Why Kate Bush disappeared – tour tragedy, mum’s death and ‘magic’ son who saved her

To those who grew up knowing her music, Kate Bush has always been an icon.

And now a whole new generation has been exposed to her unique, ethereal sound thanks to her 1985 hit Running Up That Hill featuring on Netflix’s Stranger Things.

While it climbed to an impressive number three on its first release, this time the song flew straight to number one, knocking off Harry Styles’ mega-hit, As It Was.

“The whole world’s gone mad!” Kate – who turns 64 today – told BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour.

“It’s just extraordinary. It’s such a great series, I thought that the track would get some attention. But I just never imagined that it would be anything like this. It’s so exciting, it’s quite shocking really, isn’t it?”

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Kate Bush found fame when she was just 19 By 21 she had quit touring

Tonight will see Kate celebrated in a three-hour special on BBC2. And while it’s no surprise that Millennials and Gen Z have become hooked on her diaphanous style, what is surprising is that it’s happened 37 years after the track was first released.

But then again, Kate has always been an enigma.

Born in July 1958, to Robert, a doctor, and Hannah, a nurse, Catherine Bush was fascinated with music by the age of three and soon learned to play an old organ kept in a barn behind their farmhouse in Welling, Kent.

Although she had a loving family, Kate had a hard time at nearby St Joseph’s convent school where she was badly bullied. Her escape was music.

She once told The Mirror: “School was a very cruel environment and I was a loner. But I learned to get hurt and I learned to cope with it. My friends sometimes used to ignore me completely and that would really upset me badly.

“I wasn’t an easy, happy-go-lucky girl because I used to think about everything so much and I think I probably still do.

Kate Bush last toured when this photo was taken, in 1979 (

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Mirrorpix)

“I was writing from the age of 10 and I was never really into going to discos and dances and stuff. I never told anyone at school that I did that because I feared it would alienate me even more.”

By the time Kate was 15, a family friend was so impressed by her musical talent that he persuaded her to record a demo tape, and it quickly attracted the attention of Pink Floyd’s guitarist, David Gilmour.

A year later, she had signed a deal with EMI, although the company decided to nurture her slowly.

She said: “I often find myself inspired by unusual, distorted and weird subjects. It’s a reflection of me, my liking for weirdness.”

Kate was just 19 when her first single, Wuthering Heights, topped the singles chart in 1978. She was hailed as Britain’s most promising female singer.

A top-three album, The Kick Inside, quickly followed and in 1979 she embarked on a gruelling tour of Europe. It was to be her first and last.

Kate pictured performing on Peter Pop’s Show in 1985 (

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ZIK Images/United Archives via Getty Images) Kate made a rare appearance at an award ceremony in 2014 (

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Getty Images)

She was left devastated by the death of 21-year-old lighting director Bill Duffield, who fell through the stage after a warm-up show at Poole in Dorset.

And embittered by what she saw as pressure by her record company, she later complained: “They took me away from everything familiar and I figured out then that music was a priority, not publicity, and that completely changed my life.

“I stopped doing all the things that were expected.”

Astonishingly, Bush decided to withdraw from public life at the height of her fame. She was just 21.

Although she continued recording – and scored hits with albums including Hounds Of Love and The Whole Story – a string of personal crises meant her 1993 album, The Red Shoes, was her last.

The first blow came in 1989 when her close friend, the Level 42 guitarist Alan Murphy, died of an Aids-related illness. Soon after, she split from boyfriend Del Palmer, who’d also been her bass player for 10 years.

Worst was the death of her mother in 1992. In a rare interview, Bush revealed how the three events turned her into a “zombie” addicted to daytime TV.

Kate Bush with her mother Hannah and brothers Paddy and Jay

She told Q magazine: “Basically, the batteries were run out. A part of me didn’t want to work. I’d got to the point where it was something I didn’t feel good about.

“I spent a lot of time sleeping and I also used to enjoy watching bad TV, like really bad quiz programmes or sitcoms. I found them fascinating. There had been a period, a very big period, where I hadn’t grieved properly. Then work became my way of coping.”

In a further attempt to escape the limelight, Kate bought a six-acre mansion in Theale, near Reading, Berks, where she and her partner, guitarist Danny McIntosh, retreated from the world.

It was the birth of their son, Bertie, in July 1998 that brought her back to life.

Kate’s son Bertie is thought to be around 24 (

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Rex) Kate pictured in 1993, soon before her disappearance from the spotlight (

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Popperfoto via Getty Images)

Kate said: “People say magic doesn’t exist, but I look at Bertie and know it does. I’m very proud of him and I get so much joy out of being with him. It’s totally incomparable with anything else.

“What I found very difficult since having him is finding time to talk to people because he comes first. He doesn’t care whether an album comes out – so that comes second.

“I don’t want to miss a minute of him. It’s so much fun, by far the best thing I’ve ever done.”

Kate Bush at the BBC airs at tonight 8pm on BBC2, followed by The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill and Kate Bush at the BBC 1979.

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