My cousin told me about this performance. He was 14 and clearly 'interested' in Kate. I had missed TOTP that week and asked my mum about it. 'Oh, the one who looked like a witch?' was her response. I was fascinated. Heard the song a few days later, saw her later TOTP appearances. Have loved her ever since. My husband and I call her Katie, as though she is our friend, because we bonded over our love for her. Unique.
I think I was about 9 years old when I heard this on the school bus radio while enroute to school, I absolutely loved it, my school friends mocked Kate's high pitch. I was afraid to say that I loved the song in fear of what my friends would say.
I can't believe Kate hated this performance. She said, "It was like watching myself die. It was a bloody awful performance." Even with Top of the Pops stripping her from her band, she did amazing with the limitations that she had. Unparalleled talent.
I'm guessing it's the combination of her frustration prior (not her band, weird backing track with different pace) and her ensuing nervousness of presenting her art live to national TV with half of it basically missing. Kate's voice is surely enough art for me as is, but I'm guessing her slight insecurity in singing here plus the struggles surrounding this performance and her artistic freedom in general back then make her cringe in retrospect.
@@pfl95 the other performances were mimed, specially pre recorded. This was live , hear the mic pop and her breathing come through when she gets close to it.
@@SuperTank121212 "People are afraid of what they do not understand" Absolutely. It can't be emphasised enough that in 1978, there was absolutely no one else remotely like her.
I remember saying to my best friend next day at school 'wow! Did you see that woman on Top of the pops, wasn't she fantastic!! My friend said Nope, I hated it!!
She was fishing that night. She cast off and hooked me instantly. 46 years on and it’s still the greatest song ever written. Privileged to have seen her live and to this day my favourite artist ever. She’s still unique. Never change.
I remember quite clearly watching this wonderful singer for the first time and not quite believing what i was seeing and hearing. I remember my dear old dad saying, now that girl is good, and the shock of hearing a man who was born in the 20's seeing her talent. No disrespect to anybody born at that time. However a completely different style of music. She is still a brilliant musican.
I remember seeing this performance live, way back on a Thursday evening in 1978. I'd heard the song on my Benkson pocket transistor radio under my pillow a few nights earlier, remembering that the late night Radio 1 DJ said “you'll either love this or...” - well I loved it. I'd never heard anything like it before (nor since!), and I really hoped it would be on TOTP and for it to go well. It was on TOTP, but I have to say at the time I could only agree with Kate - it simply didn't do her or the song any justice I thought, but thank God it all turned out alright in the end, and the rest, as they say, is a wonderfully colourful and creative history, with more than the odd masterpiece in there along the way...🙂👍🙏
In the 70s and early 80s, listeners had a taste for more adventurous music, anything surreal, imaginative had to be just that to capture people's attention ... these days its very staid, very few musicians push the boundaries of what music can be, I wonder what kind of children we r bringing up , its like a step back in evolution ...
88feji don’t be so bleak. I’m twenty and absolutely adore this, as well as modern “more adventurous” music. It may seem like the gross of my generation is listening to electronic nonsense but we have varying taste, you know - I’m sure this wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea back then, either.
@@laarzzxd What i meant is that songs like Wuthering Heights and Going Up That Hill regularly used to reach the upper regions of the main popularity charts ... now its very difficult for "strange sounding" songs to gain mainstream popularity ...
KB does her best here in near impossible circumstances- namely being forced to sing such a distinctive, idiosyncratic song with a band who have no feel for the music (not really their fault either, they were capable musicians but under rehearsed). Nevertheless, it was thrilling watching it back in the day. Difficult now to appreciate how unique she was. A real shot in the arm.
oh how amazing, what a performance this was! the audience look perplexed but here was a remarkable debut..quite unlike anything before or since..she is the best!
I think it's unbelievable how well she handled this situation. Top notch performance, while the band is somewhere in the background taking a dump or whatever. She must have felt an epic failure looming over her, but still carried the whole thing perfectly. When she sings "Let me have it...let me grab your soul away" - you feel it.
