6. Kate BushA Sky Of Honey
Picking half an album is probably cheating, but this half of the album is worth a whole album to me. I like A Sea Of Honey [the first half] too, don’t get me wrong, but this is something almost beyond music. The idea of it being carried through birdsong, starting with her child’s voice, then travelling through a single day in the summer through to night, with Kate imitating the birds herself, then going through to the morning… what an amazing idea. Seeing her doing this at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2014 was one of the highlights of my life. I’d interviewed her three or four times at this point – she’s lovely, and once made me a cheese pie – and I’d always hate having to say, well, ‘Kate, would you ever…’, feeling really embarrassed to ask her about touring. I never thought she would again, but she’d always say, ‘I haven’t ruled it out.’ And there we were.
I’ve loved how she treats releasing music as something to do when she wants to do it. I know she can afford to, but what a great attitude that is – she could have released a lot more of it, and been pressured to do so. I mean, I can barely imagine what it must have been like being a teenage girl in the 1970s emerging into a pop industry full of the middle-aged equivalents to today’s Jeffrey Epstein figures. Unbelievably tough. To come out of that so assured and confident and do her thing without ever compromising – I admire that so much.
