FEATURE:
Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during the shooting of the video for And Dream of Sheep (a song that is part of her suite, The Ninth Wave)/PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton
Under the Tawny Moony: Staging a Masterpiece
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I am writing a number of features…
around Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn, as the album from the live show turns five later in the year. That was the last ‘original’ release from Bush – in the sense that she was performing fresh in 2014, even though the songs were older. The Hammersmith residency took place seven years ago (the first show was on 26th August, 2014). Apart from the video for And Dream of Sheep that was part of the show, there is nothing else that was filmed that the public can see. Other artists, when embarking on a residency that is so big and important, would film a behind-the-scenes thing and have a documentary, perhaps. Apart from the show itself, we have the live album. I would urge people to buy that album. The show itself, back in 2014, was the first time Kate Bush had undertaken any extensive live work since 1979. As such, there was this incredible anticipation and excitement! I did not get to see any of the twenty-two dates, though I have got the album. Tickets were on sale to the general public on 28th March, 2014 and were sold out within fifteen minutes. For Before the Dawn, Bush won the Editor's Award at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards. She was nominated for two Q Awards in 2014: Best Act in the World Today and Best Live Act – she did not win either. I will bring a review or two in for Before the Dawn. One can only imagine how complex and time-consuming it would have been to put the show together!
In terms of the technical credits (written by Kate Bush, directed by – Kate Bush, Adrian Noble, creative advisor – Albert McIntosh, lighting designer – Mark Henderson, set designer – Dick Bird, projection designer – Jon Driscoll for Cinelumina, creative consultant – Robert Allsopp, costume designer – Brigitte Reiffenstuel, movement direction – Sian Williams, oceanic wave design – Basil Twist, illusionist – Paul Kieve), there would have been a lot of consultation and coordination. There are various actors who appear through Before the Dawn. Then there are the musicians to get tight and in-sync. Bush’s son, Albert McIntosh, was one of the actors in the show. He was key in getting her back on the stage. I can imagine the discussions in the Bush household as the idea was floated. It is interesting what compelled the thought process. Bush released 50 Words for Snow in 2011. She might not have felt that recording another album was rewarding at that point. Keen to do something new, live music came to mind. It would have been the first time in many years that Bush had performed on a stage in front of people. The Eventim Apollo Hammersmith was always where she was going to set the show. She had performed there as part of her only tour: 1979’s The Tour of Life. It was the Hammersmith Odeon back then. It was a great venue that, whilst not massive, had a proscenium arch that would allow for flexibility.
Once she had decided on the venue, it was a case of getting together her ideas. I have written about how various Kate Bush albums have either never been performed live or have not been featured that much. This article gives details regarding the setlist, technical details and critical reception. As you can see, Bush mainly took from 1985’s Hounds of Love and 2005’s Aerial. Both albums feature conceptual suites that could be joined together. That spark and realisation would have been exciting for her! Not only did she get the chance to bring Hounds of Love’s The Ninth Wave to the stage; she would also realise Aerial’s second disc, A Sky of Honey. There are songs from other albums, though the main body is those two albums. Two that mean very much to Bush, it would have been exciting to plot the course of the show. Even so, how do you connect two suites that are very different!? Even when she had the concepts formed and ready, there is the job of recruiting musicians and her crew. Then there are the meetings, the rehearsals and ensuring that the show is ready for the audiences. What must have started out as quite an interesting idea and chance for a change would have turned to nervousness and exhaustion. Bush experienced this when putting together The Tour of Life…though it had been a long time since she was in that position!
Rather than Before the Dawn being this drain or regrettable thing, it was a live show that must rank alongside the most popular and well-received ever. From a technical standpoint, the sets and visuals were amazing by all accounts! If it was stressful getting it all sorted and conceptualised, the final results must have pleased Bush! She spoke with FADER in 2016 (to promote the live album of the residency) and was asked about the technical side of Before the Dawn:
“As a performer, do you you get lost in the moment or do you focus on the technical intricacies?
I had to stay really focused as a performer because I'm quite nervous, and I wanted to make sure I was really present when I was performing so that I could try and deliver the character of the song. And actually, the first set was the most difficult part to perform for me, because almost each song is from a completely different place.
Before the 2014 shows you hadn’t toured since 1979. When your return to the stage was so well-received, did you wish you’d done it sooner?
I don't know really. The original show was of the first two albums that I’d made, and I had hoped that to do another show after I had another of two albums’ worth of material. And as I started getting much more involved in the recording process, it took me off into a different path where it was all about trying to make a good album. It became very time-consuming, so I moved into being more of a recording artist. And every time you finish an album, there's the opportunity to make visuals to go with some of the tracks. So I became very involved in that, as well.