I so remember this. This late 70s period had so much music variety. It wasnt uncommon to get a love song, reggae, ska, punk, new wave and disco (and the odd novelty song) all on the one show. And then we get this. We and studio audience were mesmerised. I think she was just 18 singing live a song even in those musical times it was like no other song and accompanied by the BBC orchestra who weren't always good - like here going way too slow.. She was brave. Her professionalism carried her through. Nervous yes but she still had such an impact. I fell in love with her then. The audience didn't know what hit them. Could we get a song like this today! All the follow-up TOTP appearances after her performance grew in confidence. The video for this song I think was her dancing by the sea in a red dress on some rough grass and I thought how she didnt twist her ankle.
She was annoyed that she couldn't have her own musicians perform with her. TOTP insisted she use the house band to perform with as she was a 'solo act'. That is why she thought it went terribly.
"It was like watching myself die." - She was brilliant, regardless...anyone with a good ear can tell what's going on here. (After all, it was TOTP - I don't think many artists would have enjoyed playing there much at all.)
i can remember me and my sister watching this and we laughed because she was just so different and we thought what on earth is this. we were just 12 and 10. we could not understand her genius then. some musicians are just so far ahead of the rest of us that we need time to catch up with them. kid jensen was correct, she really is exquisite.
Wow ... Besides having an amazing talent, a magical voice, a fantastic expressiveness kate is also super sexi .... Simply beautiful. I love Kate Bush forever ....
Wholeheartedly agree about the comments of her professionalism in this situation. When the band started I immediately started to cringe. Kudoes to Kate for pulling this off. I am so proud of her for keeping her composure.
she is outstanding here, like maria callas she outshone and outclassed the backing and carried on flawless and as a viewer you can watch this and not fault her. Despite what she has said since. Infact Id go as far as saying that they tried to sabotage it for her...and that shows her metal.
Kate’s a genius, the band phoned it in, and the audience looked like a bunch of drugged up zombies. Zombies in the presence of greatness then, perhaps now they get the honor they were given. Kate’s absolutely timeless and a blessing to her may fans; sure wish I’d been there... Cheers.
I think almost anyone who heard this song for the first time must have been in a state of confusion as this song and its coreography was unlike anything heard or seen before. I dont blame the audience as even they are probably in a state of shock.
I still have a couple of her albums from when I was a teenager. She has a lovely one of a kind voice that could hit the higher notes with out been 'adjusted' later. Yet another of the things this new generation has missed out on seeing/hearing.
I’m a bit late to this, but if you’re still out there, we may miss out on some things, but we also have so many things that older generations didn’t have. There’s no doubt that if streaming platforms like Spotify and RUclips etc.. didn’t exist, then artists like Kate bush wouldn’t be anywhere near as popular as they are within younger generations. My point is that right now our generation has pretty much free access to an unlimited amount of music and film from over the past however many years, which provides an amazing resource for young people like me to discover artists from over the years.
You know what, this never came to North America for years and years, instead it was covered by Pat Benatar of all people, which of course pretty much went nowhere, due to Pat's lack of requisite talent. I would have been about 9 years old when Kate's TOTP was broadcast not in North America. Just listen to this wretched version we had to listen to here: ruclips.net/video/MnDijNVpngA/видео.html Or Pat's live version from 1999: ruclips.net/video/tyYXV_KRB1Q/видео.html Pat's performance shows she had absolutely no understanding of the material, not by a long shot. Anyway by the time KB finally caught on in Canada, in the mid '80s, I was absolutely gobsmacked. But by then she seemed so much older and accomplished, and perfected. What an absolute gem to finally get to see her early performances, when she was young and wasn't able to command the respect she deserved, and her sound is imperfect and vulnerable and so young. I would have fallen hopelessly in love with her at age 9, except no, we only had Benatar's performance in the '70s, which shall always be completely forgettable in comparison.
Sometimes, (usually after being up 5 days on a glue sniffing/ pcp bender) I like to ponder the supergroup possibilities of her hooking up with Rush, and becoming their lead singer! Somewhere, there really could be an alternate universe in which this band really does exist! (I also like to speculate that in this same universe, I am Rush's trampolinist! Because, in this same reality, having someone work the trampoline is just as necessary as having a drummer/singer/guitarist/etc.) Please.... just imagine how cool this reality would be, then throw a unicyclist juggling poodles into this supergroup mix, then try not to let your head explode, while imagining all this awesomeness squeezed into 1 rock band! Oh, the humanity!!!
