Kate Bush

As of March 12, however, no release had yet been announced. On March 16th, however, the reunion was cancelled, with Fraser pulling out for "personal reasons.". In December 2004, she wrote a Christmas letter to her fans announcing an album release in 2005; additionally, unsubstantiated reports have stated that the album might be released as early as March. On January 31 2005 Cocteau Twins announced that they would be reforming to perform at the Coachella Festival on April 30, 2005, and later indicated that additional tour dates through the fall would be added. She was reportedly recording tracks as recently as November 2003 at Abbey Road Studios, but as of fall 2004 no release date for a new album had been announced, more than a decade after her last recordings were released. Elizabeth Fraser provided vocals for two songs on Massive Attack's Mezzanine in 1998, the soundtrack to the film adaptation of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (and the second installment: The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers), as well as for other, less known projects and groups, and is rumoured to be working on a solo album. She has confirmed that she is at work on a new album, with the title of one track "How to be Invisible" having been discussed on at least one of her fan Web sites. Raymonde has released the solo album Blame Someone Else. Guthrie released his first solo effort Imperial and continues to create music with his band Violet Indiana.

In 1999, she gave birth to a baby boy, Bertie, fathered by guitarist Danny MacIntosh. Guthrie and Raymonde formed the record label Bella Union, and have produced releases from new bands signed to that label. There were also unconfirmed reports that she had suffered a nervous breakdown. The former members of Cocteau Twins have remained active musically in the years since the band's demise. Bush dropped out of the public eye in the late 1990s, though her name occasionally cropped up in the media in connection with rumours of a new album release. Finally, in 2003, 4AD followed Stars and Topsoil with re-releases of digitally remastered versions of the first six Cocteau Twins LPs. In 1993, Bush directed and starred in the short film, The Line, The Cross and The Curve, a musical co-starring Miranda Richardson and featuring music from Bush's album The Red Shoes which was inspired by the classic movie The Red Shoes. In 2000, 4AD released Stars and Topsoil, a compilation of selected songs--hand-picked by the band members--released during their years with 4AD, all digitally remastered by Robin Guthrie.

It was this benefit that was recorded and is the only record of Bush's live performance. The collection is a complete record of the band's appearances on UK radio programs from 1983 to 1996, with some rare and/or unreleased material included. Bush held a benefit concert on 12 May, with Peter Gabriel and Steve Harley at London’s Hammersmith Odeon for his family. In 1999, Bella Union released a double-CD compilation entitled BBC Sessions. A number of reasons have been suggested as to why she abandoned touring, among them her reputed need to be in total control of the final product, which is incompatible with live stage performance, a rumour of a crippling fear of flying, and the suggestion that the death of 21 year old Bill Duffield, severely affected her. Duffield, her lighting director, was killed in an accident during her April 20 concert at The London Palladium when he fell twenty feet through an open trap door on the stage. Fans of the group weren't however, left entirely empty-handed. Bush's only tour took place in early 1979 (April 3 - May 10 see details below), after which she gave only the occasional live performance. While a number of songs were partially recorded and possibly completed, the band has stated that it will likely never be finished or released in any form.

A wide diversity of respected artists have worked with her on some of her more recent albums ranging from the rock guitarist Jeff Beck, the legendary guitarist Ian Bairnson, jazz/rock drummer Stuart Elliot, the classical guitarist John Williams, the folk artists The Trio Bulgarka, and Prince. In 1997, while recording what was to have been their ninth and final LP, the trio suddenly disbanded over irreconcilable differences (mostly related to the break-up of Guthrie and Fraser). She has appeared in duets with Midge Ure, Big Country and others on their albums. There were two singles for it, Tishbite and Violaine (both exist in two versions, with different b-sides included on each). The band, augmented by an extra guitarist and a drummer, toured extensively to support the album--their last with Mercury--and in live performances seemed to have found a cohesive freshness and power that had been lacking on their previous outing in 1993/94. A new song, "Touch Upon Touch," which debuted during the live shows and was recorded later in 1996, was the last Cocteau Twins song ever released. Harper is another frequent collaborator, appearing on her song Breathing and her on his albums HQ and Once (both also featuring Gilmour). The record, which some hailed as a "return to form," with heavily layered guitars and voice (Fraser began once again to obscure her lyrics, though not entirely), was released in 1996 to somewhat mixed reviews. Their duet of Roy Harper's Another Day was discussed for release as a single, but this never came to pass. As it turned out, some of the tracks on both Twinlights and Otherness were versions of songs from the band's eighth album, Milk and Kisses.

