When Kate Bush emerged at the end of the seventies, she was greeted as a freak. When she played her comeback shows in 2014, she was feted as a goddess and a national institution. Following a short quiz about Bush’s nearly 40-year career, you’ll find questions about some of her successors and contemporaries.
Answers: here
1 How old was Kate Bush when ‘Wuthering Heights’ topped the UK singles chart in 1978? What’s the title of her debut album, released shortly afterwards? (2)
2 ‘Wuthering Heights’ has been Bush’s only British number one so far, but which other five have taken her into the Top Ten? (One song managed it twice, once in the shape of a 2012 remix; and one other song was a duet.) (5)
3 What’s the title of the suite of songs that makes up the second half of Hounds of Love? (1)
4 What’s the name of the suite that occupies disc two of Aerial? (1)
5 ‘Egypt’, ‘The Wedding List’ and ‘Army Dreamers’ appear on which Bush album? What was the album’s first single from the album, the video for which featured the singer writhing around like a foetus in the womb? Which sixties cult folkie provided backing vocals? (3)
6 Which 2005 Bush single was a dreamy take on the Elvis-is-alive theme? And which Marvin Gaye song appeared on its B-side? (2)
7 Released in 2011, Director’s Cut consists of restructured or re-recorded songs from which two studio albums? (2)
8 Which Bush song was used at the opening ceremony to the 2012 London Olympics, amid rumours (false) that Kate herself would sing at the event? (1)
9 Where did Bush perform her long-awaited live shows in 2014? What was the name of the show? (2)
10 Who appeared in the show as ‘the painter’ and a number of other roles? (1)
11 Come Away with Me took Norah Jones to number one in the UK and the US. What are the titles of her second and third albums, which both also topped the charts on both sides of the Atlantic?
12 Which 1994 single took Tori Amos into the British Top 10 for the first time? Which other single from Under the Pink, her chart-topping second album, followed it into the Top 10 later the same year?
13 Who had UK Top 10 hits with the singles ‘Left Outside Alone’ and ‘Sick and Tired’ in 2004? The same singer’s debut album reached number two in the UK in 2000 – what’s it called?
14 Who had a number one hit in 2013 with a cover of Keane’s ‘Somewhere Only We Know’? What was her next single, an attack on body image expectations?
15 ‘Professional Widow’ by Tori Amos reached number one after it was remixed by which DJ? Who, allegedly, is the subject of the song’s caustic lyrics?
16 What was Lene Lovich’s ‘Lucky Number’, according to her 1979 single? What’s the title of her second and highest-charting album, which features the single ‘Birdsong’ and a cover of ‘The Night’ by Frankie Valli & the Four Seasons?
17 The widely acclaimed Give My Love to London was released in 2014 by which enduring female singer? Which Americana star co-wrote and played guitar on the title track?
18 ‘Burn’ was the first UK number one for which homegrown singer-songwriter? Which movie gave her a second chart-topper with ‘Love Me Like You Do’?
19 What was Amy Winehouse wearing on her debut album? And what, rather poignantly, did she ask on the fourth track of the posthumously-released album Lioness?
20 Released in 2002, which Beth Orton album is the only one to have reached the British Top 10? ‘Concrete Sky’, the album’s first single, featured vocals from Ryan Adams and was co-written by which indie guitar hero?
Match the album to the artist.
21 Under My Skin. 22 Yours Truly, Cellophane Nose. 23 Drastic Fantastic. 24 Trailer Park. 25 Fellow Workers. 26 Our Version of Events. 27 To Survive. 28 Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit. 29 Vespertine. 30 Born to Die.
Artists: Courtney Barnett, Björk, Ani DiFranco, Lana Del Rey, Beth Jeans Houghton, Joan as Policewoman, Avril Lavigne, Beth Orton, Emeli Sandé, KT Tunstall.