Episode 81 - Photographer, Jay Myrdal Interview!

As part of our celebrations of 40 years of Hounds of Love, Darrell and Paul (Bush Telegraph) reminisce about the release of Kate's album in 1985!

Richard Ames, tour manager for Kate's Tour of Life in 1979 chats with Darrell from Bush Telegraph. Richard's professional and personable qualities were always sought after by many leading bands and musicians, including Fleetwood Mac, Paul McCartney and Steve Harley & Cockney Rebel to name just a few. He talks about his work with Kate and the process of how the tour all came together, from meeting with Kate and her family at East Wickham Farm to the heady days of the rehearsals and sold out performances. We also get a glimpse of the genius of Kate's creative mind and artistry as we go behind the scenes of this once-in-a-lifetime tour, when she was still only 20 years old. With the highs also came the lows, and Richard talks about the devastating loss of lighting engineer, Bill Duffield on the first leg of the tour in Poole, Dorset. Outside of this tragic story, there are still many other stories and experiences that will bring a smile to your face. Let's go back to 1979, and see the young Kate at work on stage...

Darrell from Bush Telegraph chats with Jay Myrdal, the photographer who took the 'Wuthering Heights' and 'The Kick Inside' cover photos. Jay talks about how he got into photography, and his move from Montana in America to the UK, where he has lived ever since. For the very first time we get to hear Jay talk about the iconic photo session with the young Kate Bush, as well as his work with other artists. This was Kate's very first photo session at the age of 19, and yet you get a glimpse into how important the visual concepts were to her even back then. Jay recounts the process of this session, including the arrival of Kate's father a few days before who came to build that iconic kite for Kate. Enjoy!

Paul and Darrell are back to talk about Kate's prolific catalogue of videos. The Dreaming had one of her busiest periods of video output, although sadly most were not seen in their entirety until the Single File was released a year later. Sat In Your Lap, The Dreaming, There Goes A Tenner and Suspended in Gaffa are discussed in detail, and highlight how well they still stand on their own today. Kate and Paddy's takes on the filming of each video are also quoted. Paul and Darrell, as always, go down memory lane, reminiscing about their first impressions of the singles and videos, and how they rushed to the record shops on each release date. They also talk a little bit about the release of 'Little Shrew' and other recent Kate news, with their own take of when they think Kate will release new work.

Darrell chats again with Paul Simmons of the design company Timorous Beasties. This time they discuss Paul's work with Kate in creating artwork for Before The Dawn , Hounds of Love (Baskerville Edition) and The Dreaming (Escapologist Edition). In the podcast Paul also talks about how he and his friend Alistair McAuley started Timorous Beasties together from their college days, and how they came up with the name!

In the third and final part of Seán's wonderful chat with guitarist and musician, Brian Bath, they discuss more of his memories of playing on Kate's 1979 tour, his work on the Kate BBC TV Special, his deep involvement in the recording of the Never For Ever album, co-starring in the videos for Breathing and Army Dreamers, playing on The Dreaming album and starring in the video for There Goes A Tenner, and working on the Hounds of Love album once again with Kate. Incredible to listen to him, Seán was pinching himself!

In Part Two of Seán's three-part conversation with the legendary guitarist and songwriter, Brian Bath, he discusses being there for Kate's stunning debut with Wuthering Heights, leading her band for TV appearances, working on demos and helping build her first demo studio at the farm, playing on the Lionheart album and the incredible experience of playing guitar on the 1979 Lionheart tour! We also hear a couple of excerpts from never-before-heard acoustic demos. Such an honour to have spoken to the lovely Brian Bath, once again!

In this episode of the Kate Bush Fan Podcast, Seán introduces Darrell's chat with Pat Martin, bass guitarist with British band Unicorn. Because of his close association with Dave Gilmour of Pink Floyd, he was asked to play for the young Cathy Bush’s first ever recording at the age of fifteen in 1973. Pat can be heard on ‘Passing Through Air’ from this session which was released as a B-side to ‘Army Dreamers’ in 1980. The late, Ricky Hopper is also discussed. It was through him that Kate’s music was heard in the first place, championing her relentlessly. We get to hear how Pat was invited to this session at Gilmour’s house, and his fond remembrances of the young and shy Cathy. He knew there was something very special and that here was an artist, sure and confident about her craft. We also get to hear wonderful stories about Pat’s involvement with Unicorn, and the amazing artists they worked with, including Patti Smith, Fleetwood Mac and Linda Rondstadt among many otters. Unicorn’s song 'Ooh Mother' was recently played in the USA TV drama ‘Paradise’. It has resulted in the song being streamed 115k times on Spotify. It’s worth a listen.

Seán introduces an exclusive interview between Darrell Babidge and Govert de Roos. Dutch photographer, Govert de Roos was Kate's European photographer. Many of the photos that were taken of Kate in 1978 and were posted on many a bedroom wall were taken by Govert. In this interview we get a glimpse into his work with Kate Bush, as well as the rock and pop stars of the 70's and 80's. We also find out more about his work during the Efteling Special in Amsterdam and taking photos of Kate's Tour of Life concert there. Other artists he worked with include Grace Jones, Queen, ABBA, Debbie Harry, Tina Turner, Prince and many more. In this interview we hear about some of his work with these other great artists. We also get to hear a great story about when he was 15 years old, sneaking into the Hilton Hotel in Amsterdam with a fake ID and taking the iconic photos of John Lennon and Yoko Ono. We hope you enjoy this chat with Govert de Roos.

Seán gives a suitable wintry introduction to this short chat between Darrell and Paul Simmons of design team Timorous Beasties about his recent work on Kate's illustrated vinyl version of 50 Words For Snow - The Polar Edition. Look out for even more conversation between Darrell and Paul about their work with Kate over the last decade in the new year.