- Hardcover: 240 pages
- Publisher: Portrait (27 Oct 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0749950498
- ISBN-13: 978-0749950491
- Product Dimensions: 23.4 x 15.6 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 187,267 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'Written with fondness and filled with train-spotterish-details about recording sessions and musicians.' The Times
Product Description
Kate Bush has written some of the most memorable songs in pop music history. Wuthering Heights, her debut single shot to number 1 in 1978 and she remains something of an enigma over a quarter of a century later. A singer, songwriter, musician, dancer, actress and director, Kate has inspired a devoted following around the world. Rob Jovanovic traces the story of Kate Bush's career, from her up-bringing in the Essex countryside through her first forays into music with a series of home recordings, to her number 1 debut album that propelled her to international stardom. Including exclusive interviews with studio musicians and choreographers, Jovanovic's biography emphasizes both her voracious talent and her intensely private personality. Over the last ten years, Kate Bush has taken time out from her hugely successful musical career to raise a family. In November 2005 however, she released Aerial, her first album in 12 years, to great critical acclaim.
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First Sentence
WHAT A LONG, STRANGE trip it's been. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
WHAT A LONG, STRANGE trip it's been. Read the first page Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
52 of 55 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
For some time now,admirers of the notoriously private Ms Bush have longed for a biography packed with little known facts about her life with some light shed on the inspiration for her music and peppered with insightful observations from those lucky enough to have worked with her.
This book is not it!.
It is poorly researched and badly written.Most of Kates quotes seem to have been lifted from ancient copies of 'Q' magazine (for whom the compiler of this work,Rob Jovanovic, is a contributer)and subsequently offers no new information to the fans.
As a biographer,Mr Jovanovic does not seem to have grasped the fact that it is not enough merely to list the names of his subjects first boyfriend /dance teacher/bass player,it is his job to get out there and try to interview them as well.He skims over the life changing events that take place in Kates world ie: the death of a parent,the birth of her only child, in just a couple of sentances without stopping to try and analyse the effect that this may have had on her music.
Ahh yes,her music.Mr Jovanovic seems to very much to enjoy endlessly listing anyone that ever so much as broke wind in the studio over the last 30 years but seems less keen on on the albums themselves.They get an increasingly short shrift ending up with 'the Sensual World' and 'the Red Shoes'being described in a few sketchy paragraphs.
I rather get the feeling that he is the kind of bloke that gets a bigger kick from arranging his cd's alphabetically rather than actually listening to them !.
After finishing this disatisfying book,I am left wondering if a crushing lack of co-operation from the Bush camp left him with so little material to work with ?.If this was the case,surely this too could have been worked into the biography and provided an interesting angle in itself ?.What a wasted opportunity.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Agree totally with the review posted before this. What you have here is a cut and paste run through press comments combined with detailed break downs of her albums. It's ironic that an artist so careful to craft all her work is served by an easy to assemble bio that still gets facts wrong. It's predictable at best and often lazy and sloppy. The author notes that Kate signed to EMI home to some of the 70s biggest bands including Deep Purple and Iron Maiden....check the dates of Iron Maiden's hits if that one passed you by. Similarly a musician called Robin Trowe gets a mention and the book frequently repeats facts quickly, citing the chart position of one single twice in two pages. It also came out around the time of Ariel but - of course - has nothing to say about it. The last one is probably simple bad luck for the author, the many other slips and typos aren't.
22 of 23 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Like many other people, I am a long-standing admirer of much of Kate's recorded work. She always brings a breath of fresh air to the music industry and her long-awaited new album has re-kindled my interest in her. I was therefore keen to read her bang-up-to-date biography.
Whilst this book does cover Kate's musical career album-by-album, with the exception of her latest work, the book only stakes across Kate's personal life, leaving the reader with more questions than it answers. It is unfortunate that the author, Rob Jovanovic, was unable to secure an interview with Kate and therefore any material not already in the public domain has had to come from third parties. It would have been really interesting to have had more quotations directly attributable to Kate herself and this lack of direct contact with the book's subject is a bit of a let down, especially in relation to the last dozen years, of which little is known and which received scant cover.
It would also have been nice to have more photographs, but that apart the book itself is beautifully packaged and presented.
A worthy read for any Kate Bush fan; just don't expect any revalations.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Informative for those new to Kate Bush
I was disappointed with this book. I really thought that it'd be more interesting than it was and, frankly, the author really irritated me. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Stepping Out of the Page
a gifted composers life
a surprisingly lengthy period is spent making albums,each tiny piece of a track taking months for her to accept and finalise. Read more
Published 22 months ago by S. G. Parfitt
Long awaited and worth it
It's about time someone wrote about Kate Bush. This book was such an enlightening read for me. I've grown up loving her and following her work avidly and this really filled in the... Read more
Published on 17 Mar 2010 by B. Barlow
a really good read!
im 20 and a huge fan of kate bush and as i wasnt around in her most prolific years its hard to find any new information about kate but this book was fantastic. Read more
Published on 31 Aug 2009 by FUTURESTARdelux
Now i know why i prefer AUTObiographies!!!!
Am i the ONLY Kate Bush fan who just LISTENS to her albums....WITHOUT sitting there and analysing them....or comparing one against the other. Read more
Published on 12 Jun 2009 by Mr. D McGrath
Poor writing
Even with limited resources (always a problem with Kate Bush, since she's so reluctant to participate in biographies) a good writer can create an enjoyable, absorbing work. Read more
Published on 28 Mar 2009 by C. E. A. Esq
A very special artist
Everybody remembers what he was doing when he first heard "Wuthering Heights". I was about 18 at the time (she is a year older than I), it was winter and I looked the snow through... Read more
Published on 6 Feb 2009 by E. Zwygart
Very easy to read and informative
Having become conditioned to biographies, especially of musicians, that comprise little more than old interviews and album reviews I was pleasantly surprised by this which tries to... Read more
Published on 8 Jun 2007 by Martin Fielding
Slightly biased and disjointed, but overall good
To begin, I am of the 'newer' generation of Kate Bush fans, and because she is probably my favourite musician, and I didn't know as much about Kate and her life as many more of my... Read more
Published on 23 Dec 2006 by srxjnj
Peering over the wall into Kate's garden
Like many people interested in music and popular culture Kate Bush has held a fascination for me from the earliest of her recordings. Read more
Published on 12 Oct 2006 by David Spanswick
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