FEATURE:
The Mighty Power of The KT Fellowship
A Return to Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn Live Album at Four
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MAYBE it is good that Kate Bush’s…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush’s on stage during Before the Dawn at the Hammersmith Apollo in 2014 PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex
2016 album, Before the Dawn, is not available on Spotify. I guess Bush wants people to hear it on physical formats as that provides people a more immediate and immersive experience. I have the concert on vinyl and, released on 25th November, 2016, it must have been quite a task for Bush and her engineers to mix and organise the release of the album! It came two years after Bush completed her Before the Dawn residency in Hammersmith and, as many of us could not make it or get tickets, the live album provides something close to a front row seat. I love the sound of the album and the fact that there is an extra track, Never Be Mine (which was not actually performed during the twenty-two-date residency), is a bonus. The track Prologue (Live) was made available for streaming on 28th September, before King of the Mountain (Live) was released as a promotional single on 21st October, and And Dream of Sheep (Live), along with an accompanying piece of film used during the concerts, was made available as the album's official single on 18th November 2016. I think one of the great things about the live album is the personnel involved and what an incredible cast Bush had supporting her! From her musicians Kevin McAlea (keyboards, Uilleann pipes, accordion), Jon Carin (keyboards, guitars, programming, vocals), David Rhodes (guitars), Friðrik Karlsson (guitars, bouzouki, charango), John Giblin (bass), Mino Cinelu (percussion), and Omar Hakim (drums), through to those who provided speaking parts (including her son, Bertie, and her brother, Paddy), to the technical crew who provided sound, lightning and design, it is a huge production that received dazzling reviews!
PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex
I think the last interviews that Kate Bush provided were for the Before the Dawn album in 2016. Whilst she did not promote the residency itself particularly, the live album afforded her the chance to look back on the show and discuss what went into the mixing and production - maybe she was too nervous and focused for interviews in 2014. Five years after she was promoting 50 Words for Snow, it was nice to see Bush back in the media and talking! It has been four years since her last interviews, so one hopes we do not have to wait too long before she returns. I think the fact that we do get to hear such a wide-ranging and dramatic listening experience perfectly produced and mixed means that, even though missing the gig was painful for me and many, one gets so much from the album. I will move on and include some promotional words regarding the album but, in terms of reviews, many sources were really moved and impressed! This is what Pitchfork wrote in their review:
“Live albums are meant to capture performers at their rawest and least inhibited, which doesn’t really apply to Before the Dawn. Bush is a noted perfectionist best known for her synthesizer experiments and love of obscure Bulgarian choirs, but her recent work has skewed towards traditional setups that reunite her with the prog community that fostered her early career. With marks to hit and tableaux to paint, the 2014 shows were more War of the Worlds (or an extension of 2011’s Director’s Cut) than Live at Leeds.
But never mind balls-out revamps of Bush’s best known songs; with the exception of tracks from Hounds of Love, none of the rest of the setlist had ever been done live—not even on TV, which became Bush’s primary stage after she initially retired from touring. These songs weren’t written to be performed, but internalized. Occupying Bush’s imagination for an hour, and letting it fuse with your own, formed the entirety of the experience. Hearing this aspic-preserved material come to life feels like going to sleep and waking up decades later to see how the world has changed.
Rather than deliver a copper-bottomed greatest hits set, Bush reckons with her legacy through what might initially seem like an obscure choice of material. Both Acts Two and Three take place in transcendent thresholds: “The Ninth Wave”’s drowning woman is beset by anxiety and untold pressures, with no idea of where to turn, mirroring the limbo that Bush experienced after 1982’s The Dreaming. That suite’s last song, the cheery “The Morning Fog,” transitions into Aerial’s “Prelude,” all beatific bird call and dawn-light piano. The euphoric, tender “A Sky of Honey” is meant to represent a perfect day from start to finish, filled with family and beautiful imperfections. “Somewhere in Between” finds them atop “the highest hill,” looking out onto a stilling view, and Bush’s eerie jazz ensemble anticipates the liminal peace of Bowie’s Blackstar. “Not one of us would dare to break the silence,” she sings. “Oh how we have longed for something that would make us feel so… somewhere in between”.
PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex
I guess one loses the visual sense with a live album and, despite there being some sounds of the crowd, so much of Before the Dawn relied on its staging and incredible sets. I think the live album, instead, offers listeners a chance to visualise the show themselves and, rather than glaring at a screen if the show was on DVD, they can listen through vinyl, close their eyes and experience the show in a very real way! I really love the album and do not think that I missed out a huge amount by not having a DVD or attending it on one of the night – though it would have been awesome to have been there! In their review, The Guardian offered up the following:
“That answers the question about what the point of Before the Dawn is: like 2011’s Director’s Cut, it’s an album that shows Bush’s back catalogue off in a different light. And perhaps it’s better, or at least more fitting, that her 2014 shows are commemorated with an album rather than a film or a Blu-ray or whatever it is that you play inside those virtual reality headsets people are getting so excited about. They were a huge pop cultural event, as the first gigs in four decades by one of rock’s tiny handful of real elusive geniuses were always bound to be, but they were shrouded in a sense of enigma: almost uniquely, hardly anyone who attended the first night had any real idea what was going to happen.
PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex
Even more unusually, that air of mystery clung to the shows after the 22-date run ended: virtually everyone present complied with Bush’s request not to film anything on their phones, and the handful that didn’t saw their footage quickly removed from YouTube. Before the Dawn provides a memento for those who were there and a vague indication of what went on for those who weren’t, without compromising the shows’ appealingly mysterious air: a quality you suspect the woman behind it realises is in very short supply in rock music these days”.
When Bush was interviewed by MOJO in 2016, she explained how, when she wrote the Before the Dawn programme in March 2013, she had her son very much in mind; he was instrumental in getting the show together. Bush revealed how she really wanted a piece of theatre rather than a series of gigs – travelling to different locations was definitely out of the question! With drummer Omar Hakim among the first to be recruited (as Bush feels the drummer is the beating heart of the band/show), it was interesting learning (from the interview) how Bush did not have time to have further vocal and dance instruction as preparations were so intense! With books of ideas and sketches, she would attend these long meetings as the show concept and feel was dissected and discussed – how far away it must have seemed that these notes and images would materialise in something so realised and wonderful! Bush explained how the love and energy she got from the audience was amazing.
Every night was different but, in each show, the audiences receptive and full of cheer. It must have been quite strange bringing Hounds of Love’s The Ninth Wave to the stage some twenty-nine years after it was first heard. Many listeners would have heard that suite years ago and formed their own images so, when it was brought to the stage, maybe there was a certain pressure to succeed. Bush didn’t feel any pressure in that sense and, from what the reviews say, the conceptualisation and realisation is immense and utterly memorable! Bush didn’t reveal too much to MOJO regarding compiling the material for the live album and the process but, when she spoke to BBC Radio 6 Music’s Matt Everitt, she did say how much work it was and she didn’t have time to write new material. The question cane up regarding future albums and, though she did not dismiss that notion, it seemed like Bush was keen to do something different. Two years after she released the Before the Dawn album, she remastered her catalogue and put out these boxsets – like Before the Dawn, a lot of planning and hard work must have gone into making them sound like they do. As she has been working on pre-recorded and older material for her past releases, maybe there is the temptation to clear the decks and get back to writing new material – who can say when? I do love the Before the Dawn live album, as it is so interesting to listen to. Maybe it doesn’t replace the thrill of being with Bush on the night(s), but one witnesses this glorious return to the stage after so long that meant so much to her and thousands of fans. If you have not experienced the album and added it to your collection, then I would encourage everyone to…
PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex
DO that right away!