Emma Pollock reckons she was around seven years old when she first heard Kate Bush’s music.

Now the Scottish songstress is to curate a night this weekend dedicated to one of pop’s most creative geniuses, called Running Up That Hill.

“My first memory of Kate Bush is The Man With The Child In His Eyes, which is one of the first songs she ever brought out,” recalls Emma.

“I was seven when I heard that, and for me it’s still one of the best songs she’s ever written. What’s incredible is that she was 14 when she wrote it, and to have that understanding of song, and the emotion it can carry, it’s so sophisticated.

“Then I was a teenager when Hounds of Love came out (in 1985) and I was absolutely knocked out by it. I was really discovering music then in a big way, because your teenage years are so important to discovering culture.”

Former Delgados singer Emma was approached by organisers of the Aberdeen festival True North last year, who asked if she fancied organising a gig dedicated to a musician of her choice. She picked Kate Bush, and the evening went well enough that she was offered the chance to repeat it in Glasgow, with the show taking place at the O2 ABC this Saturday.

Appearing on the night will be a host of talent from both Scotland and further afield, including Karine Polwart, SAY Award winning singer Kathryn Joseph, Twilight Sad frontman James Graham and Glasgow troubadour Roddy Hart.

And the show will go through both well known work and hidden gems.

“You’ll be a fan and know the songs inside out to sing along to, but to sit down and tear them apart for the purposes of playing them then you are getting to know them all over again,” says Emma.

“The interesting thing about going through her entire catalogue means you realise there are certain songs you can’t get away from, so Hounds of Love will be one of the most apparent albums on the night, because it is such a hugely loved record.

“But then it gets really interesting, because later in her career you have records like Ariel, which are also fantastic.”

For Emma, one of the things most inspiring about Kate Bush is her determination to do things her own way.

“She’s always been out on her own,” explains the singer.

“She has done what she wanted to do with very little compromise. I’m sure record companies would chat with her and try to get her to change this, that or the other, but I’ve yet to come across an artist who is so consistently unique, and also has had so much control over their output.”

Hearing Kate Bush’s songs played live is something not many people will have experienced. Until a 22 night run of shows in London three years the singer hadn’t performed live since the 1970s, and that means there won’t be too much radical reinvention going on in Saturday’s show.

There will be a few changes though, depending on the vocalist.

“With a night like this, you don’t just want it to be a load of female singers,” adds Emma.

“You want the songs to be expressed in a different way sometimes, so Hounds of Love is being done by a male vocalist, backed by female singers. There’s a few songs where we have swapped the roles, and we’ve played about with it. We’re not changing the structure or the sensibilities of the songs, though.”

Emma’s own work has also been going from strength to strength lately. Last year’s In Search of Harperfield met with glowing reviews, while she has also been heavily involved in the Lost In France film that examined Scottish music in the 90s and Chemikal Underground, the label run by the Delgados.

“I’m not playing that many gigs at the moment because last year was so busy, and I’ve really just been getting back into managing the studio and also with Lost In France,” says Emma.

“We were very involved in setting up the film, so that started being talked about publicly before Christmas, and then it started to gain momentum in February at the film festival. I’ve still to sit down and work out where the next album is coming from but it’ll come from somewhere…”

Running Up That Hill, Saturday, O2 ABC, £22.50, 7pm

JONATHAN GEDDES