The Life and Times of Sigmund Turing

I did not want Under the Ivy to end - I read the acknowledgements, the bibliography, the discography and was considering the index before I let it go. It was almost as if this was not only the end of the biography but of the meaningful, music-releasing career of its subject. I do hope that is not true and to Kate Bush herself I am sure that either way matters not a jot. Anyway, what about the meat of the thing rather than just the vaguely empty feeling it leaves on completion. Graeme Thomson is not afraid to say bad things where he thinks it's due but I seem to disagree on some small points. I have listened to all her official releases over the last few days and while I agree on the general greatness of The Hounds of Love and the measured genius of Aerial, I actually like The Dreaming rather a lot - it rocks and far from being over produced just seems the product of a extraordinarily active mind.

I've just switched the Media Player to it and here it is bouncing in my ears, clear and powerful, a misty and dirty window on a strange outlook. But regardless of my petty fan-boy quibbles with the opinions of the music, the book itself is a must read for any real KB fan and a brilliantly written diversion for anyone, even those who do not like the music. I know that Kate Bush divides opinion like Marmite but even an intellectual loather would find much to satisfy them in this book. I am amazed that Thomson has managed to get such detail about the recording process and more so that he manages to weave this information in a chronological layout so that it does not appear like anal fan-boy notes.

After the first few chapters it dedicates about a chapter to each album as far as I can recall and this chimes with the recent view of Bush popping up every few years with some new album and then vanishing again. However, this view of a mad recluse is pretty much debunked by the book. She values her privacy and it just happens that fame means that everyone wants information. She wants her music to be the statement of intent and because a lot of that music is so unreadable, the papers and the music magazines are not satisfied. This book does a great job of the detail and has a laudable stab at understanding without going into the pretentious territory of Vermorel's Secret History of Kate Bush. And better than all this, it is a great read filled with a spirit like that of a good piece of fiction. All of which resulted in my desire for it not to end and my slight sense of sadness that the end of the book might actually be the end of the story. There was a nugget of hope in that Del Palmer reports progress on new music. Can we hope for something with the greatness of Hounds of Love?

In other news, we have mostly been enjoying the new series of Horrible Histories which is as on-form as it ever was with skits about everyone from the Stone Age to The Second World War. I especially liked the Viking Heavy Metal Rock video which was pitch-perfect. It looks like as much fun to make as it is to watch.

Ran Wan Tan

Under the Ivy hits the spot indeed, written in a manner which suggests the emotion and motion of each stage in the life it describes. The hiatus between Bush signing her deal and the start of recording is slow and magical - describing the life of a young woman left to mature artistically and emotionally in a comfortable environment and yet still results in a strange and worldly-wise music. The recording is different from this being a description of the meeting of the strange and spiritual singer with the workmanlike process of making a record. It is strange that such a free-spirit should create tight little pieces with no room for improvisation. I would suggest that any live performance today (some chance of that hey?) would produce versions almost identical to those late-seventies recordings. And yet they are beautiful songs - oddly traditional in their use of instruments but taken out of the ordinary by the extraordinary voice and exceptional lyrical innovation of their creator.

For the few days I have been reading this book I have thought I really should listen to the albums as they are reached in the book and so last night I started with The Kick Inside, which from the start with its whale song to the ending of the title track, both draws you back to the optimism of the late seventies after the refreshing cleanse out of punk and seems strangely futuristic. It is still not dated because despite the novel use of sound and voice it uses a basically traditional set of instruments. Not until the later albums do we get the crazy, non-real explosions of noise that made me reboot my appreciation. And since the Hounds of Love every album has been a must-have. It culminates in the masterpiece of Aerial which actually reigns in the excesses with a return to more traditional styles of compositions. But never the subjects - the lyrics suggest that Kate's imagination is fuelled by the normality of her family life.

Act Gaga - Gag a Cat

While trying to finish the second book above, the first one arrived. I struggled to avoid rushing the end of Mr. Maconie's surprisingly deep and not-twee-at-all volume and just about managed it. The new Kate Bush biography is just about the best rock biog I have read - well-researched, well written and packed with detail without being train-spotterish. After the previous biog of Kate Bush and the travesty that was Siren Rising, I was slightly wary but this is excellent. I did of course lap up the mysterious Kate Bush book by Fred Vermorel which was very good on creating a sort of very English atmosphere of thunder and green (from the cover onwards) but was I now realise very pretentious. This is the antidote to that. Read and digest with wonder.

And in the news as well this week, the revelation of the meaning of the Life on Mars/Ashes to Ashes universe. And while it was quite obvious when all was made plain, it was still satisfying and needed no point-by-point analogy to remain consistent. Questioning details would be like asking why The Meerkat speaks with a Russian accent conveniently ignoring the fact that Meerkats don't ever speak at all in the real world. There are plenty of words elsewhere about the detail of LoM and A2A and you can read them if you like. It is probably more rewarding to sit back and muse on the atmosphere and the drama without bothering too much about detail. It is enough to say that the world is created in the head of a human being and if you can say that your view of the world is consistent with reality then congratulations and here's your list of locomotives to tick off.