Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, musician, dancer and record producer. She is noted for her eclectic style, unconventional lyrics and innovative dance performances. Her sound and choreography have influenced a range of artists. Bush began writing songs when she was 11. She was signed to EMI Records after David Gilmour of Pink Floyd helped finance a demo tape. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK singles chart for four weeks with her debut single "Wuthering Heights", becoming the first female artist to achieve a UK number one with a fully self-written song. Her debut studio album, The Kick Inside (1978), reached number three on the UK Albums Chart. 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. All nine of her studio albums have reached the UK top 10, including the number-one albums Never for Ever (1980) and Hounds of Love (1985), and the greatest-hits compilation The Whole Story (1986). Since The Dreaming (1982), she has produced all of her studio albums. She took a hiatus between her seventh and eighth albums, The Red Shoes (1993) and Aerial (2005). Her most recent albums, Director's Cut and 50 Words for Snow, were both released in 2011. Bush has released 25 UK top 40 singles, including the top-10 hits "The Man with the Child in His Eyes" (1978), "Babooshka" (1980), "Running Up That Hill" (1985), "Don't Give Up" (a 1986 duet with Peter Gabriel) and "King of the Mountain" (2005). Her 2014 concert residency Before the Dawn— her first shows since the Tour of Life in 1979 — received acclaim. In 2022, after it appeared in the Netflix series Stranger Things, "Running Up That Hill" became Bush's second UK number-one single and her highest entry on the US Billboard Hot 100, at number three, and topped several international charts. Hounds of Love topped two Billboard charts and reached number twelve on the Billboard 200. Bush's accolades and honours include 14 Brit Award nominations and a win for British Female Solo Artist in 1987, as well as seven nominations for Grammy Awards. In 2002, she received the Ivor Novello Award for Outstanding Contribution to British Music. She was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours for services to music. She was awarded an Ivor Novello fellowship in 2020, and inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2023.
Life and career
1958–1972: Early life Bush was born on 30 July 1958 at a maternity hospital in Bexleyheath, Kent, to an English doctor, general practitioner Robert Bush (1920–2008), and Hannah Patricia (née Daly) (1918–1992), an Irish staff nurse, daughter of a farmer in County Waterford. She grew up with her elder brothers, John and Paddy, in an over 350-year-old former farmhouse at East Wickham near Welling, which adjoins Bexleyheath. 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. Both brothers were involved in the local folk music scene. She was brought up a Roman Catholic. Bush trained at Goldsmiths College karate club, where her brother John was a karate instructor. There, she became known as "Ee-ee" because of her squeaky kiai. Her family's musical influence inspired Bush to teach herself the piano at the age of 11. She also played the organ in a barn behind her parents' house and studied the violin. She soon began composing songs, eventually adding her own lyrics.
1973–1977: Career beginnings Bush attended St Joseph's Convent Grammar School, a Catholic girls' school in nearby Abbey Wood. During this time her family produced a demonstration tape with over 50 of her compositions, which was turned down by record labels. Pink Floyd guitarist David Gilmour received the demo from Ricky Hopper, a mutual friend of Gilmour and the Bush family. The 1973 song "Passing Through Air" was recorded as a demo at Gilmour's studio a few weeks after her 15th birthday, and later was the earliest Kate Bush recording to be released officially. Impressed, Gilmour financed the 16-year-old Bush's recording of a more professional demo tape. The tape consisted of three tracks, produced by Gilmour's friend Andrew Powell and the sound engineer Geoff Emerick, who had worked with the Beatles. Powell later produced Bush's first two albums. The tape was sent to the EMI executive Terry Slater, who signed Bush.
The British record industry was reaching a point of stagnation. Progressive rock was popular, and visually-oriented rock performers were becoming increasingly popular; consequently, record labels looking for the next big thing were considering experimental acts. Bush was put on retainer for two years by Bob Mercer, managing director of EMI's group-repertoire division. Although Mercer believed that Bush's material was good enough to release, he was also of the opinion that should the album fail, it would be demoralising, and that if it were successful, Bush was too young to handle this. In a 1987 interview, Gilmour disputed this version of events, blaming EMI for initially using the "wrong" producers. EMI gave Bush a large advance, which she used to enroll in interpretive dance classes taught by Lindsay Kemp, a former teacher of David Bowie, and mime training with Adam Darius. For the first two years of her contract, Bush spent more time on schoolwork than recording. She left school after doing her mock A-Levels and having gained ten GCE O-Level qualifications. Bush wrote and recorded demos of almost 200 songs, some of which circulated as bootlegs. From March to August 1977, she fronted the KT Bush Band at public houses in London. The band included Del Palmer (bass), Brian Bath (guitar) and Vic King (drums). She began recording her first album in August 1977.
1978–1979: The Kick Inside and Lionheart
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