Five Hungry Joes – A pictorial archive of the Trashcan Sinatras. Legendary Scottish Band

…Kate Bush, is the fifth in a series where musicians and writers tell of their experiences on first hearing a particular band or artist. Other artists included in the series so far include Cocteau Twins, The Smiths, Joy Division/New Order and David Bowie.

Contributors to the Kate Bush edition include John Grant (The Czars), Ryan King (My Latest Novel), Simon Phipps (Engineers) and the Trashcans’ Paul Livingston.

The series is available for your Kindle/iPad via Amazon.

Here’s Paul’s contribution…

Paul Livingston plays guitar and writes songs in The Trashcan Sinatras, and has done for the past twenty-five years. He is Scottish, but lives with his wife and cats in Los Angeles.

She was always there, in the background of my youth, was Kate. Swooning on the moor on Top of the Pops, spinning on the Kenny Everett Show, talking Cockney on Razzamatazz. A gypsy woman with a high voice and big mouth, right? But I didn’t appreciate the beauty of what I was seeing and hearing at the time, because it wasn’t heavy metal (I was nine). It just wasn’t on my radar.

Well, all that changed, thanks to my Uncle John, Everyone has an Uncle like him, don’t they? Always obsessing over some new musical treasure, trying to get the we’uns into it. In his room after school, all red shiny wallpaper and bright flashing lights on the record player, I first heard The Dreaming. I was floored. What on earth is that?

Every song blew my mind. It was just so bizarre to me. “Why’d she do that? And how did she know it would work?”

I remember being a wee bit frightened. It was all so… witchy!

It was on a cassette, so had no lyrics, but the words I could hear filled my head with possibilities. Then there’s that “EYAWWW!” craziness at the end!

I treasured that tape, and from that moment on, I have loved Kate Bush. But she never topped this album, in my opinion. How could she?

September 2012