FEATURE:
A Groundbreaking Stage Revolution
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the Tour of Life in Hammersmith in May 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne
Kate Bush’s Tour of Life
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BETWEEN 2nd April and 14th May, 1979…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the Tour of Life in Hammersmith in May 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne
Kate Bush embarked on the mighty Tour of Life. I am revisiting it again (I wrote a feature last year), as this is an aspect of Bush’s career that is not discussed much. I am going to bring in a couple of articles concerning her Tour of Life but, as recently as the start of the previous decade, people were talking about this extravaganza as a one-off; would she ever get back on the stage? Of course, in 2014, she shocked everyone but announcing a residency at in London – yet again, she produced this visual feast that was so different to any other live event. Though Bush was nervous about performing again, she managed to equal the genius of her Tour of Life with 2014’s Before the Dawn. Whilst some reviews of her first big live foray were not entirely glowing, there were plenty of people who witnessed the tour who were blown away. Maybe some of the sets and concepts lacked cohesiveness and were a bit too out-there; perhaps there was a sense of style over substance at times. Bush felt, prior to the Tour of Life, that many acts were simply turning up, playing their latest album, and then leaving the stage. Her tour broke moulds and boundaries when it came to explore what a Pop concert could be.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the Tour of Life in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images/EMI
Sure, artists like David Bowie were combining dance, theatre and music in a very original way, but Bush went one step further. Her ambitions were big, and her performances were exhilarating. She pioneered the now-ubiquitous head microphone (as she could not hold a microphone and dance/sing at the same time) and redefined what a live show could be. Before I move on, here is some detailed information regarding the Tour of Life and where it took Kate and her crew:
“The Tour of Life, also known as the Lionheart Tour or even the Kate Bush Tour, was Kate Bush's first, and until recently only, series of live concerts. The name, 'Tour of Life', was not coined until after its completion, with all promotional material referring to it simply as the Kate Bush Tour.
Consisting of 24 performances from Bush's first two studio albums The Kick Inside and Lionheart, it was acclaimed for its incorporation of mime, magic, and readings during costume changes. The simple staging also involved rear-screen projection and the accompaniment of two male dancers. The tour was a critical and commercial success, with most dates selling out and additional shows being added due to high demand. Members of the Kate Bush Club were provided with a guaranteed ticket.
The shows featured almost all the songs from Kate Bush's two albums, divided into three 'Acts', in the following order:
Act 1
Moving
Saxophone Song
Room For The Life
Them Heavy People
The Man With The Child In His Eyes
Egypt
L'amour Looks Something Like You
Violin
The Kick Inside
Act 2
In The Warm Room
Fullhouse
Strange Phenomena
Hammer Horror
Kashka From Baghdad
Don't Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake
Act 3
Wow
Coffee Homeground
Symphony In Blue
Feel It
Kite
James And The Cold Gun
Encore
Oh England My Lionheart
Wuthering Heights
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the Tour of Life in Hammersmith in May 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne
Tour dates
2 April 1979: Arts Centre, Poole (UK)
3 April 1979: Empire, Liverpool (UK)
4 April 1979: Hippodrome, Birmingham (UK)
5 April 1979: Hippodrome, Birmingham (UK)
6 April 1979: New Theatre, Oxford (UK)
7 April 1979: Gaumont, Southampton (UK)
9 April 1979: Hippodrom, Bristol (UK)
10 April 1979: Apollo Theatre, Manchester (UK)
11 April 1979: Apollo Theatre, Manchester (UK)
12 April 1979: Empire Theatre, Sunderland (UK)
13 April 1979: Usher Hall, Edinburgh (UK)
16 April 1979: Palladium, London (UK)
17 April 1979: Palladium, London (UK)
18 April 1979: Palladium, London (UK)
19 April 1979: Palladium, London (UK)
20 April 1979: Palladium, London (UK)
24 April 1979: Konserthuset, Stockholm (Sweden)
26 April 1979: Falkoner Theatre, Copenhagen (Denmark)
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the Tour of Life in Hammersmith in May 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne
28 April 1979: Congress Centrum, Hamburg (Germany)
29 April 1979: Theater Carré, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
2 May 1979: Liederhalle, Stuttgart (Germany)
3 May 1979: Circus Krone, Munich (Germany)
6 May 1979: Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris (France)
7 May 1979: Mercatorhalle, Duisburg (Germany)
8 May 1979: Rosengarten, Mannheim (Germany)
10 May 1979: Jahrhunderthalle, Frankfurt (Germany)
12 May 1979: Hammersmith Odeon, London (UK)
13 May 1979: Hammersmith Odeon, London (UK)
14 May 1979: Hammersmith Odeon, London (UK)
On 24, 26, 28 and 29 April, In the Warm Room, Kite, Oh England My Lionheart, and Wuthering Heights were dropped from the set because Kate was suffering from a throat infection.
The 12 May concert had a very different setlist because this was a benefit performance 'In Aid Of Bill Duffield', featuring guest stars Steve Harley and Peter Gabriel.
'Fullhouse' was not performed on 13 and 14 May”.
I am not sure what preparation is needed for traditional live shows, but I know full well the major artists who tour arenas can spend months rehearsing and planning a show. I know there are artists who are quite-hands off when it comes to lighting, costume and every aspect of a show: Kate Bush, by contrast, was hugely involved with her first live tour, and it was a real labour of love for her. This NME article reveals Tour of Life’s scale and cost:
“Preparations for the dates, named The Tour Of Life, began in late December 1978, spending three months between January and March in intensive dance classes, choreographing the production.
