Pop queen Bush keeps the peace with no smartphone

OVER the course of her career, Kate Bush has established a reputation as the most private of superstars.

Now the singer has disclosed that she does not have a smartphone, a decision that allows her to spend her days in peace.

Bush, 63, granted a rare interview to BBC Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour after her old hit, Running Up That Hill, reached number one last week 37 years after its release. The song has found a new audience after being included in the Netflix series Stranger Things.

Explaining her dislike of smartphones, Bush said: “I have a really ancient phone. But I like that because I spend a lot of time on my laptop, and when I go out during the day it means I don’t have to deal with emails and everyone knows that. So I just get texts and calls on my phone and it means that I have a bit of peace.”

When Bush performed a series of concerts in 2014 – her first since 1979 – she asked fans to put their smartphones away, writing on her website: “I very much want to have contact with you as an audience, not with iphones, ipads or cameras.”

Speaking to Woman’s Hour, Bush said she was delighted by the renewed success of Running Up That Hill. “It’s just extraordinary … I just never imagined it would be anything like this,” she said.