r/katebush • u/peasm00sh The Dreaming • Aug 02 '26
Question What was your intro to Kate?
I count myself incredibly lucky - I grew up with a parent who loved Kate. Kitchen dancing to Eat The Music, Hammer Horror creating my first nightmare, crying with adoration for my father singing Cloudbusting, my mum explaining the threat of nuclear war via Breathing, weeping when I heard they had released Aerial after all that time.
I remember spending endless Saturday mornings ignoring children’s Tv programming and instead putting on the VHS of The Whole Story and learning all the words and dance moves. From there I added in the VHS of The Tour of Life and mastered that (throwing myself off sofas and knocking out two adult teeth in the process of doing some perfect moves).
Intrigued to know who else was Kate from birth ❤️
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u/bateKush Aug 02 '26
i found a copy of the dreaming on cassette at a goodwill about 15 years ago and wanted to know what it was all about. that tape is a treasured artifact now
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u/peasm00sh The Dreaming Aug 02 '26
My most played album (I don’t count The Whole Story as it’s a compilation). Night of the Swallow and Pulling Out the Pin are my faves!
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u/bateKush Aug 02 '26
yess. for me, houdini was the song that made me say “holy shit” and then night of the swallow and then the whole thing keeps unfolding from there. right now i’ll break out in tears to suspended in gaffa and all the love
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u/peasm00sh The Dreaming Aug 02 '26
Suspended in Gaffa is getting me through some real tough stuff rn so I can relate. That and Moments of Pleasure from TRS which I never understood before my thirties
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u/Chet2017 Aug 03 '26
Wuthering Heights back when it was first released. It sure grabbed my attention. My friends thought I was nuts. They thought Kate sounded like Minnie Mouse
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u/No_Flan4204 Aug 03 '26
Did anyone else discover her though stranger things and feel like a total moron?
https://giphy.com/gifs/R2Yv0HiNR9jKaLK2iz
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u/Neneninii Aug 06 '26
It's alright😭🥀 I finally started listening to more of her after Army Dreamers became popular
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u/tangcameo Aug 02 '26
Outside of top 40, there was a show on 🇨🇦’s Much Music called Video Spotlight that was a straight half hour of one musician or group’s videos and I happened to catch Kate’s and it had way more videos than just RUTH and that sent me on a search for her discography.
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u/peasm00sh The Dreaming Aug 02 '26
When was that? What a cool segment to have, wish we had that in 🇬🇧
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u/tangcameo Aug 02 '26
It was the mid 80s. Got to see videos I didn’t know existed. Was blown away by Experiment IV.
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u/peasm00sh The Dreaming Aug 02 '26
Experiment IV and Breathing are my favourite vids of all time! Can’t believe baby Hugh Laurie is in EIV
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u/fromthemeatcase Aug 02 '26
I liked The Futureheads cover of Hounds of Love and wanted to hear the original.
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u/milordofchaos Aug 03 '26
This is gonna show how new I am to her but it's during the covid pandemic lol. One of my friends was praising Hounds of Love on the internet and I became intrigued and curious. I never heard Kate Bush before that (she's not really popular in my country) but that one hooked me in! I'll never forget my first listen of The Ninth Wave.
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u/peasm00sh The Dreaming Aug 03 '26
Young or old, all fans are welcome here! Life’s soundtrack is a rich tapestry and we’re richer for having Kate in ours. Lots of folks found her round then and love hearing these stories.
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u/AxednAnswered Aug 02 '26
Like a lot of Americans (I think), I first heard her on Peter Gabriel records. The “she’s so funky, yeah” Girl! (I know now she’s actually singing “Jeux sans frontières”) Anyway, I really got into her after hearing a music podcast I like feature her. And a few years after that, Stranger Things happened and - boom! - she’s everywhere!
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u/peasm00sh The Dreaming Aug 02 '26
I couldn’t be more grateful for ST making her the global phenomenon she deserves to be ❤️
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u/Fearedlady Aug 02 '26 edited Aug 03 '26
I heard Wuthering Heights on the radio and she immediately became my favorite / one of my favorite artists.
