Kate Bush “Man w/ Child..” Revealed

British singer's "first true love" selling off the song's original handwritten lyrics.

By Fred Mills

If you're a Kate Bush geek (is there any other kind of Bush fan?), then you've no doubt spent many an hour pondering, with furrowed brow, exactly who was the subject of La Bush's early hit "The Man With The Child In His Eyes." In the internet age, the debate has continued to rage (well, simmered, perhaps...), with Pink Floyd guitarist (and Bush producer) David Gilmour frequently getting the nod by default.

But now the burning truth can be revealed: it was her childhood sweetheart, Steve Blacknell.

According to a report yesterday in Britain's Daily Mail, Blacknell has come forth, as these things tend to come forth, via a money grab: he's selling off Bush's original hand-scrawled lyrics to the song (reproduced below), with an asking price of £10,000. It's being hawked at memorabilia site www.991.com.

 Described by Blacknell, 58, as a "love letter" from his old girlfriend, the document hearkens back to around 1975 when he and Bush were an item around East Wickham. Blacknell told reporters, "All I really knew about her was that she wrote songs, played the piano and lived in a lovely house with an equally lovely family.... I'll never forget [when] I went round to her house and she led me to the room where the piano was. I thought "Oh my God". What I heard made my soul stand on end. I realised there and then that I was in love with a genius.

 "I've been told by those around her that I was indeed The Man With The Child In His Eyes and I know that those words were given to me by someone very special. They say you never forget your first love and in my case it's as true as it is for anyone. It's true too that she went on to charm, enlighten and entrance people all over the world."

You can read the entire story and see photos of Bush at Blacknell at the Daily Mail site.