FEATURE:
An Underrated Festive Treat
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during a performance of Them Heavy People for the 1979 Christmas special, Kate
Kate Bush’s Christmas Special at Forty-Five
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I have covered this programme before…
PHOTO CREDIT: John Carder Bush
so I will try and approach this from another angle. Let’s start with some of the fact. The Christmas special, Kate, was broadcast on the BBC on 28th December, 1979. I wanted to look ahead to its forty-fifth anniversary. I am going to be busy posting other Kate Bush features near Christmas, so I felt it only right to find some room for this wonderful episode. Although it was broadcast a few days after Christmas in 1979, it was recorded in October 1979. Many overlook or criticise the special as it is not quite like a true live performance. Bush finished up her run of dates for The Tour of Life in 1979. This was seen as a final engagement of the year. An encore perhaps, albeit in a very different setting and with less of an impact. It is clear Bush did not want to mount something huge for Kate. It was more low-key than her extraordinary tour. Many have highlighted a few numbers as being a little odd. Perhaps the look or choreography leaves them cold or confused. Some of the performances are pared-down or lesser versions of the ones that were mounted for The Tour of Life. Recorded out of Pebble Mill Studios in Birmingham with choreography by Anthony Van Laast (who can be seen in the video for The Wedding List playing the groom). The Wedding List was one of the numbers not recorded at Pebble Mill Studios. It was recorded at Nunhead Cemetery in South London. I will come to some takes on Kate Bush 1979 Christmas special. As it is almost forty-five, it needs to be reappraised and back on T.V. I hope that the BBC re-run it this year to mark the anniversary. The thirteen-song set consisted of a mix of cuts from her first two albums. Songs that would appear on 1980’s Never for Ever, The Wedding List, Egypt and Violin, got an outing and di add something new to proceedings. There were guests spots from Peter Gabriel. It was one of the earliest times the two worked together. Bush would appear on a couple of later Pete Gabriel albums and she would take to the stage with him again. Gabriel performed at a tribute show for Bill Duffield during The Tour of Life. He was a lightning technician who sadly died during the warm-up gig.
It was nice that Gabriel was given a quite big role. One of the most affecting moments of Kate was when he and Bush covered Roy Harper’s song. Another Day. A gorgeous moment that could have been released as a single. I think there are many highlights from Kate. Granted, there is not much of a festive theme. Although ‘The Angel Gabriel’ is a nice nickname and appropriate one for Peter Gabriel during a Christmas special, we were treated to a live performance of December Will Be Magic Again. That song was released as a single in 1980. Many people first heard the song during that Christmas special in December 1979. Are there any lowlights from Kate? Maybe a real feeling that there is no audience. Something canned and artificial. I am not sure about logistics and practicalities, but one feels that it is just Bush performing to an empty studio. Also, a few songs that you hoped would make the cut. Blow Away (For Bill) could have featured. Maybe even a cover of a Christmas classic. A rare outing for Ran Tan Waltz – a B-side for Babooshka in 1980 – is a delight but has a someone unusual choreography. It is trying to be cute and fun but does not fit the song’s somewhat cheeky and sexual lyrics. It is a bit of a misfire. However, alongside the duet on Another Day, there are huge highlights. Bush performing a beautiful version of Symphony in Blue. December Will Be Magic Again too. The fact that it is another Kate Bush live performance – albeit it one vastly different from The Tour of Life – is to be treasured! I will end with reasons why we need to celebrate and re-evaluate Kate ahead of its forty-fifth anniversary.
I am going to bring in articles that have explored the extraordinary-yet-divisive 1979 Christmas special. Weird and wonderfully Kate Bush, The Cut shared their opinions of Kate in a 2020 piece. I am glad that people have written about it, even though there is a note of confusion:
“The 1979 Christmas special is also significant because in many ways, it’s Kate’s departing gift to fans — a bow atop a year that would mark the end of her concert career for the next three decades. Like anything with the notoriously private singer, the more information I try to find on this special, the more questions I ultimately end up having. Why, for instance, did Kate think it was appropriate to perform a murder-suicide ballad for a holiday show? Who at the BBC approved this to go on air? How does she pop out of a garbage can so effortlessly in skin-tight leather pants? And does she even know what a Christmas special is? Do we?
But this is why I keep coming back to the Kate Bush Christmas special, year after year. The desire to conform to the cookie-cutter — and completely unattainable — Christmas ideal unleashes my inner control freak, but I never stop to ask myself why I want this version of the holidays in the first place.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush photographed in 1979 for her BBC Christmas television special, Kate/PHOTO CREDIT: TV Times/Future Publishing/Getty Images
Even her one Christmas song is a wink to this idea. In “December Will Be Magic Again,” she sings with childlike yearning for the idyllic Christmas. “The white city, she is so beautiful, upon the black-soot-icicled roofs,” Kate coos. It’s a beautiful image, the dusting of pure white snow, falling like the haze of nostalgia to cover the tarnished memories we’d rather forget. But Kate knows it’s a pipe dream. And she gives us permission to let it all go.
Her Christmas special feels especially relevant this year, as normal has never felt more out of reach. It would be easy to give into a collective sense of despair as we enter an uncertain winter. But when I watch Kate roll around on the floor, fake blood dripping from her lips as she gleefully shoots a hole into the chest of her lover’s murderer, I am embraced by the warm comfort that things will be okay. Even if this holiday isn’t what we envisioned, it doesn’t make it any less special — all we need is to give ourselves the space to get a little weird”.