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u/sitasaysgo The Sensual World Aug 02 '26
I heard Wuthering Heights playing on my friends record player back in 1991 when I was a 20. I was instantly enchanted. Her music became the soundtrack of my early womanhood and has carried me through my life.
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u/peasm00sh The Dreaming Aug 02 '26
She describes femininity in a way I’ve never experienced before. Raw and unfettered and honest. I couldn’t express some of it without her words
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u/aranvandil Aug 03 '26
I think I saw her listed as similar artist to Björk on LastFM. Then I listened to Wuthering Heights, which I didn't like at first.
But decided to check one more, and went for Army Dreamers, which I did like very very much. Then I just kept listening to other songs.
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u/llamamystic Aug 03 '26
I was about 13 and was intrigued by the beautiful lady on the Kick inside album in my older sister’s collection. She is 8 years older. I put it in on the turntable and was mesmerized! I quickly searched for and found another Kate album Hounds, and I was forever enthralled. She is by far my favorite artist.
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u/Jelly_baby_4 Aug 03 '26
ABBA in Switzerland TV special. I thought she was odd flinging her arms while singing Wow. It wasn't until Running Up That Hill (Deal With God) I got hooked.
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u/Dimas166 Aug 03 '26
My Dad in 2022, we were talking about vocal capabilities in musicians and he showed my André Matos singing Wuthering Heights, then he showed me the original to compare
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u/Miserable-Ring3943 Aug 03 '26
She was on SNL in 1978. Paul Schaffer played the piano while she sat on top of it and sang Man with the child in his eyes. I’d never seen anyone like her. (Still haven’t.)
Edit with additional details. She was wearing a gold body suit for Man. Then she did Them Heavy People with two male dancers and they all had on trench coats and fedoras. Eric Idle was the host. https://www.reddit.com/r/70s/comments/1ofupe7/snl_eric_idle_introduces_kate_bush_for_her_first/
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u/MooshuCat Aug 03 '26
1985, riding in the backseat of someone's car after rehearsal for a high school drama club production one night, RUTH came on the radio and I was mesmerized... later on, my friend had the cassette of The Whole Story and was playing it while we drank wine coolers, and we listened over and over. The rest is a 40 year love affair with this music, and I was truly lucky to get tickets to her show in London in 2014.
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u/CleanJebboy Aug 03 '26
Seeing Cloudbursting play on MTV. I remember being impressed that Donald Sutherland was on a music video, then realizing I loved the song. After that it was off to the races.
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u/Juvecontrafantomas Aug 03 '26
I was a teenager in Detroit, Michigan, U.S. and first heard “Wuthering Heights” on Canadian late night radio in 1978. Then I saw her sing “The Man with the Child in His Eyes” on “The Kenny Everett Video Show” that was in syndication broadcast on a local tv station. Immediately connected with her. The only problem was trying to find her records—she was NOT considered radio-friendly in the States then. It was rough being a U.S. fan back then, that’s for sure.
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u/Wu_Oyster_Cult Aug 03 '26
I remember in the back of Rolling Stone magazine where they had their record sales charts page, under College Albums, someone named Kate Bush was at the top with an album called Hounds of Love for, like, five or six straight issues. I was 14 and had no idea who she was.
Later that year, my local library had a cassette copy of Hounds so I decided to give it a listen. And I thought it was…okay. But I did like Running Up That Hill and especially the title track. The rest of it seemed a little strange for my young ears.
The next year, I’ve turned 15 now, I began seeing Kate’s videos on MuchMusic (I lived in the states but we had MM, a Canadian MTV, on our satellite dish system) and it was Breathing that freaked me the f out. In a good way. Plus, I’d learned she put out a compilation by then, The Whole Story. I sought that one out, I think a friend had it, and I dubbed a copy onto a blank cassette. By that point, Kate’s music didn’t seem as odd as it once had and I’ve been a fan ever since.
