8. Kate BushHounds Of Love

I didn’t like Kate Bush’s Hounds Of Love’ until recently, but I did like the version by The Futureheads. Because someone said in a tQ ‘Best Cover Versions’ article that they loved ‘Hounds of Love’ by The Futureheads, which is when I found out it was by Kate Bush originally. Weirdly enough, I never got into Kate Bush in general, not until I had kids, even though we all now have this massive collection of music we can electronically reach into any time we want, but I just never felt I could reach into Kate Bush. I’m not sure why. Weirdly enough, though, I played it for the kids and they love that whole album. My eldest, especially, knows all the words to it. They love it because she throws her shoes off in the lake – they love that, they sing along with her. ‘Why would she throw her shoes in a lake?’ they ask, because they don’t understand it’s about running away from commitment and stuff. So explaining these big things to kids is so weird, but they do seem to get it in a way. It has shown me how quickly they’ve taken to music and furthermore how music is so important to all of us – it exists within all of us and we all want to communicate with that part of ourselves.

My 6-year-old daughter really likes ‘Cloudbusting’ but my 4-year-old son likes ‘Hounds of Love’ because it’s about dogs, which are his favourite thing ever. It’s funny as it’s about being afraid of love and he’s the person least afraid of love of anyone I’ve ever met. It’s a funny thing about having two children, especially, as I feel like with Mike and I, two negatives made a positive where my son is concerned. And all the weirdness went into my daughter; they are such total opposites. My son’s teacher, who was my daughter’s teacher before, has asked me, ‘How are they related? They are so very different.’ My womb is very questionable, it seems [laughs]. But I love that album as it reminds me of my children, plus how important music is for children in general.