By Kate E. Stephenson
The most astonishing thing happened as I was researching for this week’s Trivia. While I’m usually trying to discover new areas in which Kates thrive, instead this week I found an odd void of Kates—the GRAMMYs!
And now that I’m thinking about it, why is that? Where are our great Kate musicians?
Of course there’s Katy Perry…
and Kate Bush… Continue reading
By Kate Torgovnick
Kate Bush does not perform live. In fact, the last time Bush toured, it was in 1979 and, even then, she played only a few assorted dates in Europe. So my mind is being blown by reports that Bush may come out of hiding to perform at Sunday’s Closing Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympic Games.
Granted a lot of names are being floated at the moment: Muse, George Michael, The Who, One Direction, Liam Gallagher, Madness, the Pet Shop Boys, and Paul McCartney. Also expected to show up: the reunited Spice Girls. The Closing Ceremony music director, David Arnold, has teased to Billboard that it will be, “the greatest afterparty in the world.”
But will Bush really take the opportunity to play live? I mean, it’s been 33 years since she’s done it.
Guess we will have to wait and see. In the meantime, I’m sure that Theo Bleckmann, who has taken to playing her albums live, will be very excited. Ditto for Frank Tufaro, the stalker who broke into Bush’s remote compound in England to propose to the singer. And then also: me.
I’m not sure why, exactly, but someone has slowed down Kate Bush‘s classic “Wuthering Heights” so that the song extends to the 36 minute mark. Ahhh, the internet.
For all her awesomeness, there is one front on which Kate Bush severely disappoints—her live shows. Mainly because she simply doesn’t do them. In fact, the last time Bush toured, it was in 1979. Even then, it was only a few assorted dates in Europe. For those of us, like myself, who were not born yet for that string of shows—we now have Theo Bleckmann.
An experimental vocalist and composer from Germany, Bleckmann has taken over Bush’s catalog. While he started out performing her songs live, he has now released a studio album of them called “Hello Earth: The Music of Kate Bush.”
Kate Bush doesn’t need no pyrotechnics or video hoes. Nope, the British songstress has gone gorgeously old-school for her video for the song “Eider Falls at Lake Tahoe,” off her new album 50 Words for Snow, using lush shadow puppetry to tell the story of a lost dog finding his way back to his home. And then the house floats away, I think?
I have to say—with shadow puppetry this compelling, I wouldn’t mind being stuck in Plato’s cave. And that, my friends, was a major nerd joke.
There is one good thing we can say about Frank Tufaro (right), the New York City artist who broke into Kate Bush’s home in England, planning to propose to the singer he’d been obsessed with for decades with a Tiffany ring. At least he has good taste?
The always-classy Daily Mail nabbed an interview with “Hound of Love” Tufaro over the weekend, and ran a photo of him proudly holding the ring he intended to give to Bush. He revealed to the paper that he has been a Kate Bush (left) fan ever since was a teenager. He is now 32.
“I feel so connected to her,” Tufaro explained. “I feel so much love for her and I want to protect her.”
How do I love Kate Bush? Let me count the ways. Suffice it to say that the British songstress has created the soundtrack to the winter with her new album, “50 Words for Snow.” Here’s the official animation for the song “Wild Man.” This track makes me feel like I’m either (a) having a cup of hot chocolate in a ski lodge or (b) sitting down to catch my breath while chasing a yeti.
Got a Kate-