I remember TOTP Thursday nights at 7:25 p.m. People didn't know what to make of this performance. I was 15 at the time in Dublin, Ireland. I really liked it. Very courageous performance. The other performance I can remember that really had people talking was The Stranglers Golden Brown that we all heard for the first time on TOTP's in 1982. So unexpected. Of course there were a lot of others but these are the two that really had people talking that I can remember. Calling friends from the house rotary phone on the hallway table saying, "Did you hear that? What did you think?
Was that her band or a BBC stand in as it sounds like falling down stairs when they initially come in with the wrong feel completely!😢 She is a bloomin trooper though to still sound professional and polished with the distractions of the band
1) I remember this. 16 y/o 2) She must have been shitting herself. 3) Just me, or is the band crap and she was having to adjust to cover? 4) The "live audience" was practically dead despite watching an historic birth
It's sad how they made it so much more difficult for her and stripped the song of a lot of its charm (probably unintentionally), but Kate still did her best to make up for it. I feel her pain though...
Herself and Bowie were always sensitive to the camera angles, she obviously is thrown off by them and that was very on the edge wasnt it? be brave and face the music!
this was her first tv performance, and the band was provided by the show, her actual band wasn't allowed to play with her. she was absolutely petrified. she says that rewatching the tape was "like watching (herself) die." you can see that in her 1979 tour she had no trouble at all with singing and dancing at the same time no less.
I can't believe they made her perform with that utterly shite band. The bass player hit bum notes, the drummer sounded like he was on death's door and couldn't hit the bloody things, and it was overall a lackluster, sloppy performance from the band which lacked any dynamics and energy! Poor Kate, bless her young heart...
She sang live and her performance was impeccable, but the band sounded really awful. Out of sync, wrong notes, missing chords... I understand why she was frustrated.
![YoungBoy Never Broke Again - Catch Me [Official Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/KxwEXXFQMTY/mqdefault.jpg)
My cousin told me about this performance. He was 14 and clearly 'interested' in Kate. I had missed TOTP that week and asked my mum about it. 'Oh, the one who looked like a witch?' was her response. I was fascinated. Heard the song a few days later, saw her later TOTP appearances. Have loved her ever since. My husband and I call her Katie, as though she is our friend, because we bonded over our love for her. Unique.
Thank you God for giving us Kate Bush.
OMG. 42 years have gone by in a blink of an eye.
I think I was about 9 years old when I heard this on the school bus radio while enroute to school, I absolutely loved it, my school friends mocked Kate's high pitch. I was afraid to say that I loved the song in fear of what my friends would say.
I experienced the same thing in middle school in the 2010s
I can't believe Kate hated this performance. She said, "It was like watching myself die. It was a bloody awful performance." Even with Top of the Pops stripping her from her band, she did amazing with the limitations that she had. Unparalleled talent.
I'm guessing it's the combination of her frustration prior (not her band, weird backing track with different pace) and her ensuing nervousness of presenting her art live to national TV with half of it basically missing. Kate's voice is surely enough art for me as is, but I'm guessing her slight insecurity in singing here plus the struggles surrounding this performance and her artistic freedom in general back then make her cringe in retrospect.
wasn't this also lip synced?
@@pfl95 if it was she wouldn't go out of time
Mostly because of the bad music by the BBC house band/orchestra.
Otherwise, Kate is as close to perfect as can be.
@@pfl95 the other performances were mimed, specially pre recorded. This was live , hear the mic pop and her breathing come through when she gets close to it.
I watched this as a nine year old and was blown away. Everyone else in the room was taking the piss out of her performance but I was mesmerized...
How could anybody take the piss out of Kate Bush, I was only around 13 when I first heard her and I was memorized, top end artist!
@@jamieforrester2857 People are afraid of what they do not understand
@@SuperTank121212 "People are afraid of what they do not understand" Absolutely. It can't be emphasised enough that in 1978, there was absolutely no one else remotely like her.
