91 Facts About Kate Bush

Catherine Bush was born on 30 July 1958 and is an English singer, songwriter, record producer, and dancer.

Kate Bush was signed to EMI Records after David Gilmour of Pink Floyd helped produce a demo tape.

Kate Bush was the first British solo female artist to top the UK Albums Chart and the first female artist to enter it at number one.

Kate Bush took a hiatus between her seventh and eighth albums, The Red Shoes and Aerial.

In 2011, Kate Bush released the albums Director's Cut and 50 Words for Snow.

Kate Bush drew attention again in 2014 with her concert residency Before the Dawn, her first shows since the Tour of Life in 1979.

Kate Bush has received numerous accolades and honours, including 14 Brit Awards nominations and a win for British Female Solo Artist in 1987, as well as seven nominations for Grammy Awards.

Kate Bush was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to music.

Kate Bush became a Fellow of the Ivors Academy in the UK in 2020, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023.

Kate Bush was born on 30 July 1958 at a maternity hospital in Bexleyheath, Kent, to an English doctor, general practitioner Robert Kate Bush, and Hannah Patricia, an Irish staff nurse, daughter of a farmer in County Waterford.

Kate Bush grew up with her elder brothers, John and Paddy, in a 350-year-old former farmhouse at East Wickham near Welling, which neighbours Bexleyheath.

Kate Bush came from an artistic background: her mother was an amateur traditional Irish dancer, her father was an amateur pianist, Paddy worked as a musical instrument maker, and John was a poet and photographer.

Kate Bush trained at Goldsmiths College karate club, where her brother John was a karate instructor.

Kate Bush played the organ in a barn behind her parents' house and studied the violin.

Kate Bush soon began composing songs, eventually adding her own lyrics.

Kate Bush was put on retainer for two years by Bob Mercer, managing director of EMI's group-repertoire division.

Mercer believed that Kate Bush's material was good enough to release, but he believed that should the album fail, it would be demoralising, and if it were successful, Kate Bush was too young to handle this.

Kate Bush left school after doing her mock A-Levels and having gained ten GCE O-Level qualifications.

Kate Bush wrote and recorded demos of almost 200 songs, some of which circulated as bootlegs.

Kate Bush began recording her first album in August 1977.

Kate Bush appeared on Top of the Pops with it five times in 1978, cementing her public image as an ethereal spirit, embodying the essence of Cathy through a combination of wide eyes, floaty fabrics and wild choreography, still fondly mimicked and parodied today.

Kate Bush retained some of these even after she had brought her bandmates back on board.

The Kick Inside was released when Kate Bush was 19, with some songs written when she was as young as 13.

Kate Bush became the first British woman to reach number one on the UK charts with a self-written song.

Kate Bush went on to express dissatisfaction with Lionheart, feeling that it had needed more time.

Kate Bush was involved in every aspect of the production, choreography, set design, costume design and hiring.

Kate Bush was introduced to the technology while providing backing vocals on Peter Gabriel's eponymous third album in early 1980.

September 1982 saw the release of The Dreaming, the first album Kate Bush produced by herself.

The Dreaming received a mixed reception in the UK, and critics were baffled by the dense soundscapes Kate Bush had created to become "less accessible".

Kate Bush provided a new lead vocal and refreshed backing track on "Wuthering Heights", and recorded a new single, "Experiment IV", for inclusion on the compilation.

At the 1987 Brit Awards, Kate Bush won the award for Best British Female Solo Artist.

In 1991, Kate Bush released a cover of Elton John's "Rocket Man", which reached number 12 on the UK singles chart, and reached number two in Australia.

Kate Bush plays the bride Angela at a wedding set in a post-apocalyptic Britain.

Kate Bush directed and starred in the short film The Line, the Cross and the Curve, which featured music from her album The Red Shoes, itself inspired by the 1948 film of that name.

The people she lost were honoured in the ballad "Moments of Pleasure", although Kate Bush's mother was still alive when "Moments of Pleasure" was written and recorded.

Kate Bush had originally intended to take one year off, but despite working on material, twelve years passed before her next album release.

In 1998, Kate Bush gave birth to Albert, known as "Bertie", fathered by guitarist Dan McIntosh, whom she met in 1992.

In 2001, Kate Bush was awarded a Q Award as Classic Songwriter.

In 2007, Kate Bush was asked to write a song for The Golden Compass soundtrack which made reference to the lead character, Lyra Belacqua.

In May 2011, Kate Bush released Director's Cut, comprising 11 reworked tracks from The Sensual World and The Red Shoes, recorded using analogue rather than digital equipment.

Kate Bush described the album as a new project rather than a collection of remixes.

Kate Bush turned down an invitation to perform at the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London.

In 2013, Kate Bush became the only female artist to have top five albums in the UK charts in five successive decades.

In March 2014, Kate Bush announced her first live concerts in decades: Before the Dawn, a 22-night residency in London running from 26 August to 1 October 2014 at the Hammersmith Apollo.

The only artists ahead of Kate Bush were Elvis Presley, who had 12 entries in the top 40 after his death in 1977 and the Beatles who had 11 in 2009.

On 6 December 2018, Kate Bush published her first book, How to Be Invisible, a compilation of lyrics.

In November 2018, Kate Bush released two box sets of remasters of her studio albums.

In September 2020, Kate Bush became a Fellow of The Ivors Academy, the UK's independent professional association for songwriters, composers and music authors.

Kate Bush released a statement praising Stranger Things and saying the resurgence was "really exciting".

