the kate bush story

Given that she seemed notoriously shy and somewhat reclusive, I was surprised and rather delighted when I was sent to Abbey Road in late 1982 to photograph Kate Bush for a feature in ‘Sounds’ entitled Bushy Tales, written by my friend and colleague Karen Swayne.

When we set up the shot in the cavernous, historic and emotionally resonant Studio Two, I had in the back of my mind a beautiful photograph of composer Igor Stravinsky at the grand piano was taken by Arnold Newman in New York City in 1946. However, after Kate arrived with her big hair and those gorgeous big deep brown eyes, clad in a grey baggy woolly sweater, her slightly aloof and distant personality took over the photo. Although there are a couple of quite lovely pictures where you can see both Kate and the open grand piano at which she sits, she alone absolutely owns and inhabits this photo, where her elbows rest on the Steinway.

I have a vague but persistent memory of us going to get a little something to eat at the Abbey Road bar, and bumping into Paul McCartney, who was on his way out.

More recently, Sir Paul’s daughter Mary used two of these Kate Bush photos in her delightful documentary homage to Abbey Road, ‘If These Walls Could Sing’.

Incidentally, my niece Madeleine lives just up the hill from Wuthering Heights, the old house in Eltham where Kate Bush lived from 1985-2003. And yes, I have been running up that hill.