If you'd had 'Kate Bush becomes one of 2022's defining artists' on your list of predictions for the year, you've have been called an eccentric, an idiot or, as it turns out, something of a prophet. Few could have imagined that Running Up That Hill would be given a new lease of life almost 40 years after its release, but then few could have predicted its central importance to the plot of the latest and much-hyped season of Stranger Things.
It's sparked an unprecedented new wave of interest in one of British music's most unique and enigmatic icons, pushing new fans to discover many of Bush's greatest musical achievements and most famous moments for the very first time. On the latter, new attention has been drawn to what might be Kate Bush's most infamous interview - a 37 minute chat with US show Night Flight filmed in November, 1985. Bush had made a rare trip to the States to promote latest album Hounds Of Love - the record which gave birth to Running Up That Hill - and what was presumably designed as a relatively straightforward new album junket ended up being one of the most cringeworthy experiences the singer-songwriter had surely endured in her career to that point.
In the unedited footage, which wasn't originally shown on the broadcast but has since been uploaded to YouTube, Bush can be seeing demonstrating the patience of a saint as she has to deal with a series of questions that range from banal to borderline offensive, dodgy takes on her music, delays and interruptions to the interview continuing and requests to record a series of tedious sound bytes multiple times.
- “You see people who are into the glamour and ego of it. Music has nothing to do with ego. Music is like being a bank clerk – it’s work”: How Kate Bush smashed the barriers and became a star like no other
- “I’d get up in the morning, practise scales at my piano, go off dancing, and then in the evening I’d come back and play the piano all night.” The story of Kate Bush's debut album The Kick Inside
Particular 'highlights' include: Bush visibly stopping herself laughing at the interviewer describing the songs on Hounds Of Love as "dance songs"; multiple instances of assistants interrupting the talk to mess around with her mic, clothing and hair; her obvious bemusement at being asked which male figure she considers a "sex symbol"; having to repeatedly explain that she didn't use backing singers on certain Hounds Of Love tracks despite the interviewer's insistence that she did and, most astonishingly of all, a moment at the end of the video where she is asked to record a special clip explaining what "attracts [her] the most" about a man.
You can watch all thirty seven glorious minutes of the interview here (if you can take it), but for a taster, here's a highlights reel:
Bush recently responded to the renewed success of Running Up That Hill thanks to Stranger Things, noting: "It’s all really exciting! Thanks very much to everyone who has supported the song. I wait with bated breath for the rest of the series in July."