I remember saying to my best friend next day at school 'wow! Did you see that woman on Top of the pops, wasn't she fantastic!! My friend said Nope, I hated it!!
She was fishing that night. She cast off and hooked me instantly. 46 years on and it’s still the greatest song ever written. Privileged to have seen her live and to this day my favourite artist ever. She’s still unique. Never change.
This is the measure of Kate's talent.
No other mysician would ever sound this good live.
Genius woman.
Wow those eyes mesmerize me. She is beautiful, incredibly talented and adorable. I love Kate Bush forever ...
I remember quite clearly watching this wonderful singer for the first time and not quite believing what i was seeing and hearing. I remember my dear old dad saying, now that girl is good, and the shock of hearing a man who was born in the 20's seeing her talent. No disrespect to anybody born at that time. However a completely different style of music. She is still a brilliant musican.
A musical genius performing in front of a load of shop dummies in a skip
I remember seeing this performance live, way back on a Thursday evening in 1978. I'd heard the song on my Benkson pocket transistor radio under my pillow a few nights earlier, remembering that the late night Radio 1 DJ said “you'll either love this or...” - well I loved it. I'd never heard anything like it before (nor since!), and I really hoped it would be on TOTP and for it to go well. It was on TOTP, but I have to say at the time I could only agree with Kate - it simply didn't do her or the song any justice I thought, but thank God it all turned out alright in the end, and the rest, as they say, is a wonderfully colourful and creative history, with more than the odd masterpiece in there along the way...🙂👍🙏
In the 70s and early 80s, listeners had a taste for more adventurous music, anything surreal, imaginative had to be just that to capture people's attention ... these days its very staid, very few musicians push the boundaries of what music can be, I wonder what kind of children we r bringing up , its like a step back in evolution ...
88feji don’t be so bleak. I’m twenty and absolutely adore this, as well as modern “more adventurous” music. It may seem like the gross of my generation is listening to electronic nonsense but we have varying taste, you know - I’m sure this wasn’t everyone’s cup of tea back then, either.
@@laarzzxd
What i meant is that songs like Wuthering Heights and Going Up That Hill regularly used to reach the upper regions of the main popularity charts ... now its very difficult for "strange sounding" songs to gain mainstream popularity ...
Really One of a kind magical voice, no one like her.
KB does her best here in near impossible circumstances- namely being forced to sing such a distinctive, idiosyncratic song with a band who have no feel for the music (not really their fault either, they were capable musicians but under rehearsed). Nevertheless, it was thrilling watching it back in the day. Difficult now to appreciate how unique she was. A real shot in the arm.
Oh, so very cool to find this early performance and no lip synching! How lucky for those present to have this memory.
oh how amazing, what a performance this was! the audience look perplexed but here was a remarkable debut..quite unlike anything before or since..she is the best!
Спасибо. Даже не знал про это выступление..
We know we know Babooshka means grandma give us a break
I think it's unbelievable how well she handled this situation. Top notch performance, while the band is somewhere in the background taking a dump or whatever. She must have felt an epic failure looming over her, but still carried the whole thing perfectly. When she sings "Let me have it...let me grab your soul away" - you feel it.
I remember this well and I was completely blown away. I thought she was amazing.
I so remember this. This late 70s period had so much music variety. It wasnt uncommon to get a love song, reggae, ska, punk, new wave and disco (and the odd novelty song) all on the one show. And then we get this. We and studio audience were mesmerised. I think she was just 18 singing live a song even in those musical times it was like no other song and accompanied by the BBC orchestra who weren't always good - like here going way too slow.. She was brave. Her professionalism carried her through. Nervous yes but she still had such an impact. I fell in love with her then. The audience didn't know what hit them. Could we get a song like this today! All the follow-up TOTP appearances after her performance grew in confidence. The video for this song I think was her dancing by the sea in a red dress on some rough grass and I thought how she didnt twist her ankle.
She was annoyed that she couldn't have her own musicians perform with her. TOTP insisted she use the house band to perform with as she was a 'solo act'. That is why she thought it went terribly.
+Max Herring If she's ever had a bad live performance, I'm yet to see it.
