phoenix - the history of the demos

The fifth recordings (The 1976 piano demos)

During the first year of the EMI contract Kate makes two further demo tapes. These are very possibly the songs known to us originally from the Phoenix broadcast and later from the various bootlegs. The date 'November 1976' is written on the reel tape, the DJ played in 1982 (?) on KSTM.

From 'Amazing Pudding': "These recordings (her early recordings 1972/73) are thought to be live, single track recordings as opposed to demos Kate was to make at home four years later, which were two track recordings (two separate tape recorders having been connected)."

"IED believes that the demos probably date from a somewhat later period, because in both Passing through air and Maybe Kate's voice is a little timid and uncertain, and does not venture into her now-long-since-abandoned-but-historic falsetto range (which is at its prime in these demos). Also, although IED is the first to admit loving Passing through air, and especially Maybe, he thinks it would be silly to try to argue that either of those songs - particularly Passing through air - is as complex or as stylistically singular as any of the 23 solo-demos."

I think, this argument is also supported by the fact that 5 songs which appear on The kick inside, Lionheart and Never for ever (Violin!), can be found on the demo tape!

Re Organic Acid (the song which includes one of JCB's poems).

Vermorel: "The crucial - earliest and most abiding - influence on Kate's development was Jay's writing. Kate was intensely proud of his poetry and, loosely, described a two page poem he published in 1970 (The Creation Edda) to her friends as 'book'. "This maybe explains to some extent the inclusion of the poem "Before the Fall" into one of her songs?

July 1976 - July 1977

Kate attends dancing lessions, takes driving lessons (passes the test in the second try) and continues writing and singing. Kate: "I'd practice scales and that on the piano, go off dancing, and then in the evening I'd come back and play the piano all night. And I actually remember, well, the summer of '76 which was really hot here. We had such hot weather, I had all the windows open. And I just used to write until you know four in the morning, and I got a letter of complaint from a neighbor who was basically saying "Shuuut Uuuup!" cause they had to get up at like five in the morning. They did shift work and my voice had been carried the whole length of the street I think, so they weren't too appreciative."

"I was dancing every day, and singing and writing all night." "...and I'd open all the windows and wail away all night."

Kate: "I have had no formal vocal training, though there was a guy that I used to see for half-an-hour once a week, and he would advise meon things like breathing properly, which is very important to voice control. He'd say things like 'Does that hurt? Well, then, sing more from here [motions to diaphragm] than from your throat.' I don't like the idea of 'formal' training, it has far too many rules and conventions that are later hard to break out of..."

"I used to go for about half-an-hour a week and the guy would get me to practice my scales and my breathing or something and then ask to hear my new songs. So I'd sing them for him and he helped me more that way. He was really good."

"I've always enjoyed reaching notes that I can't quite reach. A week later you'll be on top of that note and trying to reach the one above it." She composes now on a honky-tonk piano she bought from a second-hand show in Woolwich.

"I feel as though I've built up a real relationship with the piano," she says. "It's almost like a person. Like, it's really comforting just to sit down and play it. And the piano almost dictates what my songs will be about. If I haven't got a particular idea I just sit down and play chords and then the chords almost dictate what the song should be about because they have their own moods. Like a minor chord is very likely to tell me something sad. A major chord tells me something a little more up-tempo and, like, on a more positive level of thinking. If I ever made enough money I'd like to get a piano that sings: a great big singing beast like a Steinway."

"You get ideas for songs from all sorts of situations. I just start playing the piano and the chords start telling me something. Lyrics for me just seem to go with the tune, very much hand in hand. Some lyrics take a long time to come, others just come out like... (she gestures wildly with her hands) ...like...diarrhoea."

"When I'm at the piano writing a song, I like to think I'm a man, not physically but in the areas that they explore. When I'm at the piano I hate to think that I'm a female because I automatically get a preconception."

In March 1977 Kate wrote Wuthering Heights. "I wrote in my flat, sitting at the upright piano one night in March at about midnight. There was a full moon and the curtains were open, and every time I looked up for ideas, I looked at the moon. Actually, it came quite easily. I couldn't seem to get out of the chorus - it had a really circular feel to it, which is why it repeats. I had originally written something more complicated, but I couldn't link it up, so I kept the first bit and repeated it. I was really pleased, because it was the first song I had written for a while, as I'd been busy rehearsing with the KT Band."

April - July 1977

Touring pubs and clubs around London with the KT Bush Band. The band, formed by Paddy, consists of Del Palmer, Brian Bath and Vic Smith. It is reported that recordings of these performances exist, unfortunately they are only in the possession of the Bush family.

Kate: "It was a three piece that consisted of Del Palmer on bass, Brian Bath on guitar, and Vic Smith who was our drummer."

Del: "I'd heard about Kate from Paddy 'cause I'd known him for some time. And Brian had told me he'd heard some of her songs and they were really great, and I trusted his opinion. But I just had this impression that she must be older and more mature. Then at our first rehearsal - Kate, Brian and me, and a fellow called Vic King (?) on drums - I felt a little nervous because, you know, I felt a particular emotional involvement coming on right from the word go. But I also just thought: this girl's like just eighteen, whereas I'd been struggling for years on my bass. And I knew I just had to get involved some way because this was going to be MEGA. It was a phenomenon because it was so completely different from what anyone else was doing."

Del: "Anyone can set up their gear and sit down at a piano and sing for an hour. But not everybody can put on a whole integrated show. And as soon as we got our little band together years ago, right from the word go it was theatrics and show. We were only playing little pubs on tiny little stages like at The Rose of Lee (her first appearance, Lewisham), but we had a whole light show, we used dry ice, and all that."

Paddy: "There was this place in Lewisham, it was called The Rose Of Lee, it doesn't exist anymore. The first night that we turned up, there were four people there. And it really hotted out about ten thirty, another two people came in (laughter) -Jay and my father. (more laughter) Really, really marvelous. And then the next week it was a bit better, it was about... about twelve people there. The songs being sung were, they were mainly standards, actually. 'Tracks Of My Tears'. But then in about three weeks ... the word started getting around and the club became more and more and more packed. And I think maybe about the fifth or six week ... you couldn't get in. And this was all pre-... before the album was released or anybody knew anything about Kate, it was just the name of a group. (laughter) I think about the fifth or six performance that night... The night she first did 'James and the cold gun'... In fact, that was really good. I working the lights (laughter) and Lisa (??? invented) fantasticly. We were hoping to get these huge blocks of dry ice which we were going to try out in the night. They (just said... stringing in the dust bin ???) pore some hot water on it and watch what happens. And we did and it was phenomenal! (laughter) Six foot of (thrown ???) ice over here.

Yeah, that was very, very impressive. I felt,'James and the cold gun' had a very phenomenal effect on the audience ..."