FEATURE:
Watching Her With Them…
Looking Ahead to Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn at Nine
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I find it hard to believe…
PHOTO CREDIT: NME/Getty Images
that this time next year, we will be looking ahead to the tenth anniversary of Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn! Her only live residency, she performed a series of twenty-two days at Hammersmith’s Eventim Apollo. The same venue where she performed several dates of The Tour of Life in 1979, it was the first time Bush returned to a large-scale live commitment – a gap of thirty-five years no less! I am going to drop in some details I have sourced before, but I wanted to react to that live extravaganza and return all these years later. Unfortunately, it was an event I did not attend. I could not get a ticket before all the date sold out. It is one of my biggest regrets! I can remember, back in March 2014, the excitement that was felt when Kate Bush announced that she would be taking to the stage:
“Announced on 21 March 2014, Before The Dawn was the first set of live dates by Kate Bush since the Tour Of Life in 1979. Originally, 15 live dates were announced. A pre-sale ticket allocation took place on 26 March for fans who had signed up to her website in previous months (and years). After this pre-sale, a further seven dates were added due to the high demand. Tickets went on sale to the general public on 28 March and most of them were sold out within 15 minutes. All dates took place at the Eventim Apollo in London (UK). The tour was a critical and commercial success, with all shows sold out.
Before The Dawn was a multi-media performance involving standard rock music performance, dancers, puppets, shadows, maskwork, conceptual staging, 3D animation and an illusionist. Bush spent three days in a flotation tank for filmed scenes that were played during the performance and featured dialogue written by novelist David Mitchell. Also involved with the production were Adrian Noble, former artistic director and chief executive of the Royal Shakespeare Company, lighting designer Mark Henderson and Italian Shadows Theatre company Controluce Teatro d'Ombre. The illusionist was Paul Kieve, the puppeteer Basil Twist, the movement director Sian Williams and the designer Dick Bird. The video and projection design was by Jon Driscoll”.
Given the title, Before the Dawn, I guess you could have guessed the concept would unite Hounds of Love’s The Ninth Wave and Aerial’s A Sky of Honey. Both conceptual suites, the former came out in 1985; the latter arrived in 2005. Joining these songs cycles that occurred twenty years apart, The Ninth Wave takes us from the night darkness to the dawn. A woman that is adrift at sea and perilously close to death, the does she survive question has been a hot debate. In the show and on the album, the heroine is rescued – though there are clues and lyrics suggestion she drowned and was seeing herself from above the world. A Sky of Honey is the second disc of Aerial. Going through the course of an entire summer’s day, that idea of the dawn being represented and important in two different ways is striking. Whereas The Ninth Wave is turbulent, haunting and occasionally beautiful and heavenly, A Sky of Honey is calming, set in nature and inspiring. Before moving onto thoughts about the anniversary next month and some thoughts regarding Kate Bush’s live future, there are a couple more things I want to drop in. Going back to the Kate Bush Encyclopedia:
“Band
The band playing with Kate Bush on stage consisted of David Rhodes (guitar), Friðrik Karlsson (guitar, bouzouki, charango), John Giblin (bass guitar, double bass), Jon Carin (keyboards, guitar, vocals, programming), Kevin McAlea (keyboards, accordion, uilleann pipes). Omar Hakim (drums), Mino Cinélu (percussion). Backing vocalists were Sandra Marvin, Jacqui DuBois, Jo Servi, Bob Harms and Albert McIntosh. Some actors were involved as well: Ben Thompson played Lord of the Waves, Stuart Angell played Lord of the Waves and the painter's apprentice, Christian Jenner played the blackbird's spirit, Jo Servi played witchfinder and Albert McIntosh appeared as painter. Supporting actors were Sean Myatt, Richard Booth, Emily Cooper, Lane Paul Stewart and Charlotte Williams.
PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay
Set list
Act 1
Introduction
Lily
Hounds Of Love
Joanni
Top Of The City
Running Up That Hill
King Of The Mountain
The Ninth Wave
And Dream Of Sheep (video)
Under Ice
Waking The Witch
Watching You Without Me
Jig Of Life
Hello Earth
The Morning Fog
Act 2
A Sky Of Honey
Prelude
Prologue
An Architect's Dream
The Painter's Link
Sunset
Aerial Tal
Somewhere In Between
Tawny Moon (lead vocals by Albert McIntosh)
Nocturn
Aerial
Encore
Among Angels
Cloudbusting”.
On 26th August, 2014, DIY were among those who gave their thoughts about the majestic, theatrical, epic and applauded Before the Dawn. It is clear that everyone who was part of the twenty-two shows will never forget that experience:
“While you try to catch your breath and reorganise your sense of reality after three hours of an astonishing, immersive and utterly singular show, the one thing that instantly becomes apparent through the mist is that Kate Bush is not one to cede to your run-of-the-mill expectations.
The whole night feels unreal and unravels in a dreamlike fashion – even attempting to put it into words here it seems to dissolve on the screen. That’s not just because of the feverish speculation that came before the show or the fact that Bush hasn’t performed in concert since 1979, but also because whatever your hopes or anticipations for this show – one of the most eagerly awaited pop performances in history – Bush turns them on their head and pours them away in an avalanche of artistic contrariness and outlandish theatre which sees the stage filled with a wooden mannequin, fish skeletons, sheets billowing like waves, a preacher, a giant machine that hovers above the audience pounding like a helicopter as well as lighthouses and living rooms, axes and chainsaws.
Yet through all the theatrics and artistry one thing remains constant, and it’s the thing that shines through the most: the rush of humanity that ties all the ideas together; the one thing that takes Bush to that other place. It’s the innate heart that pulses through all this theatre and all these ideas: the simple truths of love, hope and family life that hold all her ideas together.