She has worked with Peter Gabriel on two of his albums, most notably on the hits Games Without Frontiers and Don't Give Up, (the latter a duet); and his appearance on her 1979 television special. Both EPs were labeled 'experimental' by the press, since they were very different from the EPs the band released in the past. Gurdjieff in Them Heavy People. The former consisted of four gentle acoustic songs, recorded with only piano, acoustic guitar and voice; Otherness, by contrast, was a collaboration with Seefeel's Mark Clifford, and featured four electronic remixes of Cocteau Twins' songs. I. 1995 saw the release of two new EPs: Twinlights and Otherness. Her lyrics are highly literate and reference a wide array of subject matter, often relatively obscure, such as Wilhelm Reich in Cloudbusting, or G. The band themselves explained that Four-Calendar Café was simply a response to the turmoil that had engulfed them in the intervening years, with Guthrie entering rehab and quitting alcohol and drugs, and Fraser herself undergoing therapy (the two had been in a long-term relationship, and by this time had a young daughter, Lucy-Belle, born in 1989).

Kate Bush has tackled sensitive and taboo subjects long before it has become fashionable to do so; Kashka From Baghdad is a song about a gay male couple; Breathing explores the results of nuclear fallout. This, along with audibly comprehensible lyrics--something previously elusive, as Fraser tended to sing in a style that masked or otherwise obscured her lyrics--led to mixed reviews: some critics would accuse the group of selling out and producing an 'accessible album,' while others would praise the new direction as a worthy successor to Heaven or Las Vegas. The unapologetic use of her voice as an instrument to convey a broad range of emotional intensity and subtlety is one thing that characterizes nearly all that she does. It was a departure from the heavily-processed, complex and layered sounds of Blue Bell Knoll and Heaven or Las Vegas, featuring crystal-clear, minimalistic arrangements. It has been observed that even the more joyous of the pieces is often tinged with traces of melancholy, and even the most sorrowful have elements of a unique vitality struggling against all that would oppress it. The band's seventh LP, Four-Calendar Café, was released in the fall of 1993. More than one reviewer has used the term surreal to describe much of her music, for many of the songs have a melodramatic emotional and musical surrealism that defies easy categorization. 4AD and Capitol released a Box Set in 1991 that compiled the band's EPs from 1982 to 1987, including a bonus disc of rare and/or previously unreleased material.

Even in her earliest works where the piano was a primary instrument, she wove together many diverse influences, melding classical music, rock, and a wide range of ethnic and folk sources, to produce a uniquely impressive amalgalm, and this has continued throughout her career. While on their international tour supporting Heaven or Las Vegas, the group signed a new recording contract with Fontana in the UK and elsewhere, while retaining their ongoing US relationship with Capitol. Suede front-man Brett Anderson has stated that Wuthering Heights was the first single he ever bought. They parted ways with 4AD following Heaven or Las Vegas, partially because of conflicts with its founder Ivo Watts-Russell, and were close to breaking up over internal problems, due in large part to Guthrie's addiction to drugs including alcohol. Even the iconoclastic punk rocker John Lydon (Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols) has declared her work to be "fucking brilliant" and has labelled her "a true original". However, despite the success of the record and the tours, not everything was well with the band. Though many outside of Europe remain unfamiliar with her work and its profound intensity, others in her profession are willing to declare her works as those of great genius. The most commercially successful of their many recordings, the album rose to the top of the charts immediately after its release.

The trip hop artist Tricky has stated her work has been a significant influence on him and that she should be treasured more than the Beatles. The style the group began exploring with Head Over Heels reached its peak on Heaven or Las Vegas, released in late 1990. While her range of styles does not appeal to everyone, Bush is nevertheless widely respected by many musicians, and has been noted as an influence and inspiration by artists as diverse as Jewel, Tori Amos, Björk, Suede, Paula Cole, Sinéad O'Connor, Pat Benatar, Happy Rhodes, The Utah Saints, Big Boi of OutKast and others. While remaining a 4AD band internationally, Cocteau Twins finally signed a major-label contract with Capitol Records in 1988 for distribution in the US, and released their fifth proper LP, Blue Bell Knoll, in October of that year. They have since worked together on occasional projects and in concert. To commemorate the event, the compilation The Pink Opaque (1985) was released as a way of introducing the new, broader audience to the band's back-catalog. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd was largely responsible for bringing her to prominence, funding her first demo sessions and attracting the interest of the Floyd's record company, EMI. In 1985, with a major-label release still years away, 4AD signed an agreement with Relativity Records for distribution of Cocteau Twins in the US and elsewhere.

