FEATURE:
Kate Bush’s The Tour of Life at Forty-Five
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush pictured in Liverpool shortly before her The Tour of Life date at the city’s Empire Theatre on 3rd April, 1979
Ecstasy, Acclaim and Exhaustion: The Run-Up, Reviews and Reaction
_________
ON 3rd April…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush received ovation during a performance at Hammersmith Odeon/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne
it will be forty-five years since the first night of Kate Bush’s The Tour of Life. I have recently written about the warm-up gig of 2nd April, 1979. That happened in Poole. It was a bitterweed night, as it was a magnificent show and big success. Unfortunately, after the show when everyone was clearing up and out, Bill Duffield - a lighting engineer – was killed in a freak accident. It meant that, when Bush and her crew travelled to Liverpool for the first official night of The Tour of Life, there were heavy hearts. On 3rd April, 1979, there was this excitement and sadness. Committing to all of the U.K. and European dates, it was an even tougher and more exciting time for Kate Bush and team. Not only having to do all of these shows and travel between countries. There was also this devastation around the loss of Bill Duffield. Regardless, there was so much to celebrate regarding The Tour of Life. From the hugely original and innovative set and structure – the fact too that Kate Bush pioneered the use of the wireless head mic -, the reviews were largely ecstatic. That sort of awe and rapture that greeted the performance. Aside from a cold/sore throat that meant some European dates had slightly shorter sets, the determination, energy and professionalism of Kate Bush was amazing. How she took on all the travel and upheaval of moving a touring show around, plus the physical demands of such a captivating and big live show. Not surprising, by the time she had finished her encore, she was totally exhausted and sometimes needed to be carried from the stage.
There was not a lot of post-show hanging out and socialising due to the demands of the show and the impact that had. I think there was a bit of a water fight in a hotel at the end of one date. A rare case of Bush having the energy and inclination of being a ‘rock star’ and doing something after the show. I am going to come to a couple of features around The Tour of Life. It is about to turn forty-five. I hope that other people write about such a wonderful and important moment in Kate Bush’s career. Before getting more into various details and aspects of The Tour of Life. First, this website documents the dates of The Tour of Life and the reaction of critics for each. I love the fact that the final date of the tour, 14th May, 1979, saw Bush play in London. Interesting that Bush declined an offer to sing the theme song to the James Bond film, Moonraker. She was saying that although it was a good song, it wasn't right for her. I can imagine that Bush was unwilling to take on anything new as she needed some time to recover from what amounts to physical and mental exhaustion:
“April 3, 1979
The Liverpool Empire date, the first official date of the tour.
"Kate Bush is a love affair, a poignant exposition of the bridges of dreams that link the adulated and the adoring." (Andrew Morgan, Liverpool Post.)
Kate holds press conferences at each tour date, and is interviewed by the local press and radio.
BBC TV screen a short documentary film as part of the Nationwide series, on the preparation and rehearsal for the tour.
April 4, 1979
The first Birmingham Hippodrome date.
April 5, 1979
The second Birmingham Hippodrome date.
"Kate Bush's eerie dance and mime works twice as well on stage as on Top of the Pops." (Kate Faunce, Birmingham Evening Echo.)
"The most magnificent spectacle I've ever encountered in the world of rock...Kate Bush is the sort of performer for whom the word 'superstar' is belittling." (Mike Davies, Melody Maker.)
"Kate's dream-machine techniques are by far the best I've ever encountered on a British rock-and-roll (sic) tour." (Sandy Roberts, Sounds.)
April 6, 1979
The Oxford New Theatre date.
"Yeah, Kate Bush...you're amazing." (MVB, Oxford Times)
April 7, 1979
The Southampton Gaumont date.
"There is no doubt that such a performance merited nothing less than the five-minute standing ovation it received." (Steve Keenan, Southern Daily Echo.)
Wow falls in the singles chart from number 23 to number 27.
April 9, 1979
The Bristol Hippodrome date.
"A major artist by any standards...Each aspect was perfect in itself...Spectacular entertainment." (David Harrison, Bristol Evening Post.)
April 10, 1979
The first Manchester Apollo Theatre date.
"Oh yes, Kate Bush is amazing...Her stage performance evaporates all doubts and adds a totally new theatrical dimension to the rock medium." (Roy Kay, Manchester Evening News.)
At her hotel in Manchester, Kate is photographed with the Prime Minister, James Callaghan, who, fighting Mrs. Thatcher in the 1979 election campaign, is looking for all the support he can get.
April 11, 1979
The second Manchester Apollo Theatre date.
Kate takes a short break from the tour to attend the presentation of the Nationwide Radio 1- and Daily Mirror- sponsored British Rock and Pop Awards for 1978. She is presented with the award for Best Female Vocalist.
April 12, 1979
The Sunderland Empire date.
"Wow, wow, wow, Kate Bush is really unbelievable...A sensational performance which threw out of the window all previous ideas of how a rock show should be presented...The most revolutionary visual concert I've ever seen." (Newcastle Sunday Sun.)
April 13, 1979
The Edinburgh Usher Hall date.
"Sexual, stunning, startling, beautiful, breathtaking." (Billy Sloan, Clyde Guide.)
April 14, 1979
Wow moves up to number 14 in the singles chart, where it remains for three weeks.
April 16, 1979
The first London Palladium date.
After Kate's first London date the morning press conference is a media event.
