4. Kate BushHounds Of Love

No one speaks more eloquently, without ego or pretence, about their music and creative process than Kate Bush. Watch any of her interviews, and you’ll see what I mean. I especially love the clip of her being interviewed on Razzamatazz, the kids’ TV show, in 1981. She is enchanting. I think she is one of our greatest songwriters, storytellers, and visionaries, but I didn’t always feel this way. As a young girl, I had an aversion to everything Kate Bush, as my dad fancied her and talked about her incessantly. I thought this was quite disloyal to my beautiful mum and could not really see past the high-pitched voice and the strange, witchy music videos that my dad played in our living room. His best friend, Jeff, the owner of Scorpion Records, where I got some of my first vinyl, and his wife, Linda, were incredibly lucky to see Kate perform in 1979. Linda told me all about the show and said she thought Kate was the greatest live music performer she’d ever seen. As a couple, Jeff and Linda were an encyclopedia of music to me and really knew their stuff, but I still wasn’t convinced. 

Fast forward to my early 20s, and I adore every one of her albums, and this is probably my favourite. It’s so hard for me to choose between The Kick Inside and this album. Hounds Of Love tips it as it is so strangely beautiful in its concept. The first side includes these extraordinary songs, and when I first listened to them properly and fully appreciated them, I felt completely transported to somewhere else, as if Kate created a dream for me to experience, and gently returned me for the second part of the album. I saw her show at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2014, and her performance of ‘The Ninth Wave’, with Kate adrift at sea, was awe-inspiring. Linda was right; it was a remarkable concert, and I’d love to see her on stage again.