An English singer and songwriter known for her imaginative, intelligent, and innovative music, Kate Bush was one of the most successful female artists in Britain in the 1980s.
Bush was born on July 30, 1958 at a maternity hospital in Bexleyheath, Kent, to an English doctor, general practitioner Robert Bush (1920–2008), and Hannah Patricia (née Daly) (1918–1992), an Irish staff nurse, daughter of a farmer in County Waterford. She grew up with her elder brothers, John and Paddy, in a 350-year-old former farmhouse at East Wickham near Welling, which neighbors Bexleyheath. Bush came from an artistic background: her mother was an amateur traditional Irish dancer, her father was an amateur pianist, Paddy worked as a musical instrument maker, and John was a poet and photographer. Both brothers were involved in the local folk music scene. She was raised as a Roman Catholic.
Bush trained at Goldsmiths College karate club where her brother John was a karate instructor. There she became known as “Ee-ee” because of her squeaky kiai.
Her family’s musical influence inspired Bush to teach herself the piano at the age of 11. She also played the organ in a barn behind her parents' house and studied the violin. She soon began composing songs, eventually adding her own lyrics.
Bush attended St Joseph’s Convent Grammar School, a Catholic girls’ school in nearby Abbey Wood. During this time, her family produced a demo tape with over 50 of her compositions, which was turned down by record labels. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd received the demo from Ricky Hopper, a mutual friend of Gilmour and the Bush family. (The 1973 song “Passing Through Air” was recorded as a demo at Gilmour’s studio a few weeks after her 15th birthday and would later be the earliest Kate Bush recording to be released officially). Impressed, Gilmour financed the 16-year-old Bush’s recording of a more professional demo tape. The tape consisted of three tracks, produced by Gilmour’s friend Andrew Powell and sound engineer Geoff Emerick, who had worked with the Beatles. Powell later produced Bush’s first two albums, The tape was sent to EMI executive Terry Slater who signed Bush.
Here, below is a collection of 30 captivating photos of Kate Bush when she was a kid in the 1960s and early 1970s:
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