FEATURE:
(Part of) The Whole Story
My Five Favourite Kate Bush Videos From 1978-1986
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THIS may seem quite a niche piece…
PHOTO CREDT: Gered Mankowitz
but, as her first greatest hits package, The Whole Story, is thirty-five later in the year, I am sprinkling in various features related to that. As the first Kate Bush video I saw was for Wuthering Heights, I sort of became struck and hooked! My family has The Whole Story on VHS. That video was included on it. There were thirteen videos on the collection, cribbed from The Kick Inside of 1978 (her debut album), through to Hounds of Love in 1985. There was a special track included just for The Whole Story (album and video), Experiment IV, that was a treat for fans (it was released as a single in 1986 to promote The Whole Story)! The running order for the 1986 VHS/album is as follows: Wuthering Heights (VHS/VCD/Laserdisc editions use the original 1978 recording)/Cloudbusting/The Man with the Child in His Eyes/Breathing/Wow (VHS/VCD/Laserdisc editions feature a new alternate video produced especially for this compilation)/Hounds of Love/Running Up That Hill/Army Dreamers/Sat in Your Lap/Experiment IV/The Dreaming/Babooshka/The Big Sky (only included on VHS/VCD/Laserdisc editions). Even though The Whole Story is not thirty-five until November, I am thinking about Kate Bush’s videos and how incredible they are! In a future piece, I will concentrate on the years 1989-2011 - but I think Bush’s peak in terms of videos was between 1978 and 1985/1986. Maybe different Kate Bush fans will have their own favourites from The Whole Story but, here, are the five videos which I feel…
PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
ARE the most powerful and memorable.
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Wuthering Heights
Included on the Album: The Kick Inside (1978)
Single Release Date: 20th January, 1978
Chart Position (U.K.): 1
Video Director (U.K. Version): Keef (Keith MacMillan)
YouTube Views (as of 16th January, 2021): 23,492,076
Why It’s So Good: Two version of the video were shot: Kate Bush in a white dress for the U.K. For the U.S., she wore a red dress. I think Wuthering Heights’ definitive video is Bush in a white dress. The performance is quite simple yet electrifying. Bush is wide-eyed and wild through the song. With incredible choreography from Robin Kovac, the routine for Wuthering Heights is iconic. Every year, there is a The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever, where fans from around the world dress as Kate Bush from the video – though they usually don the red dress. Watching the video for Wuthering Heights was my first exposure to her music and, as such, it has a very special place in my heart!
Breathing
Included on the Album: Never for Ever (1980)
Single Release Date: 14th April, 1980
Chart Position (U.K.): 16
Video Director: Keef
YouTube Views (as of 16th January, 2021): 2,606,566
Why It’s So Good: Perhaps Bush’s most ambitious and striking video to that point, the first half of the video sees her in a plastic bubble. The concept of the song revolved around a foetus that was experiencing the effects of nuclear war from the protective womb of the mother. In the video, Bush plays that role (sort of)…and there is a genuine sense of fear in her eyes. There are a few occasions where a video for a Kate Bush song matches the track itself – Breathing is one such example! It remains striking and utterly engrossing over forty years after its release. This was Bush, with director Keef, embracing something more cinematic in her videos. The end – where Bush and some extras walk out of a river slowly – burrows in the memory the minute you see it…
Running Up That Hill
Included on the Album: Hounds of Love (1985)
Single Release Date: 5th August, 1985
Chart Position (U.K.): 3
Video Director: David Garfath
YouTube Views (as of 16th January, 2021): 42,596,496
Why It’s So Good: With a hugely memorable and often-played video featuring Bush performing an interpretive dance with Michael Hervieu, Running Up That Hill’s visuals perfectly match the message of the song: Bush wanting to do a deal with God so that men and women can swap places and better understand one another. The video was directed by David Garfath, while the dance routines were choreographed by Diane Grey. Many fans would put Running Up That Hill in their top-five Kate Bush videos. Bush wanted the dancing in Running Up That Hill to be more of a classical performance. I first saw the video when I was a child and I keep going back to it time and time again.
Army Dreamers
Included on the Album: Never for Ever (1980)
Single Release Date: 22nd September, 1980
Chart Position (U.K.): 16
Video Director: Keef
YouTube Views (as of 16th January, 2021): 5,466,710
Why It’s So Good:
Like Breathing, Bush was becoming more visually-orientated (rather than dance) with her videos by the time of Never for Ever. Army Dreamers is one of my favourites because it is another very powerful and haunting one. This Wikipedia article provides more details:
“The music video opens on a closeup of Kate Bush, dressed in dark green camouflage, holding a child. She blinks in synchronisation with the song's sampled gun cocks. The camera pulls out and shows that Bush has a white-haired child on her lap. The child walks off and returns in military combat uniform, and during the first pre-chorus, as Bush responds to her bandmates' comments, the child grows up into a 20-year-old. Bush and several soldiers (two of whom, Bush included, have "KT8" or "KTB" stencilled on the butt of their rifles: "KTB" was a monogram used by Bush early in her career) make their way through woodland, amid explosions. As the song progresses, Bush reaches out for the child soldier, but he disappears. Finally, Bush is blown up.
Bush has stated that this video is one of the few examples of her work that completely satisfies her:
For me that's the closest that I've got to a little bit of film. And it was very pleasing for me to watch the ideas I'd thought of actually working beautifully. Watching it on the screen. It really was a treat, that one. I think that's the first time ever with anything I've done I can actually sit back and say "I liked that". That's the only thing. Everything else I can sit there going "Oh look at that, that's out of place". So I'm very pleased with that one, artistically”.
Sat in Your Lap
Included on the Album: The Dreaming (1982)
Single Release Date: 21st June, 1981 (U.K.)
Chart Position (U.K.): 11
Video Director: Brian Wiseman
YouTube Views (as of 16th January, 2021): 1,663,046
Why It’s So Good: Maybe this is not in a lot of people’s top-five Kate Bush videos but, preceding The Dreaming came an incredible single in the form of Sat in Your Lap. I like the video as it is one of Bush’s most physical and characterful. There are a number of standout scenes, but I especially love the moment at 0:39 where Bush and a couple of extras dressed in white robes and dunces’ caps rollercoast towards the camera. I would offer honourable video mentions to The Big Sky (taken from Hounds of Love, this is a video Bush directed herself), and Babooshka (taken from Never for Ever, it is one of Bush’s sexiest and boldest videos to that point).