FEATURE:
The Fifth Wave
Will Kate Bush’s Before the Dawn Live Album Ever Come to Spotify and Other Streaming Sites?
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ON 25th November, 2016…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during her Before The Dawn residency at The Eventim Apollo, Hammersmith on 26th Aug, 2014/PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/REX
the live album of Kate Bush’s 2014 residency, Before the Dawn, turns five. It is an album that I own on vinyl, and I feel like it was deliberately excluded from streaming sites so that one gets the vinyl and gets a more physical feel; like they are at the gig themselves. I am not one of the fortunate ones who attended any of the twenty-two nights Bush performed in Hammersmith. The reception was vastly positive and wild. It was her return to the stage since 1979. She had performed live between 1979 and 2014, but Before the Dawn was her first large-scale and hugely conceptual show since The Tour of Life in 1979. If you are not familiar with Before the Dawn, here is some background:
“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”.
“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/REX
Whereas other albums have been released on vinyl and they are also available on streaming sites, the thing with Before the Dawn is that it is not on streaming sites. The best thing one can do is buy the vinyl/C.D. and experience something exhilarating and hugely important:
“In March 2014 Kate Bush announced plans to perform 15 shows in London in August and September that year, her first live shows since 1979. The shows sold out so quickly that a further 7 were immediately added, with all shows selling out in 15 minutes. Kate’s own website crashed with the demand. The first night of the shows prompted a complete media frenzy with the Evening Standard declaring that the show was “an extraordinary mix of magical ideas, stunning visuals, attention to detail and remarkable music – she was so obviously, so unambiguously brilliant, it made last night something to tell the grandchildren about.” Later that year the show won the special Editor’s award at the highly prestigious London Theatre Awards, the only contemporary music show to do so. Before The Dawn is released on CD and vinyl – 3 CDs and 4 vinyl. The conceptual heart of the show is reflected in the CD format, which is split over 3 discs centred around the two integral pieces – The Ninth Wave and A Sky Of Honey. CD1 ends with the pivotal track King Of The Mountain which bridges into The Ninth Wave suite of songs on CD2. The album was produced by Kate Bush. Nothing on the record was re-recorded or overdubbed”.
I do feel that it is a little strange that we do not really have any Kate Bush live performances on streaming sites. All of her studio albums are there. I guess, as she had her Fish People label set up by 2016, she got more say where Before the Dawn was released and what form it would take. Coming up to its fifth anniversary, it would be great not only to have a reissue of the live album with some extras – maybe in the form of photos and extras -, but having it on streaming sites would provide access to more people. There is also nothing from Bush’s The Tour of Life too - I do think that her live performances are among her most sensational and memorable. I will talk more about Before the Dawn as an album and why one should buy it soon. Whilst one cannot get the same sort of connection hearing the album as being at the show, you can get a semblance of the scale and size of the residency. Pitchfork gave Before the Dawn a positive assessment when they reviewed the live album:
“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.
PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/REX
“Jig of Life” is the midpoint of Before the Dawn, and its crux. It forms the part in “The Ninth Wave” where Bush’s character is exhausted of fighting against drowning, and decides to succumb to death. A vision of her future self appears, and convinces her to stay alive. “Now is the place where the crossroads meet,” she chants, just as her (then) 56-year-old voice channels her 27-year-old one. Despite her alleged taste for burning one, Bush’s voice has gained in power rather than faded with age. It’s deeper now, and some of the songs’ keys shift to match, but it’s alive and incalculably moving, still capable of agile whoops and tender eroticism, and possesses a newfound authority. When she roars lustily through opener “Lily” and its declaration that “life has blown a great big hole through me,” she sets up the stakes of Before the Dawn’s quest for peace. In Act One, she’s running from the prospect of love on “Hounds of Love” and “Never Be Mine,” and from fame on “King of the Mountain,” where she searches for Elvis with sensual anticipation. She asks for Joan of Arc’s protection on “Joanni,” matching the French visionary’s fearlessness with her own funky diva roar, and sounds as if she could raze the world as she looks down from “Top of the City.”
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”.
I cannot embed any of the songs from Before the Dawn, as there are not even good recordings on YouTube. I admire Bush wants to keep the recordings on vinyl/C.D. She does not really want the experience to be diluted through digital channels. That approach was wise back in 2016, but I know that having Before the Dawn on streaming platforms would also encourage people to buy the vinyl – as they can have a taste and, upon hearing the great production and performances, will want to own it in physical form. It is strange to think that it is coming up for five years since Kate Bush put out that amazing live album. I have my vinyl copy, though I hanker for quick access to the amazing tracks. One can download the album through Apple, so there is that digital form (I think you have to pay for the whole album; not sure if you can buy individual tracks); one cannot get the album through Spotify or other platforms. I would be happy to buy the album on Spotify, though maybe there is the fear people will get it for free or just play various tracks – rather than experience Before the Dawn as a single, cohesive listen. We shall see what transpires this year. No matter what form you listen to Before the Dawn on, it only takes a few minutes to realise that it is…
ONE hell of a listening event!