"Kate Bush" (often referred to as Amiga due to the label's appearance on the cover) is a compilation album by the British singer-songwriter, released exclusively in East Germany in 1984. It features tracks from her first three studio albums: The Kick Inside (1978), Lionheart (1978), and Never for Ever (1980). However, the compilation does not include any songs from her 1982 album The Dreaming, which had been released two years earlier.
The album was issued by the East German label Amiga, marking a rare international release in a socialist state during the Cold War. This album served as a way for East German audiences to access Kate Bush's music, which had been relatively difficult to obtain in the region due to political and commercial barriers.
The cover art features a photograph of Kate Bush under an orange light, which appears to be an outtake from the promotional images used for her "Hammer Horror" single. This gives the compilation an eerie, dramatic visual that ties back to the theatrical nature of much of her early work.
Though Kate Bush (Amiga) was released several years after The Dreaming (1982), the album focuses on her earlier hits, offering a curated selection from her first three albums. It provides fans in East Germany the opportunity to hear some of Bush's most iconic tracks up until that point, albeit missing material from The Dreaming, which was a more experimental and complex phase in her career.
This compilation is noteworthy because it reflects the cultural and political landscape of the time. During the Cold War, Western music often had limited access to countries behind the Iron Curtain, and releases like this one were rare but significant in providing East German listeners with access to Western artists. The fact that Kate Bush (Amiga) was released after The Dreaming suggests that the demand for her earlier music still existed, despite the lack of newer material.
While the album is obscure and was not widely known outside of East Germany, it remains a unique piece of Kate Bush’s discography, especially for collectors and fans interested in her music's global reach during the 1980s.