She wasn't bad, it's just the band supplied by totp were out of time
"It was like watching myself die." - She was brilliant, regardless...anyone with a good ear can tell what's going on here. (After all, it was TOTP - I don't think many artists would have enjoyed playing there much at all.)
well the band were terrible. in spite of that, she was still brilliant; I liked this performance
Could be worse, could be a lip synch.
A magical performance from a magical lady. The old Punk Rocker still loves you in 2024, little Katie ♥♥♥.
Wow!! A genuine LIVE performance on TOTP!!
Kate Bush is a genius and her music will last forever.it never dates.
Sheer and utter class.
Brilliant - beautifully sung. Live!
Timeless.
Kind of genius artist we won't have anymore
i can remember me and my sister watching this and we laughed because she was just so different and we thought what on earth is this. we were just 12 and 10. we could not understand her genius then. some musicians are just so far ahead of the rest of us that we need time to catch up with them. kid jensen was correct, she really is exquisite.
Stunning and live so beat that then you so called artists that are around today!!
"It was like watching myself die", recalls Bush....
Wow ... Besides having an amazing talent, a magical voice, a fantastic expressiveness kate is also super sexi .... Simply beautiful. I love Kate Bush forever ....
A true artist
A w e s o m e ... brava Kate as always...What a great song...still here 2020...
you can see that people don't know what to make of her. Genius.
Por esta mujer hubiera llorado de amor
2:38: @the band - "You're fired!"
Wholeheartedly agree about the comments of her professionalism in this situation. When the band started I immediately started to cringe. Kudoes to Kate for pulling this off. I am so proud of her for keeping her composure.
Pure Excellence...
she is outstanding here, like maria callas she outshone and outclassed the backing and carried on flawless and as a viewer you can watch this and not fault her. Despite what she has said since. Infact Id go as far as saying that they tried to sabotage it for her...and that shows her metal.
..."mettle".
Kate’s a genius, the band phoned it in, and the audience looked like a bunch of drugged up zombies. Zombies in the presence of greatness then, perhaps now they get the honor they were given. Kate’s absolutely timeless and a blessing to her may fans; sure wish I’d been there... Cheers.
I think almost anyone who heard this song for the first time must have been in a state of confusion as this song and its coreography was unlike anything heard or seen before.
I dont blame the audience as even they are probably in a state of shock.
I still have a couple of her albums from when I was a teenager. She has a lovely one of a kind voice that could hit the higher notes with out been 'adjusted' later. Yet another of the things this new generation has missed out on seeing/hearing.
I’m a bit late to this, but if you’re still out there, we may miss out on some things, but we also have so many things that older generations didn’t have. There’s no doubt that if streaming platforms like Spotify and RUclips etc.. didn’t exist, then artists like Kate bush wouldn’t be anywhere near as popular as they are within younger generations. My point is that right now our generation has pretty much free access to an unlimited amount of music and film from over the past however many years, which provides an amazing resource for young people like me to discover artists from over the years.
Groundbreaker for the 80’s new wave. Loved her.
coming from another planet
extraordinary and wonderful - if only the same could be said for the live audience
an actual live top of the pops!
The performance scared the hell out of the girl at 0:52 :D
Amo essa musica hoje e sempre, Beautiful😘
Lol! at 1.40.. where she says 'cool heathcliffe' as opposed to cruel... that's ace. 💜👊
I think that's live!!
kate said she was so nervous of this performance and when she watched it back it was like watching herself die :3
Hmm... Here's a random thought. I think "Wuthering Heights" might be the only #1 song that features the time signature of 10/8.
+Mike Kiker Did Bjork ever hit #1 in England? She's the only one I can think of that ever came close to a time sig like that.
+Double Agents
Tidbit
"Army Dreamers" is considered the only true rock & roll waltz.
and a key change from verse to chorus of A to D flat
You know what, this never came to North America for years and years, instead it was covered by Pat Benatar of all people, which of course pretty much went nowhere, due to Pat's lack of requisite talent. I would have been about 9 years old when Kate's TOTP was broadcast not in North America.
Just listen to this wretched version we had to listen to here: ruclips.net/video/MnDijNVpngA/видео.html
Or Pat's live version from 1999: ruclips.net/video/tyYXV_KRB1Q/видео.html
Pat's performance shows she had absolutely no understanding of the material, not by a long shot.