Kate Bush (born Catherine Bush on July 30, 1958 in Bexleyheath, Kent, England) is a British singer-songwriter who has acquired a large number of extremely devoted fans since her debut in 1978 with the surprise hit "Wuthering Heights," which was number 1 in the British music charts for 4 weeks. He returned to the group for The Moon and The Melodies (1986), which was a collaboration with Harold Budd, and was not released under the Cocteau Twins name. Recorded as Live at the Hammersmith Odeon. Raymonde, who was collaborating on the second This Mortal Coil LP, did not participate in the recording of the fourth Cocteau Twins LP, Victorialand (1986), a predominantly acoustic record which featured only Guthrie and Fraser. Hammersmith Odeon, London, UK (May 12) Benefit concert. These included The Spangle Maker (1984), Treasure (1984), Aikea-Guinea (1985), Tiny Dynamine and Echoes in a Shallow Bay (1985) and Love's Easy Tears (1986). Jarhunderthalle, Frankfurt, Germany (10 May). With Simon, the band released a series of critically acclaimed albums and EPs, exploring their new style.

Rosengarten, Mannheim, Germany (8 May). In 1983, the band participated in 4AD's This Mortal Coil project (this spawned a cover-version of Tim Buckley's Song to the Siren performed by Guthrie and Fraser, which became a major hit), and during their work for that, they got to know Simon Raymonde (formerly a member of Drowning Craze), who joined the group later that year as a bass player. Theatre de Champs Elysees, Paris, France (6 May). Despite being very different from its predecessor, Head Over Heels was well-received by both press and fans. Guerzenich, Cologne, Germany (4 May). This led to establishing the Cocteau Twins' signature sound: heavily effected guitars combined with Fraser's ethereal voice. Circuskrone, Munich, Germany (3 May). Since the band's sound on its first three recordings relied heavily on Heggie's rhythmic basslines, Guthrie's minimalistic guitar and Fraser's voice, Cocteau Twins' next full-length LP, Head Over Heels, had to rely solely on the latter two.

Leiderhalle, Stuttgart, Germany (2 May). Will Heggie left the group after the tour that followed the 1983 release of the band's second EP, Peppermint Pig. Carré Theatre, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (29 April). Their debut recording, Garlands, was released by 4AD in 1982, and was an instant success, as was the subsequent Lullabies EP. Congress Centrum, Hamburg, Germany (28 April). The name Cocteau Twins itself comes from an early (unreleased) song by Simple Minds. Falkoneer Theatre, Copenhagen, Denmark (26 April). The band's influences at the time included The Birthday Party, Sex Pistols and Siouxsie & the Banshees.

Concert House, Stockholm, Sweden (24 April). At a local hotel disco club, Nash, they met Elizabeth Fraser, who eventually provided (vocals). The Palladium, London, UK (16 April - 20 April). The band was formed in 1980 by Robin Guthrie (guitar) and Will Heggie (bass), both from Grangemouth, Scotland. Usher Hall, Edinburgh, UK (13 April). Their trademark sound of layered, ethereal guitar and indecipherable vocals inspired the 1990s shoegazing genre, which included numerous bands such as Lush, Slowdive, Pale Saints, and My Bloody Valentine. Empire Theatre, Sunderland, UK (12 April). Cocteau Twins were an influential and prolific British band formed in 1980, their music becoming nearly synonymous with their record label 4AD.

Apollo Theatre, Manchester, UK (11 April). Stars and Topsoil (2002). Apollo Theatre, Manchester, UK (10 April). BBC Sessions (2000). Hippodrome, Bristol, UK (9 April). Box Set (1991). Gaumont Southampton, UK (7 April). The Moon and The Melodies (1986) with Harold Budd.

New Theatre Oxford, UK (6 April). The Pink Opaque (1985). Hippodrome, Birmingham, UK (5 April). Other: