Review of Kate Bush: Under Review

Introduction

1978 was the year that a musical sensation first came to wider attention. Based on the novel by Emily Brontë, Wuthering Heights was unlike anything heard before. Haunting vocals and a distinctive piano melody caught the attention of the record buying public and propelled a shy 19 year old to number 1 in the UK at a time when being number 1 really meant something. Even now Wuthering Heights has an impact that few artists can replicate, and there are plenty of other examples of her work that compare favourably.

Initially Kate Bush was quite a workaholic and released albums in quick succession. This flow faltered a little with the critical bashing of forward thinking 1982 album The Dreaming, a Fairlight-dominated piece of work that is now considered to be amongst her best work. Still, three years later she returned with the breathtaking Hounds Of Love album which is her seminal work so far, no doubt on that score.

Two more albums followed in 1989 and 1993, but then she disappeared from public view until a cryptic message appeared on her website in late 2005 that suggested that a new collection of work was to appear shortly. That work was the latest double album Aerial, arguably one of the most anticipated albums ever.

Kate Bush: Under Review looks back over her career with contributions from the likes of Paul Gambaccini and Phil Sutcliffe amongst others.

Video

Nice mix of still, live/video footage and talking heads. Most of the footage of Kate is in good shape, which helps compared to some of the previous releases.

Audio

Stereo mix that`s good enough for the programme, anything else would really be wasted on this.

Features

Paul Gambaccini remembers - a couple of extra bits from Gambaccini, one in particular being very good and involving Gary Numan broadcasting to the precursor to the Brits from the US and looking very tired.

The Hardest Kate Bush Interactive Quiz In The World Ever - yeah, scored 8 out of 25 on this.

Contributor biographies

Conclusion

Recently voted a Living Icon for the BBC`s Culture Show, Kate Bush is both an enigma and musical genius. From the word go she has done her own thing, from successfully winning the battle against EMI to release Wuthering Heights against their choice of The Man With The Child In His Eyes to waiting 12 years to release her latest albums. If there was such a thing as a Respect-O-Meter and you pointed it in her direction it would simply explode, unable to handle the genuine love and respect held for someone who clearly believes she isn`t worthy of it.

There`s not enough Kate Bush out in this world, there needs to be more. A re-release of The Whole Story and Live At The Hammersmith Odeon from 1981 would be very welcome, but this documentary on Kate Bush is a good start. OK, as per the rest of this series there is nothing from the Bush-meistress herself, but then I doubt anyone expected that anyway. There is a genuine love felt by the contributors and a real feeling that we are looking over the career of a genuine innovator and one of the true originals in British (and World) music.

One of my favourite Bush moments includes an inebriated John Lydon at the Q Awards in 2001 where he punctuated his speech with this offering: "One person I would like to say hello to is Kate Bush - I love you, your music is f***ing brilliant. You know what, Kate we are worthy! That`s enough from me. Now let`s get p***ed."

Let`s just hope it doesn`t take 12 years before she feels the need to release something else…