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Under the Ivy

The Life and Music of Kate Bush

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Under the Ivy

By: Graeme Thomson
Narrated by: Mia Hutchinson-Shaw
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About this listen

In this updated edition of Graeme Thomson’s critically acclaimed biography, a near-exhaustive survey of Kate Bush’s life surveys everything from her upbringing in South London to her stunning return to live performance in August 2014.

The original edition of Under the Ivy was called one of the best music biographies ever, and this updated edition adds a wealth of new research to include the complete scope of Bush’s oeuvre. With over seventy new interviews and in-depth analysis of her triumphant return to the stage after thirty-five years, this is the most complete Kate Bush biography and a must for any fan.

Detailing everything from her upbringing to her early exposition of talent to her subsequent evolution into one of the most stunningly creative and fascinating visual and musical artists alive today, Under the Ivy truly is the story of one woman’s life. This is in no way a superficial rumor-mill, however, as Thomson writes with great detail, accuracy, and above all admiration for her work, this is in equal parts a biography and an analysis of Kate Bush’s art.

Focusing on her unique working methods, her studio techniques, her timeless albums, and inescapable influence, Under the Ivy is a true exploration of one of the world’s most underappreciated yet gifted artists. Thoroughly enjoyable, this book will be an eye-opening journey of discovery for somebody unfamiliar with Bush but will also reward a long-term fan with new insights and fresh analysis

©2010, 2015 Omnibus Press (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing
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This is a fairly in-depth look into the life and work of Kate Bush. The facts, on the whole, appear to be true and the critique of Bush's output is spot on. However, as mentioned many times in the review section, the narration is awful. I would have thought it would be in a narrator's best interest to do some research into their subject, but the constant errors become grating, to the point where you're listening out for them instead of the story. I'm not going to go through the many mispronunciations that pepper this audio book, but at the very least they could have realised that the song is called WUTHERING Heights and not WITHERING Heights, before the final few chapters. Read the book instead of listening to it in it's current form.

Decent biog, horrible narration.

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Revealing portrayal of an artistic one off, enough detail album by album, family life/ dynamics and struggles with the industry. Loved contributions from people in her artistic orbit.Left with satisfying sense of a private, authentic very English person.

Still smitten with KB

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A VERY detailed journey through the career of Kate Bush right up to immediately after her last live performances. The florid description of many of the songs on each album can get a bit much but it is a very well written book overall. The narrator obviously has no connection to any of the social references in the book and her many and frequent mispronunciations of these is wearing (“Dennis” rather than Denis for the Blondie hit and “Mull of Mac in Tyre” for … well, I don’t think I need to explain that one! To name but a few), as is her interchangeable use of “Withering” and “Wuthering” every time see reads this very frequent word. Probably a must for all fans but be ready to fast forward in places and wince at the mispronunciations.

You’ll need appetite for lots of detail!

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This a great book and well worth reading or listening to. Just be aware that the narration is sometimes off-putting because of the strange pronunciation of some fairly common words. The narrator doesn't seem to have any knowledge of the topic or cultural world that the book is describing because fairly well-known names of people, bands or songs are also sometimes incorrectly pronounced. If you can get past this, it's an enjoyable book.

Great book

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A fascinating book, especially enjoyed the mis-pronunciations, by the narrator, not sure if it was someone putting on an especially good English accent, or may have been even been done by Ai, my favourite was buoy, pronounced boo-eee.

Fascinating

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