For Del Palmer, 3rd November 1952 – January 5th 2024
Not a name many knew, outside of us,
The devoted; but with his bass beside her
Del got to see Kate Bush grow,
From teenage beam shining sharp
Across South London Pub stages,
Through to the between the tree shimmer
Of the private locale, so few know,
He got to both kiss and curate the precious
Collections she’s fashioned, engineering,
Assisting from Never for Ever, to its equal
In enchantment, 50 Words For Snow.
It is to Del Palmer’s mouth that she passes
The key on The Dreaming’s cover,
An image so gorgeous, so dream drawn too,
It’s a world completely unto itself
And one that every fan would be part of,
Traipsing through those leaves and that forest
To sample the magic she made: spells unfurled
In songs as soft flags, waved by her characters’
Victorious nations, as they fused and crossed
Over borders between both the possible
And the dreamt, with his bass notes
As the heart’s beat,which beneath the skin of songs
Set souls soaring. Del was all fans desire,
But he, on their journey truly got to know
What love meant. And when their private connection
Was cut, he still sought the seal of her talent,
Giving of himself to her solely, apart from
A connection or two, here and there.
For lovers lost are still part of our practise,
And the sinew of strings for such players
Retain the textures of rapacious touch
And true care. Del was our emblem in that,
As he got to help her. He shared all of Kate’s
Explorations, her studies in sound and intent.
He got to take her out and stay in, hair slicked
Back, film star handsome, with moustache
And eyes flashing, as the bright guy
From Greenwich caught everyone’s Angel
From Kent. Claire Palmer and I met Del once
At Simon Drake’s House of Magic. And magical
Was that evening in that secret locale,
London set, which became an island of sorts
On which for those hours, we floated,
Exchanging views and impressions and what
He was doing now that he too stood separate
From the dream drenched day when they met.
Del was the dog in Cassavettes’ Love Streams.
Do you know it? In that film’s final moments
Cassavetes encounters this richly haired hound.
Intoxication through image as this is the real
Hound of love. For then the shot cuts
To a moustached Man-God who beams broadly.
Which Del always did, by being best friend
To music’s first woman. Del, then, in departing
Is devotion and dreaming and the dare to
Devise the profound. He had sense, style
And grace and worked for the ground
Kate Bush walked on. Del’s last declaration
Has a lesson for us all: Love is sound.
David Erdos 17/1/24
Del Palmer, bassist and long-term collaborator with Kate Bush – obituary
When he first saw her perform, he recalled, ‘I knew I had to be involved – she was going to be huge, that was obvious’
Del Palmer with Kate Bush performing on German television in 1985 Credit: ZIK Images/United Archives via Getty Images
Del Palmer, who has died aged 71, was a bass player and sound engineer who was Kate Bush’s right-hand man in the studio, as well as her long-term partner during the 1980s; the singer also became renowned for her lavish, big-budget promo videos, and Palmer was often featured in a leading role.
Derek Peter Palmer was born in Greenwich on November 3 1952; he was 15 when he acquired his first bass guitar, borrowing £20 from his mother to buy a Hofner Artist.
He played in a band called Tame, with Brian Bath on guitar and Vic King on drums; they eventually became the KT Bush Band after Kate Bush’s brother Paddy, a friend of Palmer’s, suggested that they help give her some experience of playing live. He realised when he saw her perform that his life had changed.
“I knew I had to be involved. She was going to be huge – that was obvious to me when she was 17 and still a very raw artist.”
They secured a residency at the Rose of Lee pub in Lewisham. “The first night there were about 10 people,” he recalled. “By the time we finished the residency there were people out in the street who couldn’t get in the door, it was so jammed.
“I thought: ‘Where does this girl get all her energy from?’ She would be up at the crack of dawn, and she didn’t stop from that point onwards. She would travel into London for dance classes, come home and sing, then play and work on the music. When I was completely knackered and had to sleep, she would still be working on Wuthering Heights at two o’clock in the morning – to the point where we would get complaining letters from the neighbours.”
Thanks in part to the help of Dave Gilmour, who was given a demo tape by a mutual friend of the Pink Floyd guitarist and the Bush family, Kate was given a sizeable advance by EMI – who insisted that her backing band was replaced by session musicians for her debut album, The Kick Inside, released in February 1978. But by the time the follow-up, Lionheart, came out nine months later Palmer’s position as her regular bassist was secure.
Their professional relationship had become personal, and Palmer played on Never for Ever (1980) and The Dreaming (1982), as well as being her main man in the studio and engineering her self-produced masterpiece Hounds of Love (1985).
Their relationship ended in the early 1990s, but they continued working together, and he engineered her 1993 album The Red Shoes, working with her as she composed in the studio, programming electronic drums and the Fairlight sampling computer.
“There have been lots of times when I’ve had quite heated arguments with her,” he recalled in an interview to promote the album. “I’d say something wouldn’t work, to which her response has been, ‘Indulge me… Just do it.’ ”
He played on later Kate Bush albums – Aerial in 2005 and 50 Words for Snow (2011) – while he also engineered albums for Roy Harper and Alain Stivell, as well as Sister and Brother, Kate Bush’s collaboration with Midge Ure on his 1988 album Answers to Nothing.
Palmer also made appearances in Kate Bush’s acclaimed videos. He was a getaway driver in There Goes a Tenner in 1982, then in 1986, in the video for Experiment IV – released as a double A-side with Don’t Give Up to promote her second compilation album The Whole Story – he played a patient on a secret military base who has the titular experiment performed on him.
It also featured Hugh Laurie, Peter Vaughan and Dawn French but was deemed too gruesome to be shown on Top of the Pops.
In 2018, Palmer returned to the stage after a long absence, touring England and Ireland with a covers band, Cloudbusting, playing songs from the Kate Bush back catalogue.
Del Palmer, born November 3 1952, died January 5 2024
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