A promoter walks into the offices of Coachella, says “you have to book Kate Bush” to which the Coachella people reply “no”.
Bush hit the British charts for the first time in 1978 with Wuthering Heights which, amazingly, made her the first British female vocalist to hit number 1 with a self-penned song. She went on to sixteen British top twenty singles while all ten of her studio albums went to the top ten yet, here in the states, her success was more on a cult basis with Hounds of Love (1985 / #30 U.S.) being her biggest album and Running Up the Hill (1985 / #30 U.S.) being her biggest single.
That still doesn’t lessen Bush’s importance to music around the world. In 2014, after over three decades away from the stage, she did a 22-night sold-out residency at London’s Hammersmith Apollo. In addition, she has never played a show in the U.S.
So why did the organizers of Coachella say no to a major booking? John Seabrook tells the story in a new article in the New Yorker saying that the Coachella people emphatically said “No!” adding “No one is going to understand it.”
So there you go Coachella festival goers. The promoters of the show think that you just aren’t smart enough to understand Kate Bush.
