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Kate Bush - Them Heavy People

Music Video
ArtistKate Bush
SongThem Heavy People
DirectorKeef
IntroNo
OutroNo
Sound MixStereo
Technical Specificationscolour - format unknown

Wiki

Synopsis

Kate Bush performs "Them Heavy People" in a stark black studio, turning the song into a compact piece of music-hall-inspired choreography. Wearing a white fedora, black top, and purple skirt, she begins seated at a table beneath a swinging light bulb. Two dancers in trench coats and matching hats flank her, alternately acting as comic foils and dance partners. The camera emphasizes Bush's sharp gestures, elastic movements, and playful physicality rather than building a conventional narrative.

Factoids & Trivia

  • The video was made as a promotional companion to the 1979 live EP *On Stage*. Its recording came from Bush's 1979 Tour of Life performances at London's Hammersmith Odeon.
  • The two dancers were members of Bush's live performance team. Their trench coats and fedoras carry over the theatrical detective imagery used in her stage presentation.
  • The song originally appeared on Bush's 1978 debut album, *The Kick Inside*. It was also issued in Japan in 1978 under the alternate title "Rolling the Ball."
  • The performance-led video reflects the format of Bush's early promotional films, which typically combined lip-syncing, expressive dance, costume, and simple studio staging rather than a separate cinematic storyline.
  • Bush performed the song in a similar coat-and-fedora presentation on *Saturday Night Live* in December 1978, several months before the promotional video associated with *On Stage*.

Lyrics

Rolling the ball, rolling the ball, rolling the ball to me.
Rolling the ball, rolling the ball, rolling the ball to me.

They arrived at an inconvenient time.
I was hiding in a room in my mind.
They made me look at myself. I saw it well.
I'd shut the people out of my life.

So now I take the opportunities:
Wonderful teachers ready to teach me.
I must work on my mind. For now I realise:
Everyone of us has a heaven inside.

Them heavy people hit me in a soft spot.
...
© Kate Bush - Them Heavy People. This is an excerpt, provided as citation under fair-use.
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