In 2019, Medium marked forty years of Kate with an in-depth look at the special. An interesting song-by-song examination. I want to bring in their view of several of their songs. In case you wonder, their ellipsis at the end of Another Day refers to Egypt. It is true that there are some bizarre staging choices for some songs. Egypt and Ran Tan Waltz. Less large-scale and ambitious as her 1979 tour, we get more intimate and perhaps repetitious versions of Them Heavy People and Don’t Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake. However, I love every moment because it all makes this fascinating and hugely watchable whole. The fact that it happened at all. The lack of a Christmas theme. Or many Christmas songs at all. It is a shame more people have not written about Kate:
“Ran Tan Waltz
Is this a Christmas song? No.
Is this a song about death? Not that I know of!
Is it unreleased? Yes. It would later be released as a B-side for “Babooshka” in June 1980.
A direct quote from my notes: “Kate Bush invented adult babies”
Speaking of bizarre tonal shifts, Kate is back — now in drag as a man — to sing “Ran Tan Waltz” with her wife and their adult baby. The choreography here is bonkers, wonderful, and really physically involved. She’s constantly getting picked up and thrown around, which causes her to lose both her beard and her hat, and by the end of the performance she’s no longer Kate Bush in drag as a man, but rather just a slightly disheveled Kate Bush in a vest.
December Will Be Magic Again
Is this a Christmas song? YES! This is undoubtedly, without a question, a Christmas song. Don’t get too excited though, because this is literally the only one in the whole special.
Is this a song about death? No.
Is it unreleased? Yes, it would be released in 1980.
A direct quote from my notes: “This song is really beautiful”
THIS IS A CHRISTMAS SONG!!! And a damn good one at that — I had never really appreciated how nice of a song this was until re-watching this special. Really gorgeous melodies here, and the piano arrangement paired with the jingle bells is really lovely! Good job, Kate. I’m sure we won’t be getting another bizarre tonal shift following this lovely Christmas song, right.
The Wedding List
Is this a Christmas song? No.
Is this a song about death? YOU BET YOUR ASS IT IS!!!!!
Is it unreleased? Yes, it would be released in 1980 on Never For Ever.
A direct quote from my notes: “She follows a Christmas song with a song about two murders and suicide!!!”
Kate follows her nice little Christmas song with the unreleased banger “The Wedding List.” Kate’s wearing a very wild wedding dress, and we cut back and forth between pre-recorded footage of her husband getting shot on their wedding day and in-studio footage of Kate plotting and enacting her revenge on the murderer. At the end of the song, her now-reanimated dead husband lifts her in the air and she dies in his arms. Merry Christmas!
Another Day (duet with Peter Gabriel, Roy Harper cover)
Is this a Christmas song? No.
Is this a song about death? No, but it’s depressing as hell.
Is it unreleased? No, it’s a cover of a 1970 Roy Harper track. Gabriel and Bush had plans to record and release it at some point, but never did.
A direct quote from my notes: “I don’t know what to say about this”
Peter Gabriel comes back to perform a duet of Roy Harper’s “Another Day.” It’s not a Christmas song, but it is an extremely depressing song about reflecting on What Could Have Been with a former lover. Peter and Kate really sell it, performing both the past and present versions of the couple. It’s a beautiful performance, but it’s hard not to laugh when you remember that a) this is ostensibly a Christmas special and b) it’s proceeded by “The Wedding List” and followed by, well…”
Many Kate Bush fans are unaware of the 1979 Christmas special. I admit that it does have its downsides. The hollow feel of the audience. The limitations at Pebble Mill compared to The Tour of Life. The fact it is a smaller and less spectacular set compared to gigs Bush performed earlier in 1979. However, there are so many great things. Peter Gabriel featuring and almost stealing the show. A televised set for those who could not see Kate Bush play live. The Wedding List is a real standout. Such a shame it was not released as a single from Never for Ever. Apologies if I have repeated myself. I have written about Kate a few times now. Because it has received criticism and bafflement from many, it does deserve more love ahead of its forty-fifth anniversary on 28th December. It is a magical, wildly eccentric and varied show that would have been well received by Kate Bush fans.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush, Peter Gabriel and Paddy Bush in discussion whilst working on 1979’s Kate
A great way to end 1979, it still creates fascination and discussion all these years later! I do hope the BBC have a space for Kate this Christmas. In terms of releases, I am not sure it will come out on DVD. I would like to see an HD or 4K version on YouTube. There are some behind the scenes photos from the special, but having more written about if and getting words from Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Anthony Van Laast, Paddy Bush (her brother featured most notably during The Wedding List) and the dancers (Gary Hurst and Stewart Avon-Arnold). I have a lot of respect for Kate. I am curious what Bush thinks of it now. If she ever does! During such a whirlwind period of her career, I guess Kate was something that was forced on her to an extent rather than it being something Bush was passionate about. Graeme Thomson writes about Kate in his biography, Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush. He likes some moments but feel it is not a career highlight. That is fair. However, the brilliant and often beautiful Kate is well worth watching. Despite its lack of Christmas songs it does feel Christmas-like to me. It is a treasure I will defend and love…
FOR the rest of my life.