Article - 13th September 2005
Daily Mail (13/09/05)
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EVER since the hit single
Wuthering Heights launched
her career, Kate Bush has
been obsessed by the Emily Bronte
novel which inspired it.
At one time she even registered her
name on the electoral roll as Catherine
Earnshaw, Bronte's tormented heroine.
And now she has spent £2.5million on a
Wuthering Heights other own.
Although the house is in Devon, rather than
the West Yorkshire moors of the book, its setting is equally windswept and romantic.
And it will provide the seclusion which 47-year-old Miss Bush has craved ever since
she found fame.
Her main residence is a mansion behind
iron gates and high walls on an island in the
Thames near Reading, where she lives with
guitarist Danny Mcintosh, 49, and
their seven-year-old son Bertie.
Now the family have an equally
secluded second home near
Kingsbridge in South Devon.
Set in 17 acres, the house, built
in the 1920s, has access to a private pebble beach with boat
house. The estate also includes
two small islands.
Miss Bush was so keen to own it
that she paid £lmillion over the
price asked by its previous owners, a couple from London. Parish
councillor Julian Brazil said: 'We
are pleased that she has chosen
this part of the country. It is beautiful and very scenic.
'But we all intend to respect her
privacy. No one is going to get too
over-excited by this.' The locals
are used to having stars in their
midst. Former England rugby
coach Sir Clive Woodward has a
holiday home in nearby Salcombe,
former BBC royal watcher Jennie
Bond is a few miles away at East
Prawie and Blur's Damon Albarn
owns a place at Beesands. Miss
Bush burst on to the pop scene as
a 19-year-old in 1978 when Wuthering Heights spent four weeks at
Number One. But the ensuing
whirlwind of TV appearances, promotional interviews and a gruelling
tour took its toll and she withdrew
from the spotlight.
In the ten years since her
last album she has spent her
time bringing up her child and
sculpting. Despite her self-imposed isolation, she retains an
army of fans and her new double
album, Aerial
, is expected to top
the charts when it hits the shops
on November 7. The release will
be preceded by a single, King of
the Mountain, out on October 24.
Friends say she is filled with
dread by the prospect of a return
to the limelight, but she knows she
will have to show her face to the
loyal fans who have given her a
£25million fortune. In a rare interview she recently explained her
obsession with privacy. 'The reclusive thing is because I don't go
clubbing and I don't do a lot of
publicity,' she said. 'I'm a quiet,
private person who has managed
to hang around for a few years.
'Ridiculous, really. I didn't think
it would be like this.' Not surprisingly, her son has never been
photographed in public. She said: 'I
am just trying to be a good, protective mother. I want to give him as
normal a childhood as possible
while preserving his privacy.'
Miss Bush, a doctor's daughter,
believes her hatred of public
scrutiny stems from her troubled
childhood in Welling, Kent, when
she was bullied for being skinny.
A loner, she spent hours playing
an old organ and writing songs
from the age often. She was signed
by EMI at 16 when a family friend
in the record business arranged for
a demo tape to be made.
She managed to overcome her
shyness to perform in public and
became an enduring pop icon.
But she says her fear of 'being
laughed at' has followed her all her
life. 'My father has told me I used
to dance to music on the telly.
'I was completely unself-conscious and I wasn't aware of
people looking at me.
'One day some people came into
the room, saw me and laughed -
and from that moment on I
stopped doing it.
'I think I've been trying to get
back there ever since.'
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News - 31st August 2005
Kate Bush's new album, Aerial, is to be released on 7th November 2005. The first single from the album King Of The Mountain is to be released sooner on 24th October.
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