David Gilmour has said that he has been “gently” encouraging his friend Kate Bush to play live shows again.
Gilmour has been credited as the musician who “discovered” Bush, having paid her to professionally record three songs at Air Studios in London with producer/arranger Andrew Powell and engineer Geoff Emerick, who worked with the Beatles at Abbey Road studios.
The former Pink Floyd rocker chose three songs including The Man with the Child in his Eyes for Bush, who was just 15 years old at the time.
Gilmour was also integral to securing a deal with EMI for Bush, giving her her first big break in music.
Gilmour previously said this of the singer in 2005: “I was convinced from the beginning that this girl had remarkable talent”.
“tried persuading her”
David Gilmour and Kate Bush have also remained friends ever since, appearing on stage together on several occasions over the years.
Such occasions include the Amnesty International benefit show The Secret Policeman’s Third Ball at the London Palladium, where they performed classic Bush track Running Up That Hill.
Speaking to the Guardian recently, David Gilmour was asked by one reader: “Can you get Kate Bush back on stage soon?”.
“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”, Gilmour said in a interview.
He also added: “I’ve tried persuading her recently, actually. Gently”.
“Absolutely not” – Gilmour rules out Pink Floyd reunion
Reading this interview with Gilmour, it is fair to say that a return to the stage for Kate Bush appears a much more likely scenario, than Gilmour has of performing with former Pink Floyd bandmate Roger Waters.
“Absolutely not,” he stated.
“I tend to steer clear of people who actively support genocidal and autocratic dictators like Putin and Maduro [president of Venezuela]. Nothing would make me share a stage with someone who thinks such treatment of women and the LGBT community is OK”.
He also added: “On the other hand, I’d love to be back on stage with [late Pink Floyd keyboardist] Rick Wright, who was one of the gentlest and most musically gifted people I’ve ever known”.
Elsewhere, David Gilmour will also perform a range of tour show across Europe in November,. These shows will also support his recently released album, Luck and Strange.
More on this from Nova here.
