This Woman's Work

My husband is the best, most amazing man in the whole entire world. I knew this anyway, but let me explain why.

A few months ago; Kate Bush announced that she was doing a series of concerts.  I would like to say that I have been waiting 35 years for this but I was 4 in 1979 and I hadn't heard of Kate Bush until I was about 8 and I didn't like "Running up that Hill". I may not have been 8, my encyclopedic knowledge of her back catalogue is no longer at the very forefront of my mind.

Many of my friends who I hadn't spoken to in years messaged me on Facebook. Even people I have only met recently posted the link.  My obsession is more well known than I believed.  Or perhaps,more worryingly, I look like the kind of person who would be a Kate Bush fan.

So, the day arrives. I have already given up hope.I am at work.  At 9 o clock I look at my watch. I pace the room. I tell my year 13s what is the matter.  I play them a clip. They are still none the wiser.  I sigh and return to Chaucer.

The next day is Saturday. The weekend of mothering Sunday.  There is a huge box from Thorntons delivered.  Neither of us have mentioned the tickets.  I can't help but feel a building anticipation about my Mother's day gift.  The tension is too great to bear.  The one amazing surprise present my husband has managed and I have to spoil it. I had to know.  "No," he says. "I'm sorry. I had 3 browsers open, the tickets sold out in 15 minutes." I understand, of course.I head back downstairs. But less than 5 minutes later he is confessing, he did it. He got me tickets. The single most important event of my life. After my wedding, and the birth of our children. He is the most remarkable man.  And he tried to do it just for me.

The first track I heard of Kate Bush that had resonance for me was "The Sensual World". On the strength of the track I bought the album; on vinyl, the 12" picture of her in black and white striking on the cover.  At the time,I wasn't aware that the lyrics were based on Molly Bloom 's rapture from the end of Ulysses, but the lyrics were compelling. "He loosened it so if it slipped between my breasts, he'd rescue it"  I had never heard anything so erotic,it was beautiful.

My boyfriend lent me the greatest hits album and from then on I was hooked.  Throughout sixth form I trawled second hand record shops and record fairs to collect all the 7" singles, the blue Russian flexi disc of "Babooshka" and a marbled cassette of "Hounds of Love".

I seem to remember that Take That were famous at the time. I  hadn't heard anything by them and I was experimenting with skinny black jeans, lace tops and back combed hair (still purple though) at the time.  I later wore lots of stripey trousers and army style boots, (but definitely not Dr. Martens - everyone had them). Somehow Kate Bush remained consistent with all these other passions.  "Wuthering Heights" was gothic enough to fit in with "Severina" and "Temple of Love",  "The handsome Cabin boy" followed a folk tradition that The Levellers and The Tansads would have understood.

And she was on her own.  For other girls like me who were on their own, hanging around with groups of boys. I couldn't follow a crowd of other girls screaming at Take That, and the subjects of her songs challenged standard topics - narratives of poisoning, gay lovers, dressing as a rocket,dancing with Hitler and very rarely falling in love .  Many of her women were strong and independent and she seemed strong and independent too, she produced her own music and dictated her own terms.

As someone said on tv the other night, after the rave reviews of the first night, I think it was the former drummer of the Sex Pistols, she wasn't part of a movement, she had a fan base all of her own.  I felt special being a fan.  I was part of something bigger - I went to a convention and it was slightly scarier than a Morrissey gig. No one else was a fan.  Actually that's not quite true, everyone was a fan of something by Kate Bush.  But they weren't a fan.  Not like me.  Eventually I did meet some fans but after a few bizarre encounters I has to break off contact with most of them.

Oh, and she played the piano.  You don't need even a band when you play the piano.  As proved later by Tori Amos, but that's a whole new blog.  I had been learning the piano for ten years and knew I would never  be a pop star.  I was too snobby to be a "keyboard" player, based on my experience of 80s two finger moochers at the back of the group.  But I could be an artist. Or artiste. Or performer, or any of those things Kate Bush was.

She was a positive role model for a teenager, the independent woman I wanted to be.  She even had children late and so we ended up almost as contemporaries.  I will try and fit in a blog before I go, but I may be too busy being excited.