FEATURE:
Beyond the Studio Albums…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush and David Gilmour at Amnesty International Secret Policeman's Third Ball, at the London Palladium on 26th March, 1987
Kate Bush and the Lesser-Heard Live Recordings
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HAVING explored her deeper cuts…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during 1979’s The Tour of Life
and some of the tracks that people might not know about when it comes to Kate Bush, I am constantly being surprised because there are songs and performances emerging that I have not heard! Through the years, there have been compilations that unite B-sides and rare tracks. I have asked before whether there will be another Kate Bush greatest hits compilation. Given the sheer love her music commands and the fact she has released so many terrific songs since the 1990s – the last time that any sort of box-set was assembled - there is an argument for an update or a new compilation. This Woman's Work: Anthology 1978–1990 was released in 1990. It was a greatest hits/best of album. It is terrific that there are compilations for new fans and those who want to investigate Bush’s best songs. One of the greatest pleasures is coming across those recordings that are pretty uncommon. A lot of these are live performances. This takes me back to my feeling that Bush’s The Tour of Life of 1979 should be committed to vinyl and Blu-ray. On 18th January, 2002, Kate Bush appeared alongside David Gilmour to sing Comfortably Numb at the Royal Festival Hall in London. It was her first public live performance since 1987. This was a recording new to me. There is video of it and yet the audio is not particularly clean. One imagines the version can be sharpened and mastered so that it is a much higher standard. Such an important stage performance, this is one that needs to be available on physical formats – or at least on streaming services if it can be made available.
The same goes for The Tour of Life and Before the Dawn. The former has some YouTube videos of recordings that many fans would like to see on vinyl or made into a new album. You can hear Before the Dawn on Apple Music and buy it, though I have been thinking about great live recordings and feel a couple of songs from that album are worthy of isolation and fonder exploration. I might finish off with demos and early recordings. It is the live avenue that intrigues me most. Staying with David Gilmour, he and Bush were on stage in 1987 performing her hit, Running Up That Hill (from 1985’s Hounds of Love). This is another terrific recording that needs to be part of a compilation. I have found a recording of Bush’s The Tour of Life from the Manchester Apollo that, again, could have some tracks isolated and put onto an album. In 1979, Bush was part of a Christmas Special where she did live recordings of some of her songs, in addition to the odd cover. Think about her Top of the Pops performances through the years from, say, 1978 to 1994. Maybe this is exclusively about separating live tracks from everything else. Many people, when they consider Kate Bush, think that she did very little live or was this reclusive artist who was in the studio all of the time. Whilst Bush favoured the studio and spent a lot of time there, she has done a lot of live recordings. Some of this is mostly visual – where she pre-recorded a vocal or was miming –, whereas there are others where she in on stage with other artists or performing at award ceremonies.
One can see a bit of this on YouTube, and it might be the case that Bush herself would not favour an official album of performances and recordings that she has not authorised. One of the best things about Kate Bush is how she brings songs to the stage. Whether it is The Tour of Life or the Before the Dawn residency, or it is a T.V. spot where she is promoting a single, there is a lot of joy to be discovered! I love the rare and relatively unknown recordings that would give this bigger impression about Bush’s talent. I suppose this desire and speculation comes from the absence of new music from it. I am sure that will be resolved at some point - although one only need to look on social media to see how much of her music is being shared and played. It is as desirable and relevant as it has ever been. A lot of what is being shared is her better-known material. I do like the idea of a special compilation coming to light that documents her live performances through the years. I agree the visual aspect is important, though I feel one gets an awful lot from the audio alone. As it has been a few years since anything from Kate Bush’s archives has been released and remastered, there is a natural inquisitiveness and demand. Personally, I feel a lot of these great live performances are too good to languish in memory or remain in a grainy and poor quality state on YouTube or wherever. Combining some class and quality Kate Bush live turns through the decades would be…
QUITE a treasure for fans.