‘I feel your warmth,’ she says appreciatively as the crowd passionately cheer and clap her every move and gesture. And it’s her shy but generous smile at the response from the crowd which shows exactly what this means to her.
PHOTO CREDIT: NME/Getty Images
This is the weight of 35 years being lifted – thrown off with the skilfulness and heart that shows Kate Bush is no ‘mythic’ artist but a very real, supremely talented original. Tonight is an unequivocal demonstration that she’s a one-off: only she has the ambition, nerve and imagination to pull off the ideas that had filled her mind.
Yet at first it seems she’s going to play it pretty straight. Barefoot and dressed in elegant black, she strolls around the stage gently, occasionally twirling. It begins with ‘Lily’ as she leads a small group of backing singers that includes her son Bertie (who, she says, has given her the “courage” to return to the stage). The band that line up behind her are as tight as you would imagine. They play ‘Hounds Of Love’ and ‘Running Up That Hill’. They sound huge, they sound brilliant. If there’s one thing you notice most it’s that her voice is remarkably powerful and it’s brilliant on ‘King Of The Mountain’ which brings the opening ‘scene’ to a close, heralding a storm as a bullroarer fills the air and cannons fill the theatre with confetti.
It’s now time for the drama of ‘The Ninth Wave’, the second half of ‘Hounds of Love’. Here we see a story of resignation and resurrection played out in the most theatrical of ways. We see Bush in a lifejacket floating in water, looking up at the camera as if waiting to be rescued (she’s reported to have spent three days in a flotation tank at Pinewood Studios to create the special effects). At one point fish skeletons dance across the waves, at another a helicopter searches the crowd, before a living room (yes, a living room) floats across the stage in which a son and his father – played by Bertie and Bush’s husband Danny McIntosh – talk at length about sausages.
It’s hard to comprehend exactly what’s happening but the band skilfully navigate the pastoral prog and Celtic rock. Even when the music isn’t captivating, the sheer sense of spectacle means you can’t avert your eyes for a second. As the ‘The Morning Fog’ brings the performance to a close with another standing ovation.
After a twenty minute interval – during which time the bars buzz with delirium – the third act sees her play out ‘Sky of Honey’, the entire second half of ‘Aerial’. It’s so intricately detailed that you get the feeling Bush had always planned to perform these two scenes live.
‘Honey’ is a grandiose daydream moving through a summer’s day. Again the scope of her vision is immense – even when the songs don’t enthral the enormous paper planes and human birds do, as we see a wooden mannequin finding himself lost and alone. Bertie plays a major part throughout dressed as a 19th-century artist – and at one point telling the mannequin to “piss off”. It ends, as only it could, with Bush gaining wings and flying.
She returns to earth to perform a solo version of ‘Among Angels’ on the piano, before the band return to help close the show with a joyful ‘Cloudbusting’. “I just know that something good is going to happen”, she sings as a now even more euphoric crowd jump to their feet.
Then she’s gone. You’re left with the image of a singer who has managed to retain her mystery and surprise. An enigma, the mythic artist who is intensely human. It’s overblown and preposterous and brilliant. All its startling achievements, magical highs and am dram faults – its relentless ambition and human imperfections – make it the only document you could possibly have asked for from such a unique artist. Before the Dawn is everything you would expect but couldn’t imagine”.
PHOTO CREDIT: NME/Getty Images
There are a few thoughts I had. One relates to books and podcasts about the night. I have not seen either. Whilst the live album provides you with some of the spectacle and atmosphere of being in attendance in Hammersmith, I guess it can’t replace the feeling of being there. Kate Bush spoke with Matt Everitt for BBC Radio 6 Music in 2016 (when the live album was released). She put a lot of time and effort into mixing and producing the album. That 2016 interview was the last time we heard Bush in a promotional audio interview until last year – when she spoke with Woman’s Hour about the success of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God). I wonder if there will be a book or podcast about Before the Dawn. Thoughts and reactions from people who were there. Including many famous faces, it would be awesome to hear them all compiled in a podcast. I think the same could be said of a book. Combining photos, and introduction maybe from Bush, we’d have the build-up and background, the reviews and performances, sketches about the stage and concept, in addition to a conclusion. That would be very popular, as next year is ten years since Bush brought us Before the Dawn. It is a pity that not that much has been done regarding Before the Dawn and its impact. Someone could tie it back to 1979 and mention The Tour of Life. I think there would be a lot of people keen to read and hear more about a phenomenal residency.
I wonder, above all, what this nine-year-gap means in terms of Bush and her next steps. I have speculated we may get news soon of an eleventh studio album. She always surprises us, so you can never predict what will come and when. Was Before the Dawn her live farewell? I guess the scale and effort involved mounting the production could not easily be repeated. Bush is sixty-five on 30th July, so maybe she doesn’t have the same impetus and energy as she might have done a decade ago. That said, Madonna is taking her Celebration Tour on the road soon. She has recently been hospitalise, though the sixty-four-year-old will be on the stage very soon. You can never totally rule out further livre work, though it is unlikely she will do another residency. Anything where she performs live would be a blessing. I can see a few songs being performed from Abbey Road Studios. I have mooted this before. I do feel, rather than look back at Before the Dawn wistfully, there should be projects about it coming to light. Immortalising this wonderful and unexpected event. In August 2014, Kate Bush fans flocked to the Eventim Apollo to catch the icon on the big stage. Even though the show has been filmed and there is a DVD, we might never get to see it. I hope more is explored and exposed from the awe-inspiring Kate Bush. She proved that there are few performers as incredible as her. Wha a vision she brought to the stage! For that reason, ahead of its ninth anniversary, we need to explore further…
THE stunning Before the Dawn.