists have moved, rocked or soothed them [b]KATIE MELUA[/b], singer Aerial by Kate Bush This album was even better than I expected. Her originality and eccentricity always make her stand out from the crowd, and, after the long wait, it was a relief when the album was so special. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]SNOW PATROL[/B] The Daily Record, 6 December 2005 www.dailyrecord.co.uk/entertainment/therazz/daily/tm_objectid=16451083&method=full&siteid=66633&headline=i-was-too-scared-to-enjoy-live8-name_page.html The indie rockers will release the new material in April, and Gary [Lightbody] believes it's their best yet. He said: "We've experimented a lot more with sounds and odd instruments we've never used, and pushed ourselves as far as we can. "We've been listening to Kate Bush for strange vocal melodies and Gyšrgy Ligeti for strange arrangements - as much oddness as we can. We're so close to finishing now I'm very excited. "We'd love it if lots of people heard this as I know it's our best stuff."[/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]DUSTY SPRINGFIELD[/B] Live on stage, introducing her live cover of The Man With The Child In His Eyes. "When I came here last year I was surprised and mostly pleased at the musical changes that had happened here ... Anyway the thing that impressed me most was that so much originality was around, in particular one young lady came through with a song called Wuthering Heights. And she really has – Kate Bush – has an immense amount of originality and I was absolutely staggered by her. And I would like to sing a song that I think is one of the prettiest ones ever written, certainly by her. It's called The Man With The Child In His Eyes."[/QUOTE] [QUOTE] Crowe Loves His Girlfriend's Music 2002-02-26 http://www.celebrities411.com/KateBush/news.html?star_name=KateBush&headline=Crowe_Loves_His_Girlfriends_Music&news_id=7053&celebrity_name=Kate%20Bush Hunky RUSSELL CROWE has taken to name-checking his girlfriend Danielle Spencer - in a bid to encourage music fans to listen to her records. Interviewed by British music magazine Mojo for its current edition, Crowe answered that he's listening to his longtime love when quizzed about which music is on currently on his stereo. He says, "An Australian singer/songwriter, Danielle Spencer. Really good, like crossing Kate Bush with ABBA and putting it to very unpredictable rhythms."[/QUOTE] Anecdotal mentions from the Kate forum: [QUOTE]When [B]PAULA COLE[/B] won the Grammy in 199?, she thanked Aretha Franklin and Kate Bush as being her biggest influences.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]SARAH MCLACHLAN[/B] is asked by a member of the audience on her VH1 DVD who her inspirations/influences were musically and she does mention Kate![/QUOTE] [QUOTE]To start, I remember reading an article about [B]NICOLE KIDMAN[/B] from around the time of Moulin Rouge where she was quoted as saying Ella Fitzgerald (I think) and Kate Bush were among her favourite singers.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]I think the same goes for actors [B]RUSSELL CROWE[/B] and [B]GUY PEARCE[/B]. I remember Krys mentioning that Guy Pearce even bought the red velvet dress that Kate wore in TSW video for his girlfriend at the time(who might even be his wife now). And [B]RUSSELL CROWE[/B] is also a fan of Kate's music as is his wife [B]DANIELLE SPENCER[/B] who is a musician and whose work has a severe Kate influence.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]Fairly well-known folk musician [B]BILL JONES[/B] (female) has often mentioned Kate and has covered 'Never Be Mine' appealingly on a live disc.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]The Autumn Winter 2005/06 Milan fashion show for the Italian label Byblos, by the designer [B]GREG MYLER[/B], was also inspired by Kate. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE]Actress [B]LAURA DERN[/B] is also a big fan and [URL=http://gaffa.org/reaching/i94_sp.html]interviewed Kate[/URL] at the time of The Red Shoes album. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE]Screenwriter and novelist [B]DAVID NICHOLLS[/B] is another huge fan and mentioned Kate a lot in his BBC TV comedy drama series "Rescue Me", as well as in his novel "Starter for Ten". [/QUOTE] [QUOTE]The writer on philosophy [B]JULIAN BAGGINI[/B] discusses Kate's lyrics in his book "What's It All About?: Philosophy and the Meaning of Life".[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]From interview with [B]JOHN BALANCE OF COIL[/B] by Ian Penman in The Wire, April 2000: "The mothership & the fatherland" {on [Coil album] "Astral disaster"} is partly an invocation of one of Balance's unlikelier icons: Kate Bush. "She's so hidden," he comments in hushed tones, "she's one of the aspects of the Goddess." From Interview with [B]JOHN BALANCE[/B] & [B]PETER "SLEAZY" CHRISTOPHERSON[/B] of Coil by David Keenan in The Wire, September 1998: "We started ["Scatology", their first full-length album] here at home on a Fairlight Two," Balance recalls, "same as Kate Bush used to use. I was really into Kate Bush at the time. You can hear that on the record - if you hear the machinery you can. I used to think that actually somehow she was stealing my ideas, ... I've got notebooks - this was about the time of "The dreaming" - I'd write ideas for songs down and then when I heard "The dreaming" they'd all be on the album. I think that possibly some kind of parallel psychic space is being opened up there." So has he ever met Kate? "No, no, I think I'd be too in awe," Balance shrinks. "She's only little!" laughs Sleazy. Balance responds: "Yeah, but she's powerful..."[/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]DREW BARRYMORE[/B] said years ago that when she's sad, she listens to Kate Bush's "This Woman's Work" collection (and when she's happy and sad, she listens to The Cowboy Junkies.)[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]Some time before The Red Shoes, [B]SUZANNE VEGA[/B] said that she had initially dismissed Kate because of her "interesting" dress sense, but once she actually listened to the music, she realised how great Kate is.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]SARAH MCLACHLAN[/B] seems to have a love-hate relationship with Kate's in that she has said lots of times over the years that she was extremely heavily influenced by Kate when she was younger, but then she "grew out of Kate" - cheeky monkey! More recently, she picked "Wuthering Heights" as one of her favourite songs (From iTUNES Canada which meant that she could choose only from TKI and LH.)[/QUOTE] [QUOTE][B]RITCHIE BLACKMORE[/B] interview in Classic Rock magazine. He describes Kate as "obviously incredible"[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]KANYE WEST [in a radio interview] really did say that he was looking forward to seeing Kate Bush at the BRITs.[/QUOTE] [QUOTE]In the e-mail Q&A part of Now magazine [B]TOYAH WILCOX[/B] is asked who do you consider the greatest singer-songwriter of all time? She replies "Kate Bush. She's a very good friend of mine and talented beyond belief".[/QUOTE] ============================================================================================== I recently wrote an article about folk musician Cara Dillon for The Living Tradition Magazine (March/April 2006 issue 67), and was delighted that our conversation touched on the subject of Kate Bush - these are Cara's comments as they appear (I'm happy to post them as they are just a small extract from a much longer article): “Though she’s not a folk musician by any stretch of the imagination, Kate uses her imagination very wildly, and she’s also a woman who’s always had the courage to push for what she wanted. Folk musicians are the same – it’s all about using your imagination to try and capture the right feeling or atmosphere in a song. It’s all about drawing the listener in. It’s about making the music we want to. People can see right through artifice – you have to be true to yourself.” Kate Bush is one of Cara's main musical influences. www.myspace.com/caradillon