FEATURE:
Songs of Solomon: Inside Studio 2…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush at Abbey Road Studios in 1985/PHOTO CREDIT: Steve Rapport
Imagining a Live, Stripped-Back Abbey Road Session from Kate Bush
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AFTER all the chart success…
IN THIS PHOTO: Abbey Road Studio 2
of Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), many are asking whether an album will follow. She has given her hit song to Stranger Things and, as there has been such a big reaction, I imagine it has given her a sense of the love out there for her! Whilst it seems like her 2014 residency, Before the Dawn, was the last time she will take to a big stage and perform a show of that scale, it is not to say she will never play live again. I think that there is an interesting possibility. I think I have written before about Kate Bush and her live performance of Under the Ivy (a B-side to Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), from Abbey Road in 1986. She has recorded a few times at Abbey Road. This hallowed studio would provide her with plenty of space. Rather than having an audience there, maybe just her at a piano with a small selection of players. It would be a chance for her to perform some stripped-down versions of songs. Maybe, if she does release a new album, it could be featured. I also think that 2011’s 50 Words for Snow would sound beautiful played at Abbey Road Studios. Maybe taking a few songs from various albums and giving them a different treatment – similar to the way she reworked songs from The Sensual World and The Red Shoes for 2011’s Director’s Cut -, it could be a single concert that would satisfy fans. Of course, people would love to see her perform live - but, as her residency and 1979 The Tour of Life were massive productions, it is unlikely, at sixty-three, she will mount something like this again.
On 50 Words for Snow, Bush sort of took things back to the sound of The Kick Inside in a sense. That 1978 debut was mostly piano-based. That is not to say a potential new album would sound like her 2011 efforts. That said, it is also unlikely to go back to a more experimental sound. As much as anything, having a one-off gig would provide a bridge between the newfound success of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) and any possible future projects. Maybe performing the Hounds of Love classic in a stripped-down style would be part of the set. I am not sure, were such a venture to be realised, how many songs there would be. Perhaps about twenty in total that covered most of her albums, or that included some rare songs or a cover or two. You never know with Kate Bush what she is planning and what is coming next. With every feature I write, I wonder if, by the time it has gone live, she has announced something or there is a bit of news coming through! When trying to keep on top of the success and progress of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God), I have had to revise features because the song kept climbing up the charts! I get the sense that we are in a part of the year when something might be announced soon.
Also, Bush The Dreaming is forty in September. A more layered and wilder album, it is unlikely, were a live show to materialise, she would play songs from that album. Even so, you can see her taking some of the songs down and revisioning them. That would be cool! I think that the days of her performing on a big stage are gone, yet there is a possibility of something else. I can imagine her voice is still beautiful and has that lower register. Not as nerve-wracking a prospect as Before the Dawn, to imagine Studio 2 at Abbey Road, with Bush in the centre with her piano, is quite a vision! I cannot really envisage a dream setlist, because there are so many tracks that I would love to see played at a piano gig. Together with some orchestration, a small band and some guest singers, a single evening with Kate Bush at a studio that she knows well and could bond with in 2022 (or next year), you would get this remarkable set. I am not sure what is coming and whether the next thing we get is new music or a documentary etc. Bush has been busy with Stranger Things and ensuring that her song was used right. She is quite exacting. I can understand why she wanted to see the script and watch the placement of her song. Bush is at her most electric and spine-tingling when performing live, so it is understandable why some people are wondering whether she may do this again. I hope so. Having the iconic artist performing live from Abbey Road would be…
SUCH a treat.