Do you have a technical achievement that you're most proud of in your career?
I'm really proud of what we did with those live shows, because it was very ambitious and I didn't know if it would work. It was a very complex technical show that involved the most incredible team of people. The most intelligent, sensitive people. Fantastic band, actors, everybody there had something so special to bring to that show, and I think the response that we got was more than you could ever wish for. I'm so pleased that we did it.
It was a very humbling experience, really. Every night you had a completely different audience, and every night they were so warm. It really meant so much that they liked it. It was very moving, because it felt like the audience came on that journey with us, and, each night, it was a slightly different journey”.
That is the great thing about Kate Bush as a live performer. She does not merely want to deliver the songs and do a simple concert. Almost treating it like a play or film, so much attention and thought goes to the technical and visual side. Ensuring that the audiences are immersed and almost part of the show. From the Introduction and Lily at the start of Act 1, though to Aerial’s title track at the end of Act 2, Before the Dawn was a revelation and marvel in terms of its concept, achievements and scale. Even after the audiences ensured the dates were sold out and rousing applause was provided each night, would this long-awaited return to the stage translate into great critical reviews!?
Unsurprisingly, there was a lot of affection for Kate Bush on her 2014 stage return. Alexis Petridis of The Guardian was there for one of the nights and shared his thoughts:
“As it turns out, the august broadsheet rock hack could not have been more wrong: for huge sections of the performance, Bush's movements look heavily choreographed: she moves with a lithe grace, clearly still drawing on the mime training she underwent as a teenager forty years on. Her voice too is in remarkable condition: she's note-perfect throughout.
Backed by a band of musicians capable of navigating the endless twists and turns of her songwriting – from funk to folk to pastoral prog rock - the performances of Running Up That Hill and King of the Mountain sound almost identical to their recorded versions - but letting rip during a version of Top of the City, she sounds flatly incredible.
You suspect that even if she hadn't, the audience would have lapped it up. Audibly delighted to be in the same room as her, they spend the first part of the show clapping everything she does: no gesture is too insignificant to warrant a round of applause. It would be cloying, but for the fact that Bush genuinely gives them something to cheer about.
For someone who's spent the vast majority of her career shunning the stage, she's a hugely engaging live performer, confident enough to shun the hits that made her famous in the first place: she plays nothing from her first four albums.
The staging might look excessive on paper, but onstage it works to astonishing effect, bolstering rather than overwhelming the emotional impact of the songs. The Ninth Wave is disturbing, funny and so immersive that the crowd temporarily forget to applaud everything Bush does. As each scene bleeds into another, they seem genuinely rapt: at the show's interval, people look a little stunned. A Sky of Honey is less obviously dramatic – nothing much happens over the course of its nine tracks – but the live performance underlines how beautiful the actual music is.
Already widely acclaimed as the most influential and respected British female artist of the past 40 years, shrouded in the kind of endlessly intriguing mystique that is almost impossible to conjure in an internet age, Bush theoretically had a lot to lose by returning to the stage. Clearly, given how tightly she has controlled her own career since the early 80s, she would only have bothered because she felt she had something spectacular to offer. She was right: Before The Dawn is another remarkable achievement”.
I love the fact Kate Bush came back to the stage in 2014 in such an impressive and grand fashion! Whereas there were some tense and stressful moments putting together Before the Dawn – where she filmed in a water tank at Pinewood Studios for the And Dream of Sheep segment was especially fraught and long! -, it seemed like there was this family on stage. Bush said in interviews how nervous she was every night. The crowds, as she also said, were an absolute dream! They were clearly thrilled to have their hero on the stage performing her tremendous music. No matter what Before the Dawn turned out to be, there would have been this love and rapture! As it was, Kate Bush and her band (The KT Fellowship) produced this masterpiece of a show. There were some minor dips (some parts didn’t completely work; others maybe a little self-indulgent or over-ambitious), though the things that wowed and stunned the senses were numerous and unforgettable. The live album does a lot to evoke what audiences witnessed in Hammersmith in 2014. Ahead of the live album’s fifth anniversary later in the year, I wanted to return to Before the Dawn. Let us hope that this was not Kate Bush’s live farewell. Even though she is sixty-three, there is nothing to say that she would not be willing to do anymore live work – though it might be smaller in scale compared with Before the Dawn. In 1979, she wowed the world with The Tour of Life. Proving herself to be an incredible live performer who pushed the boundaries of a Pop or Rock show. Thirty-five years later, she did that again! If Bush had nerves and worried prior to the shows, she needn’t have. As reviews and the reception Before the Dawn received proves, it was a triumphant production from…
A musical legend.