Stories › Kate Bush – Never for Ever
ANECDOTEThe Story Behind Kate Bush's Never for Ever
In 1980 Kate Bush became the first British solo woman to top the UK Albums Chart, and she did it with a record full of ghosts, grief and strange tales.
Taking the reins herself
For her third album Bush stepped into the producer's chair, working alongside engineer Jon Kelly rather than handing the arrangements to Andrew Powell, who had shaped her first two records. She wanted more of the creative decisions to be her own, and the result was a more varied record, from the rocker 'Violin' to the gentle waltz of 'Army Dreamers'.
It was also her first album to use digital synthesizers and drum machines, including the new Fairlight CMI, programmed by Richard James Burgess and John L. Walters.
Films, ghosts and grief
Bush drew heavily on literature and film. 'The Infant Kiss' was inspired by The Innocents, itself based on Henry James's The Turn of the Screw, and tells of a governess unsettled by a boy possessed by an adult spirit. 'The Wedding List' came from Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black, and 'Delius (Song of Summer)' was shaped by a television film about the composer's last years.
'Blow Away (for Bill)' was written for her lighting director Bill Duffield, who died during her 1979 tour, and names him alongside other musicians who had died in the years before.
A cover full of monsters
The album's pencil illustration, by artist Nick Price, shows a crowd of animals and monsters emerging from beneath Bush's skirt. She said it reflected the title itself, the good and bad things that come from within a person. Record Mirror voted it Greatest Album Cover of 1980.
Straight in at number one
Never for Ever entered the UK charts at number one in September 1980, making Bush the first British female solo artist to top the album chart, and the first woman to enter it at number one with a studio album. The singles 'Breathing', 'Army Dreamers' and especially 'Babooshka' all became hits, and Bush herself called it her favourite album to date.
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