Time to write and record the follow up to Kate’s sensational debut The Kick Inside. This time Kate is looking for more input on the production side, and rightly so. Kate has ideas bursting out all of her very own, I must add, from her very, very, deep think tank! Lot’s of ideas pop in from everyday experiences and exceptional wealth of knowledge, virtually un-tapped from where I grew up. The Phrase and Fable book I won  as an A-level student along with my I-Ching (forward by Jung), seemed to become standard work tools that I constantly consult. How extremely interesting, a ‘boss’ for all involved.

 

             Ok, it’s back to writing up bar charts for yours truly, when and wherever Kate can find a moment in her punishing schedule, to deal with the most important part of the obvious direction known to the ‘band’, ..well , the music! Of course, don’t get me wrong, there weren’t top lines and bars drawn down exclusively by me, many songs I didn’t really get to hear until an album’s completion.

 

             Rehearsals begin in earnest, enthusiastically, at the farm once more. We’d built our very own studio in a barn, one of the outer buildings at Wickham farm. Overnight the band became carpenters and ‘walrus’s, as we put noggins in and learn how to use hammers and saws. Pa Bush taught us the basics of building while Ma Bush made sandwiches along with Kate, who’d pop in and assist in the very fine art of tea making. As you can gather a great spirit was kindled during those cold winter days leading up to demo-in Kate’s new numbers. Yes this was the first studio built for the Kate Bush baby. An eight track TEAC machine was chosen and installed, along with two compressors, a patch bay and eventually the great British spring reverb! -absolutely mind- blowing stuff in our time. Everyone had a go at engineering the sessions ,as someone always had to be upstairs in the old hay loft to turn the recorder on, but many times it was a case of start the machine then run as fast as your feet would carry you,-get behind your instrument and off we all go. We sure did like to perform ‘live’ at the same time and capture the whole outfit in one take. Other methods were experimented with, but usually vocals were the very last performances recorded on to analogue tape,- being the medium we all worked with.

Paddy was the master of ‘vibe’ and spent hours concocting ways and means of getting the atmosphere just right. Hammer Horror was one of Kate’s scarier numbers and the lead vocal never sounded convincing to Kate. She begged us to get her in to the frazzled frame of mind- basically to scare the life out of her. Paddy came up with the idea of throwing lighted matches out of the control room window , and dressing with a shroud around his body then creeping past the window directly opposite a strategically placed microphone that conveniently faced out at the same window  to the yard,- of course it was totally dark out there! At a given signal during vocal ‘take’ number 13 or somewhere, the matches were tossed, Kate shouted ‘stop the tape, did you see anything?’. ‘No Kate, no dear sister, let’s do another vocal’-‘ right ho’. On goes the tape.’Rolling’, - cue vocal,- the voice of an angel begins…then; cue matches from the naughty ones but this time cue the ghost of Christmas past. Then;- SCREEEAAMMMMM!!!! And Kate’s actually passed out! We all jump to the rescue,- result;- Kate understands fear, but cannot talk let alone sing for days!

               Del built his first baffle screen to help isolate the sound of say, the drums to get a separated sound to help control the mixing process during those final stages. Del was so proud of his baffle that he followed it by another screen then another and so on. I think I even made one to keep the comfort zone steady. Charlie built his very own bottle rack, consisting six or seven milk bottles filled with varying degrees of water for that percussive interlude, all tuned up and raring to be laid down on a certain track. I was very fond of the guitar sound that came from my fender twin, whilst sitting deep in the hearth of the old fireplace. Kate’s old white upright piano was employed in a corner of the studio just by the door entrance and jangled to the rhythm of the place. The ‘Old man’s’ wiring kept electrical hum to a minimum, and dimmer lights secured  the correct kind of effects we could bathe in for relaxed creative work. Not all ran as smooth as you’d imagine, some of the parts required to enhance a song’s character were often downright difficult to say the least. When you’re performing on guitars that should have been long left at home, and fingers that become all sausages and bones, the pressure could really get to one. Tirelessly we worked through some real beauts of songs . Many were recorded in different tempos to get to the right conclusion. Several versions of Wow culminated in an almost exact replica of the master version you now have at your fingertips. We had this crazy Elka string machine that quite honestly did not do symphony orchestras and such like any justice whatsoever.

