“A FRAU BUSCH CALLED WHILE YOU WERE OUT”
Double bassist EBERHARD WEBER, on a creative alliance spanning four Kate Bush albums.
IN 1982, on returning to my hotel in Hamburg from a rehearsal, the receptionist handed me a note with a telephone number written on it: “A certain Frau Busch called while you were out.” Busch, Busch, a Frau Busch – who could that be? A number with the UK country code – 00 44. Calling back didn’t help – there was no answer. I had to wait until I returned home and mail from England landed in our letter box. Frau Busch turned out to be Kate Bush. Needless to say, I knew Kate as a pop star – after all, Maja, my wife, was a fan of hers and owned a few of her LPs. I knew of Kate’s exceptional voice and talent for arrangements.
Surprised that she knew my music and claimed to be a big fan of ECM, I became curious about her reason for contacting me. She then let the cat out of the bag and asked if I could fly to London to record a special bass melody which I was to think up for one of her tracks. When I arrived at the airport with all of my junk, she was there to pick me up in person with one of her brothers, and we drove to her flat.
The next day we went to the studio and I presented the melody I’d come up with [for the song Houdini, on The Dreaming].
Kate sang to it and noticed that at one point her voice and my proposed melody got in each other’s way. We were able to solve the problem, and the job was done.
A few years later, she called me again. This time, I didn’t have to prepare anything in advance. I was flown in to record straight onto the tape [for Mother Stands For Comfort and Hello Earth on Hounds
Of Love; Weber also contributed to Never Be Mine and Walk Straight Down The Middle during sessions for The Sensual World]. That, too, worked. Maja came with me this time. She and Kate had a lovely conversation in the evening.
We didn’t see each other again for some time. Kate had a baby, little Albert. We eventually met again, on her gorgeous estate somewhere near Theale, where she was living with Albert and her husband Danny. It was an enormous property with a river running through it and an old mill with a functioning water wheel – very romantic. The recordings [π, and Prologue, from Aerial] were made in her own studio. This time I was in a position to make many suggestions as a contribution to her half-finished songs.
Back then Kate had already retreated from the concert business. During one of our cosy evenings together, Kate hinted at the fact that if she was ever to give concerts again, she would want me to be there. When I found out in the summer of 2014 that the time had finally come, my phone didn’t ring – I had told her long ago that my musical career had been cut short [after a stroke in 2007]. Instead, I later received an e-mail from her. What she wrote moved me: “Did I tell you we played your stunning
Pendulum CD in the venue before each and every show as it’s my very favourite album!”
So I had been there all the same! From Eberhard Weber: A German Jazz Story (2021) equinoxpub.com
“I WAS SURPRISED THAT SHE KNEW MY MUSIC AND CLAIMED TO BE A BIG FAN OF ECM.”