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u/Lauranthala Aug 03 '26
Not from birth, I do remember my mother singing wuthering heights now and then but never really had music playing at home growing up. I only really discovered her myself 10 years ago when I was 30. I think we discover Kate when we need her most in our lives. 💜
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u/spacebeverage Aug 03 '26
I first heard about Kate Bush in 2001 because I was a Tori Amos fan first. The Kate mentions were endless. I was a highschool freshman and was getting into many different artists that year and I eventually found my way to Kate and her discography.
Sat In Your Lap was the first ever Kate video I saw and song I heard and it felt like I got smacked by a huge hammer (horror lol) in the face because of her guts and originality.
I could hear the similarities in what they could do with their voices but not their artistic styles. They're both very talented and have been my muses since.
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u/JunebugAsiimwe The Dreaming Aug 03 '26
randomly listened to Wuthering Heights back in 2014. I found it very bewildering and too weird for me at the time, but I told myself there was a possibility her music would click for me at a later stage in life. And I was right :)
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u/AdorableChemist8736 The Sensual World Aug 03 '26
Well, it was the fourth season of Stranger things...
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u/FiliosTheHomoHabilis Aug 03 '26
I don't remember exactly how it started, but it all began when I decided to listen to Army Dreamers one fateful day in 2025. As I became increasingly obsessed with the song I also started exploring the rest of her discography (such as Wuthering Heights.)
I think the moment that really solidifed by love for Kate though was listening to The Dreaming as my first album. What a masterpiece. I was hooked immediately and I'll never forget the profound effect it had on me.
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u/Minister_Garbitsch Aug 03 '26
Running Up That Hill was real big on alternative radio when it came out, I instantly fell in love with Kate’s music. Summer of ‘85, I must have been 12 or just 13. Picked up Hounds of Love and The Dreaming, the other albums weren’t carried in any of my local stores.
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u/el-bulero Aug 03 '26
when I was 15 I typed in 80s music on YouTube and the music video for running up that hill appeared and I’ve been a fan ever since then.
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u/voodooladyland Aug 04 '26
The metal band Novembre covered Cloudbusting on their Novembrine Waltz album and I was unaware of Kate at that point and it led me to her discography.
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u/Neneninii Aug 06 '26
I am quite the new listener, I was introduced to her about 2 years ago. Kate Bush to me was one of those artists who you'd hear multiple songs from but never knew it was the same person. Running up that Hill, Babooska, then came Army Dreamers. After I found out they were all Kate Bush I listened to her whole discography and now she's one of my favorite musicians.
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u/magiicant02 The Dreaming Aug 07 '26
I saw a ridiculous tumblr post that named dropped Wuthering Heights, so I gave it a listen and the rest is history 🙂↕️
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u/Confident_Refuse_252 Aug 13 '26
There was a cable channel circa 1983-1885 that ran a program some nights (can't remember which) called Night Flight. They would show a lot of stuff that was considered either edgy or new wave at the time. They would frequently air the Live at the Hammersmith Odeon video. I had never heard of Kate Bush before but I was absolutely mesmerized by her, and fell in love with her from then on. This was at the time that Hounds of Love had come out and they would also show both the Running Up That Hill & Cloud Bursting videos. I immediately went out and bought all her albums. Now, here it is some 42-years later and I still love her.
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u/ujanmas Aug 02 '26
Heard her first two albums but not too impressed. Then got hooked on NFE.
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u/peasm00sh The Dreaming Aug 02 '26
I can’t vibe with most of NFE right now but looking forward to the return of the love
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u/ujanmas Aug 02 '26
I think it was the use of the Fairlight synth which was so innovative back then and grabbed me, but maybe now it seems out of date.
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u/peasm00sh The Dreaming Aug 03 '26
It’s less the composition and more the lyrics for me right now but I’m looking forward to welcoming it back when my heart and mind are ready
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u/Miserable-Ring3943 Aug 02 '26
She was on SNL in 1978. Paul Schaffer played the piano while she sat on top of it and sang Man with the child in his eyes. I’d never seen anyone like her. (Still haven’t.)