On 1 January 2023, Kate Bush was included at No 60 in the list of 200 Best Singers of All Time by Rolling Stone.

On 22 February 2023, Kate Bush announced that her label, Fish People, had moved to the new distribution partner, The state51 Conspiracy.

Kate Bush was nominated for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2018,2021 and 2022, and was inducted in 2023, but did not attend the ceremony.

Kate Bush was inducted by Big Boi of OutKast, a long-time fan of her music.

Kate Bush ignores anything that seems like a formula and instead just does whatever she wants to do, like me.

In February 2024, it was announced that Kate Bush was an ambassador for that year's Record Store Day on 20 April 2024.

On 25 October 2024, Kate Bush released a short animated film, entitled Little Shrew, in support of War Child.

Kate Bush's vocals contain elements of British, Anglo-Irish and most prominently English accents and, in its use of musical instruments from various periods and cultures, her music has differed from American pop norms.

Kate Bush's songs explore melodramatic emotional and musical surrealism that defies easy categorisation.

Kate Bush has described herself as a storyteller who embodies the character singing the song and has dismissed efforts by others to conceive of her work as autobiographical.

Kate Bush's lyrics have been known to touch on obscure or esoteric subject matter, and New Musical Express noted that Kate Bush was not afraid to tackle sensitive and taboo subjects in her work.

Kate Bush has cited Woody Allen, Monty Python, Fawlty Towers, and The Young Ones as particular favourites.

Kate Bush is regarded as the first artist to have had a headset with a wireless microphone built for use in music.

Kate Bush's idea was later adopted by other artists such as Janet Jackson, Madonna and Peter Gabriel.

Musicians who have acknowledged Kate Bush's influence include Bjork, Alanis Morissette, Nigel Godrich, Florence Welch, Fever Ray, Big Boi, Regina Spektor, Fiona Apple, Imogen Heap, Sharon Van Etten, Ellie Goulding, Kyros, Aisles, FKA Twigs, Neil Hannon of the Divine Comedy, Grimes, Solange Knowles, Julia Holter, Angel Olsen, Halsey, Tupac Shakur, Robyn, Caroline Polachek, and Chappell Roan.

Kate Bush is the definitive example of a musician allowing work to flow through her life, not cram life into the spaces between her work.

Kate Bush was described by The Guardian as an "early role model" for Dido.

Kate Bush does come out socially sometimes and she came to my civil partnership occasion with her husband.

Kate Bush was one of the singers whom Prince thanked in the liner notes of 1991's Diamonds and Pearls.

Outside music, Kate Bush has been an inspiration to several fashion designers, including Hussein Chalayan.

Pone declares that Kate Bush is the greatest artist of the past 40 years.

In July 1982, Kate Bush participated in the first benefit concert in aid of The Prince's Trust, singing "The Wedding List" with a backing band composed of Pete Townshend, Phil Collins, Midge Ure, Mick Karn, Gary Brooker, Dave Formula, and Peter Hope Evans.

In March 1987, Kate Bush sang "Running Up That Hill" at The Secret Policeman's Third Ball accompanied by David Gilmour.

Kate Bush appeared with Gilmour again in 2002, singing the Pink Floyd song "Comfortably Numb" at the Royal Festival Hall in London.

Kate Bush returned to headline performance with a 22-night residency, Before the Dawn, which ran from 26 August to 1 October 2014 at the London Hammersmith Apollo.

In 1990, Kate Bush produced a song for another artist, Alan Stivell's "Kimiad" for his album Again; this is the only time she has done this to date.

In 2007 Kate Bush's cover won The Observer readers' award for Greatest Cover of all time.

In 2011, Elton John collaborated with Kate Bush in "Snowed in at Wheeler Street" for her most recent album 50 Words for Snow.

In 1994, Kate Bush covered George Gershwin's "The Man I Love" for the tribute album The Glory of Gershwin.

In 1996, Kate Bush contributed a version of "Mna na hEireann" for the Anglo-Irish folk-rock compilation project Common Ground: The Voices of Modern Irish Music.

Kate Bush had to sing the song in Irish, which she learned to do phonetically.

Kate Bush provided backing vocals for a song that was recorded during the 1990s titled Wouldn't Change a Thing by Lionel Azulay, the drummer with the original band that was later to become the KT Kate Bush Band.

Kate Bush declined a request by Erasure to produce one of their albums because, according to Vince Clarke, "she didn't feel that that was her area".

Kate Bush has worked with the ethnic bulgarian group Trio Bulgarka.

Kate Bush revealed that she was introduced to the group 3 years prior to the making of "The Sensual World" by her brother, Paddy, who is interested in cultural music.

Kate Bush addressed the language barrier by saying that despite the more difficult process, the connection feels more genuine because it's an emotional bond rather than intellectual one.

Kate Bush and guitarist Danny McIntosh have a son, Albert McIntosh, known as Bertie, born in 1998, although whether they are married is unknown.

Kate Bush is a former resident of Eltham in southeast London.

Kate Bush's nephew Raven Bush was a violinist in the English indie band Syd Arthur.

Some of Kate Bush's songs contain references to political and social themes, including "Breathing", which addresses the fear of nuclear warfare and "Army Dreamers", which examines the grief felt by mothers who lose children serving in the military during war.

In 2016, the Canadian news magazine Maclean's published an interview in which Kate Bush was asked about people being afraid of women holding political power.

In December 2022, in her annual Christmas message, Kate Bush expressed solidarity with nurses undertaking strike action, stating that NHS nurses should be "appreciated and cherished".