The strange story of Kate Bush’s first-ever concert
As a teenager, Kate Bush was a prodigal talent and signed a deal with EMI before ever playing to an audience. Typically, artists spend years grinding it out in toilet venues to secure a deal, but that wasn’t a motive for Bush.
Bush’s older brother had a mutual friend called Ricky Hopper, who was connected to Pink Floyd’s David Gilmour, and he passed her demo tape onto the musician. After hearing her voice, Gilmour was instantly enchanted by her and felt compelled to help Bush make her first steps into the industry. “Her unusual vocal style and sound, I thought it was unlikely that record companies, A&R people would get it,” he later told BBC 6 Music.
Gilmour continued: “I was not convinced that they would get it instantly. So, after some various tryouts, I decided to employ a full studio in London with Geoff Emerick engineering and a friend of mine, Andrew Powell, producing and arranging. I chose two or three songs out of about 50 that she had, and I didn’t spend a long time choosing, I just sort of thought we’ll have one nice slow one, one sort of medium temperature, one like this… we’ll do those to releasable level so that they weren’t demos, so that they were actually properly ready-to-go tracks.”
Thankfully, EMI also recognised her mammoth talent and signed Bush to the label as a teenager. However, as much as Bush’s voice was impressive, she was far from the finished article, and the label didn’t want to rush her into the limelight. For a start, Bush was yet to play a live show in front of the general public, and EMI needed her to gain a stage presence before unveiling her as an artist. Despite having over 200 songs in her arsenal, nobody had heard the songs in a live environment, and understandably, Bush needed to pass that test.
Therefore, the KT Bush Band was formed. The group featured Del Palmer on bass, Brian Bath on guitar and Vic King enlisted as the drummer. Their first outing came in March 1977 at the Rose of Lee in Lewisham, which shortly became her stomping ground.
Reportedly, the first show occurred on a Tuesday night, and around a dozen people were in attendance, which assumedly included friends. According to The Telegraph, Bush delivered two 45-minute sets, which went down a treat with the crowd. Soon enough, word spread of Bush’s brilliance, and a month later, fans could not get into the Rose of Lee to watch her perform because it was too busy.
“She was nervous, it wasn’t really her scene,” drummer King later told The Telegraph. “Kate didn’t frequent pubs, but she wanted to do it because she had to learn stage presence and projection. She wasn’t doing it because she loved being on stage.”
Unfortunately, no footage exists from Bush’s debut historic show in Lewisham, so you’ll have to use your imagination to picture the scene. These early shows were critical in Bush’s development as an artist, and a few months later, work got underway on her debut album, The Kick Inside, which took the world by storm.