With a cast of 13 dancers and musicians, plus a 40-strong behind-the-scenes crew, each show cost more than £10,000 a night to stage.
“People said I couldn’t gig, and I proved them wrong,” said Bush after gushing reviews for the tour”.
It is amazing watching video clips and the documentary about the Tour of Life; not just seeing how much effort was put in to achieve the final show, but the ecstatic reaction of the audiences. I cannot really understand any critic who gave the tour short shrift as, in 1979, the world had not realty seen a show like it – to be fair, few artists have matched the Tour of Life since then!
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the Tour of Life in Hammersmith in May 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne
I am fascinated learning about the months before the show and how hard Bush worked to do something completely different. Her debut album, The Kick Inside, was well-received and remains this remarkable album. She also released her second album in 1978, Lionheart. This was more rushed, as her label (EMI) wanted to capitalise on her success and, as such, she could not do justice to her potential and talent in such a short space. Although Bush wrote every song on her first two albums, she did not produce them; she felt like she was more part of the machine; a spectator rather than an artist taking control and releasing an album in her own vision. The Tour of Life was a chance, not only to embark on her first tour, but to create something where she had more say and direction. Louder Sound talk about the sheer effort Bush expended realising her dream:
“But in many other respects, the tour was utterly grounded in reality. The singer spent six months beforehand working herself to the bone as she attempted to forge a brand new model of what a live show could be, then another two months doing the same as she took it around Britain and Europe. And it was hit by tragedy when lighting engineer Bill Duffield was killed in an accident after a warm-up show, his death almost bringing the whole juggernaut to a halt before it had even started.
But all that was in the future when the idea for the tour was conceived. Ironically, Bush herself was the first to admit that there was no need for her to do it. “There’s no pressure,” she said in 1979. “But I do feel that I owe people a chance to see me in the flesh. It’s the only opportunity they have without media obstruction.”
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: EMI
EMI were unsure what the show would involve, so the costs were reportedly split between the label and Bush herself. In return, they got an artist who threw everything into her biggest endeavour so far.
“She was very determined about how her music was presented and performed – that was pretty obvious from her first album,” says Southall. “So no one saw any reason to step in and stop it. The rock’n’roll story was that you put singles out, you put albums out, you went on Top Of The Pops, you toured. But she wasn’t prepared to do the conventional thing.”
In fact no one realised just how unconventional it would be – with its choreography, dancers, props, multiple costume changes, poetry and in-house magician, there was no precedent with which it could be compared.
On an ever-shifting stage of which only a central ramp was the sole constant physical factor, Bush was a human conductor’s baton leading the entire show. As the scenery shifted through the opening Moving, Room For The Life and Them Heavy People, so did the costumes – and the atmosphere.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the Tour of Life in Hammersmith in May 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne
“I saw our show as not just people on stage playing the music, but as a complete experience,” she later explained. “A lot of people would say ‘Pooah!’ but for me that’s what it was. Like a play.”
Indeed it was – or perhaps several plays in one. On Egypt, she emerged dressed as a seductive Cleopatra. On Strange Phenomena, she was a magician in top hat and tails, dancing with a pair of spacemen. Former single Hammer Horror replicated the video, with a black-clad Bush dancing with a sinister, black-masked figure behind her, while Oh England My Lionheart cast her as a World War II pilot.
Like every actor, she was surrounded by a cast of strong supporting characters. As well as dancers Stewart Avon Arnold and Gary Hurst, several songs featured magician Simon Drake, who performed his signature ‘floating cane’ trick during L’Amour Looks Something Like You. And then there was her brother, John Carder Bush, who recited his own poetry before The Kick Inside, Symphony In Blue (fused with elements of experimental composer Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie 1) and the inevitable encore, Wuthering Heights.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the Tour of Life in Hammersmith in May 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne
But at the heart of it all was Bush, whirling and waving, reaching for the sky one moment, swooping to the floor the next. Occasionally she looked like she was concentrating on what was coming next. More often, she looked lost in the moment.
“When I perform, that’s just something that happens in me,” she later said. “It just takes over, you know. It’s like suddenly feeling that you’ve leapt into another structure, almost like another person, and you just do it”.
I have selected a few passages from that article, because it highlights a few things about Kate Bush and the Tour of Life. For one, she was not a conventional artist who was going to do things in the traditional manner. She was (and is) a passionate and ambitious artist who was not going to be defined and limited by what came before. The fact that she invested so much of her own money into the tour showed just what it meant. Performance was a release and something hugely freeing for Bush. The fact she did not do another huge run of shows like the Tour of Life until 2014 is not because she disliked the experience. The Tour of Life was exhausting and involved a lot of travel; it took huge preparation, and she was eager to get down to recording albums as the tour ended (she was talking about the possibility of another big show/tour in 1993, but it never materialised). Forty-one years since she took this incredible spectacle around Europe, people are still referencing it as a groundbreaking and landmark event. It is almost a tragedy Bush never toured again after 1979 (Before the Dawn was a residency), but I can understand her desire to record and focus more on the studio. Kate Bush is a truly unique artist, and the epic Tour of Life is a live experience…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the Tour of Life in Hammersmith in May 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne
LIKE no other.