Anyway by the time KB finally caught on in Canada, in the mid '80s, I was absolutely gobsmacked. But by then she seemed so much older and accomplished, and perfected.
What an absolute gem to finally get to see her early performances, when she was young and wasn't able to command the respect she deserved, and her sound is imperfect and vulnerable and so young. I would have fallen hopelessly in love with her at age 9, except no, we only had Benatar's performance in the '70s, which shall always be completely forgettable in comparison.
Sometimes, (usually after being up 5 days on a glue sniffing/ pcp bender) I like to ponder the supergroup possibilities of her hooking up with Rush, and becoming their lead singer! Somewhere, there really could be an alternate universe in which this band really does exist! (I also like to speculate that in this same universe, I am Rush's trampolinist! Because, in this same reality, having someone work the trampoline is just as necessary as having a drummer/singer/guitarist/etc.) Please.... just imagine how cool this reality would be, then throw a unicyclist juggling poodles into this supergroup mix, then try not to let your head explode, while imagining all this awesomeness squeezed into 1 rock band! Oh, the humanity!!!
I remember TOTP Thursday nights at 7:25 p.m. People didn't know what to make of this performance. I was 15 at the time in Dublin, Ireland. I really liked it. Very courageous performance. The other performance I can remember that really had people talking was The Stranglers Golden Brown that we all heard for the first time on TOTP's in 1982. So unexpected. Of course there were a lot of others but these are the two that really had people talking that I can remember. Calling friends from the house rotary phone on the hallway table saying, "Did you hear that? What did you think?
amazing
at least it was live and very alive!
9 people didn't let Cathy into their window
she and john anderson can have total control on the voice
Kate at her worst = still better than most shit on totp
💕💖💗👍👍👍👍😘😘
you can just concentrate on the vocal in this version, it's like an acoustic/ stripped down version
I remember thinking WTF! If it had been invented then.
Ohhh
Was that her band or a BBC stand in as it sounds like falling down stairs when they initially come in with the wrong feel completely!😢
She is a bloomin trooper though to still sound professional and polished with the distractions of the band
So much stress-tremor in her voice... she wanted the whole business to come to an end.
1) I remember this. 16 y/o
2) She must have been shitting herself.
3) Just me, or is the band crap and she was having to adjust to cover?
4) The "live audience" was practically dead despite watching an historic birth
not lip synced
that dress she wore hammer horror video,.
England's rose
It's sad how they made it so much more difficult for her and stripped the song of a lot of its charm (probably unintentionally), but Kate still did her best to make up for it. I feel her pain though...
Herself and Bowie were always sensitive to the camera angles, she obviously is thrown off by them and that was very on the edge wasnt it? be brave and face the music!
I am seeking for the outro of this perfomance but I think I'll never find it. TOTP ruined this song
Like this song now, good upload but man she is so young here and her singing sounds flat at times, trouble hitting the low notes.
this was her first tv performance, and the band was provided by the show, her actual band wasn't allowed to play with her. she was absolutely petrified. she says that rewatching the tape was "like watching (herself) die." you can see that in her 1979 tour she had no trouble at all with singing and dancing at the same time no less.
The band is junk but Kate is all that and more
She did it gracefully, but the band was out of the key once or twice.
Kate is wonderful but the musicians are not up to the task
I can't believe they made her perform with that utterly shite band. The bass player hit bum notes, the drummer sounded like he was on death's door and couldn't hit the bloody things, and it was overall a lackluster, sloppy performance from the band which lacked any dynamics and energy! Poor Kate, bless her young heart...
She sang live and her performance was impeccable, but the band sounded really awful. Out of sync, wrong notes, missing chords... I understand why she was frustrated.
She's definitely unsettled - you can hear a little bit of nerves. How stressful, poor thing.
Who the heck are playing the instruments? They’re terrible with the pacing
Oh poor kate!
great..before saville gets his hands on em, theyre treated to a little witch-dance
It's a bad song, she has a good voice .
Lamest backing I've ever heard
The last dreadful throws of the baby boomer generation.