 

             Finally, these sessions were completed, and Kate had at her disposal , frankly, some of the noisiest, badliest (*!?@*!!) tape hissing monstrosities known as home Demos that had ever hit the recording industry. Distortion was at a premium but we all loved it, it was ‘honest’ and ‘us’. EMI had a listen, and also Andrew Powell who produced the first album. Andrew wanted his own musicians to make the follow up album, but Kate insisted on using her own band – namely us! This was the big one. Andrew said he’d come down to the farm and hear us playing live to form a decision as to weather or not he was able to work with us.-OK.. get out the nerve pills! He heard us,- hinted that it was unlikely to work, but Kate stuck by her team and insisted we be secured for the project.

 

NICE TO BE IN NICE

               For better or for worse we finally jetted out to Nice that summer in 1978, albeit with fingers crossed, I was so nervous I thought yellow was blue and a car was a village in San Diego, somewhere near South Africa! Charlie, with whom I shared a room at this fantastic Superbear Villa up in the mountains, kept a stiff upper lip at all times. Meals were taken around a sixteen-foot dining table downstairs in an annexe, and the food was first class. The sun shone all day long and it was real hot. In comparison the studio in the complex was freezing cold, due to Andrew’s preference for working in those conditions. The major problem the band appeared to have was trying to keep the instruments in tune. This became a joke in the end as hot air then warm air combined to destroy any hold we had on instrument climate control. Confidence hit an all time low, which reared its head in a no confidence vote for the band. Apparently even Charlie’s drums could not reach sufficient levels on the desk/tape to warrant any use! As for my guitar…

 

              We certainly tried to make up for the embarrassment and ineptitude we obviously carried about in our musical baggage according to some, so, the musos from the first album were flown out to replace every last one of us, and what players they were. I heard some of the most incredible blues guitar from Mr Bairnson .

              It was nice we could still hang around, and I spent the following days getting up to as much mischief as possible in the light of circumstances. One on-going game was an electronic slot machine which, if you scored over 10,000 points, you would win a bottle of champagne. We (the band including Kate) were so useless at gambling that a new rule was introduced especially for the Bush fraternity, and that was that, the lowest score could also win a bottle. This we quickly mastered, and champagne flowed frequently from that day onward. One day the late Rick Wright, keyboard player with Pink Floyd, turned up in his four by four, and left with a case of champers winning fairly and squarely by the 10,000 rule!

 

 A trip down to Monte-Carlo was in the offing, so we piled into the back of his motor and headed on down. Rick ordered a bottle of vodka with ice and orange and that was soon consumed. I thought I’d buy the next bottle until I found out it was £50, that was in 1978! Cheers Rick! Meanwhile Kate was busy trying to shatter wine glasses in the evening by the pool, singing extremely high operatic notes until I begged her to stop- fearing some problems with flying splinters of glass. The guy who owned the place was an out and out gambler. On a whim he announced that he was going to the casino to win himself a motorbike! Sure enough several hours later he returned to the studios with a brand new scrambler purchased from his winnings. ‘Let’s have a go’ I duly asked him, ’sure man’ came the reply. I climbed on the back and disappeared into the mountains. I’d seen my brother Alan ride one many times and what a buzz! There I was, wind in my hair zooming up the pass, when a car full of people started waving at me. Of course I wave back. As they come closer, still waving, I realize they were really telling me to get on the right side of the road! (twit , this is France!). Anyhow I made it back in one piece. This reminds me of the time Kate told me that someone was waving to her one day as she was walking down the road. Kate waves back and the person carries on waving, so does Kate, then as she gets real close she sees that the person is actually cleaning their windows! My god how funny is that!

 

             So, it’s home from Superbear with a pocketful of strife but still some fabulous memories. At least a song from the Superbear sessions survived. Kate’s band’s effort was immortalised and finally put to vinyl, Wow, a great song that is chosen as the next single- the first from the new album. My god, we sure worked hard for that one. Wow takes off and gets a good chart position, then Hammer Horror is hard on it’s heels and again is a total success. Around this time the new pressure is now a harden fact that the fans want to see Kate live on tour, and this is exactly the plan and the dream- especially for me, that from the KT Bush days, it was all about, although committing to vinyl was a momentous thing along with airplay.