All the young folk might be cottoning on to the brilliance of Kate Bush after her 1985 hit Running Up That Hill featured last month on the Netflix behemoth Stranger Things.
But long-time fans such as visual artists The Huxleys have always been inspired by the British songstress and will be front and centre at Canberra's sixth The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever at the National Portrait Gallery on Saturday, July 2.
The Huxleys - Melbourne couple and artists Will and Garrett Huxley - will be performing on the day, as the community gathers, dressed in red, to re-enact the magical dance moves of Kate Bush in her 1978 Wuthering Heights video, in a joyous worldwide event, while raising money locally for the Domestic Violence Crisis Service ACT.
"We're making some outfits inspired by Kate Bush in our own weird Huxley way and we're going to create a full red, sequinned Kate Bush homage and hopefully just be amongst it all and inspire the crowd to get involved," Will said.
"I don't know if we'll get the moves right but for me it's always been about if you feel Kate Bush, if you're in the zone, it doesn't matter if you get the choreography right. It's about channelling it."
And the joy is in the participation.
"Especially after the last couple of years we've had when we've been so separate, to have this opportunity to come together in the name of art and Kate Bush, I think it might actually be a healing thing for people. It's going to be quite special," Will said.
The performance will be at 10.30am on July 2 under cover in the forecourt of the Portrait Gallery. Information on how to participate and rehearsals are on the The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever - Canberra Facebook page.
Following the performance, you can go inside the gallery (after being "so cooo-old") and take in the Shakespeare to Winehouse: Icons from the National Portrait Gallery London, featuring a beautiful portrait of the Brontë sisters, including Emily who wrote about the OG Cathy and Heathcliff in her 1847 novel Wuthering Heights. (And, fun fact, Kate Bush and Emily Bronte share the same birthday - July 30.) Phew. Yep. It's a lot.
The Huxleys are excited to be returning to the Portrait Gallery, where they are also finalists in the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2022, the winner of which will be announced next week.
"For us, we are just so excited to be part of it," Will said. "I've never won anything in my life so it's not about winning for us. We've had such a great experience with the portrait gallery. They have three of our works in their collection already.
"And we did an amazing party for them last year which was one of my most favourite performances we've ever done. We had such a beautiful night there. So I feel like we have this really close connection with the gallery and to be in the prize as well - I can't wait to see all the works. It's going to be fun."
The couple's work in the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2022 is called Where Have All the Flowers Gone, a truly heartfelt piece.
"It was inspired by a Jean Genet novel called Our Lady of the Flowers. It was written in the '30s and about queer desire and it was semi-biographical about his erotic desire for other men and I remember reading it when I was a teenager and it blew my mind. It's so evocative.
"And Garrett and I wanted to demonstrate our love for each other. And also to explore notions of growing up as boys, you're told you have to hide those softer, feminine sides and the photo is all about this beautiful, floral, romantic kind of softness that you have to hide, but we embrace it. It's basically a demonstration of our romance."
And then there is Kate Bush.
"Garrett and I have a life-long love of Kate Bush," Will said.
"When we first met, our first conversation 16 years ago, Kate Bush was involved. I told him that how much I loved Hounds of Love and he was like, 'Oh, my god, I'm a huge Kate Bush fan'. It was one of the things we bonded over. And when I met him, I actually described Garrett to people as a 'Heathcliff-type' character.
"And when I was a kid, I was kind of excited and scared when I first heard the Wuthering Heights. The video as well kind of haunted me and the sound of her voice. She was only 18 when she wrote that and when I was 18, I could do anything."
The couple went on a "pilgrimage" to London in 2014 to see Bush perform in a series of concerts for the first time in 35 years.
"It was just amazing. She is such a force," Will said.
And now Bush has a new generation of fans thanks to Stranger Things.
"I kind of think they haven't earnt it," Will said, with a laugh.
"But I love that, that young people are being exposed to her music, however they find it. I think she is such a great role model for women, or anyone. She's always followed her own path.
"I saw this great interview with her once where she said her father, particularly, was so encouraging and she would show him what she had made or what she was working on. And he encouraged her - and encouragement I think is what has allowed to do what she did. Some of her work is so out there and marvellous. I still think she is ahead of everyone."
The Huxleys participated in the first The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever in Melbourne in 2016.
"It was just a sea of red dresses and it was beautiful," Will said.
"There were women as Kate Bush, men as Kate Bush, dogs as Kate Bush."
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