David Gilmour had the chance to see the evolution of British music since he was a really important part of it. A fundamental figure in Pink Floyd, he was extremely influential especially as a guitarist and completed Roger Waters‘ compositions on albums like “Dark Side of The Moon” and “The Wall”.
Over the years he had the chance to meet many incredible musicians even before they were famous. One of them was the praised Kate Bush, who is one of the most important British female singers from the past decades.
What is David Gilmour’s opinion on Kate Bush
David Gilmour is a huge fan of Kate Bush and he actually was the one who helped her to get a record deal and record her first songs. In an interview with BBC Radio 2 show “Tracks Of My Years” back in 2006 (Transcribed by Rock and Roll Garage), he listed some of his favorite songs of all time and explained why they are so important to him. One of them was Kate Bush’s “The Man With The Child In His Eyes” and he told how he helped her to record this track.
“I guess is reasonably well known that I am credited with discovering Kate Bush. So it’s a little more complicated than that. A friend of mine, (that was) friend of her brother arrived on my doorstep one day with rather squeaky demos of her. I didn’t think that it wouldn’t be listened properly by the people that I know from the record company. So I thought that the best way for her was to make some finished recordings of her like album tracks. So I employed her, I went through all her demos and I’ve chosen three songs that she had written.”7
David Gilmour continued:
“She was only 15 at the time and ‘The Man With The Child In His Eyes’ was the song that (stood up) of all of them as being the best one. So I got this guy to arrange it and create a recording of it. (Also) other songs that would then be good enough to take them to EMI. They signed up and the rest is history. So the actual recording that we just heard it’s actually the recording (from that session). It was never changed after we recorded,” David Gilmour said.
Kate Bush was born in Bexleyheath, England back in 1958. She was the first British solo female artist to top the United Kingdom album charts and to enter the album chart at number 1. They had the chance to play together in 1987 performing her hit “Running Up That Hill”. That performance happened during the Amnesty International benefit show The Secret Policeman’s Third Ball at the London Palladium.
What David Gilmour said about Kate Bush’s most recent live shows.
Kate Bush stopped playing live in the early 90s, although she still released studio albums in 1993, 2005 and 2011. She would only sing a full set in 2014 when she made a long residence at the Eventim Apollo in London. The shows happened from August to October that year.
Gilmour went to see her performing and talked about her performance in an interview with Absolute Radio in 2015. “Yes, I did go see Kate Bush, she did a brilliant show. Really well put together, quite brilliantly done. Her voice is mature and really strong. She commanded that stage.”
Since then she hasn’t played live again and as he revealed to The Guardian in 2024, he keeps trying to convince her to perform again. “Kate Bush is the only person who can get Kate Bush back on stage. I think the shows she did in 2014 at the Hammersmith Apollo were some of the best I’ve ever seen. We went several nights. I’ve tried persuading her recently, actually. Gently.”
Kate Bush is one of the most influential British female artists of all time. She has sold an estimated amount of more than 6 million records worldwide. Some of her most famous songs are “Running Up The Hill”, “Army Dreamers”, “Wuthering Heights” and “Babooshka”.