"A dazzling testimony to a remarkable talent." (John Coldstream, Daily Telegraph.)
"Kate Bush live for the first time was very impressive." (Robin Denselow, The Guardian.)
"Kate Bush lines up all the old stereotypes, mows them down, and hammers them into a coffin with a show that is -- quite literally -- stunning." (Thorsen Prentice, Daily Mail.)
"A triumph of energy, imagination, music and dance." (Susan Hill, Melody Maker.)
"The best welding of rock and theatrical presentation that we're ever likely to see." (John Shearlaw, Record Mirror.)
April 17, 1979
The second London Palladium date.
April 18, 1979
The third London Palladium date.
April 19, 1979
The fourth London Palladium date.
April 20, 1979
The fifth London Palladium date.
April 21, 1979
The Abba Special is aired on BBC TV, including the routine for Wow.
Kate announces that she will play a special benefit gig for the family of Bill Duffield when she returns from the European leg of the tour. Her special guests will be Peter Gabriel and Steve Harley, with whom Bill Duffield had worked in the past.
Further extra dates are announced, including one at which the entire performance will be videotaped by the Keef MacMillan organization.
April 24, 1979
The European tour commences at Stockholm Concert House.
Kate contracts a throat problem, and the next three dates are cut short.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush performing at the Falkoner Teateret in Copenhagen, Denmark for The Tour of Life on 26th April, 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Jorgen Angel
April 26, 1979
The Copenhagen Falkoneer Theater date.
April 28, 1979
The Hamburg Congress Centrum date.
[Excerpts from this performance are filmed, and included in a German documentary on Kate and the tour called Kate Bush in Concert.]
April 29, 1979
The Amsterdam Carre Theater date.
Kate is nominated for three Ivor Novello awards for Best Song Musically and Lyrically (Wuthering Heights), Best Pop Song and Best British Lyric (The Man With the Child in His Eyes). She wins in the first category.
May 2, 1979
The Stuttgart Leiderhalle date, now restored to full length.
May 3, 1979
The Munich Circus Krone date.
May 4, 1979
The Cologne Guerzerich date.
May 6, 1979
The Paris Theatre des Champs-Elysees date.
May 8, 1979
The Mannheim Rosengarten date.
[Excerpts from this performance are filmed, and included in a German documentary on Kate and the tour called Kate Bush in Concert.]
May 10, 1979
The Frankfurt Jahrhunderthalle date.
At her London Palladium concerts Dusty Springfield includes a cover of The Man With the Child in His Eyes.
May 12, 1979
The first Hammersmith Odeon date.
This is the date of the Bill Duffield benefit gig with Peter Gabriel and Steve Harley.
May 13, 1979
The second Hammersmith Odeon date.
This is the concert which was video-taped and recorded for both the video release and (in a different mix) the On Stage EP.
May 14, 1979
The third Hammersmith Odeon date, and the final date of the tour”.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush in Amsterdam in April 1979/PHOTO CREDIT: Barry Schultz
There is a lot to discuss and dissect when it comes to The Tour of Life. I don’t think I can truly get to the bottom of it. I cannot really find a great deal written about The Tour of Life. Not in terms of its impact and importance. Because it is coming up for a big anniversary, it is worth quoting from a couple of the few articles out there. I will start with Dreams of Orgonon and their examination of The Tour of Life. They talk about the promotion and build-up to the tour. Referencing some of the wonderful reviews it received, there is also mention of Bill Duffield and the benefit concert that Bush helped organise and include in the run of The Tour of Life. A fitting and big tribute to Duffield in London. All in all, when you look at everything that went into this wonderful live extravaganza, it seems weird there has not been more written about it. No new releases such as a live album or any podcasts etc. I hope that changes:
“Hype around the tour was extensive, and Bush took advantage of it: she racked up a long list of interviews around the time, gave members of her burgeoning fan club free tickets, and posed for a picture with Prime Minister James Callaghan. The Winter of Discontent had passed, and Bush was a hot ticket to popularity for someone like Callaghan (the ploy didn’t work — Callaghan’s Labour government collapsed in favor of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative one). The press was all over her, if largely in the wrong ways — the Daily Mail made a fuss about her, describing her as “sensuous” (a posh synonym for “fuckable”) and vocally wondering if a husband was in her immediate plans. The Sun didn’t behave any better with their descriptions of Bush as “a seductive siren with a deadly aim,” as if sirens are sharpshooters. One of my favorite bits of golden journalism around Bush comes the Daily Star, which suggests her cats Zoodle and Pyewacket were “past lovers whom she [had] cast a spell on.” It’s not everyday a journalist tells you Kate Bush fucked her cats, but such is the beauty of tabloids. A new woman was on the scene for gross male journalists to objectify, and she was about to prove them to be inept tools.
Every tour performance began with “Moving.” Whale sounds were played for several seconds, as they were on The Kick Inside, while a transparent blue curtain cordoned off those onstage from the audience, with only a bright light in the center of the stage and the silhouette of Bush completely visible through it. Then came the vocal and the piano: “moving stranger, does it really matter/as long as you’re not afraid to feel?” called Bush to her audience as the curtain was pulled back. Her dance, made up of open arms and gestures aimed at the outline of her body, was an invitation to the audience to collaborate and be part of her music. According to every recording of these concerts, it was a steady introduction: when the first number ended, the audience cheered loudly. “The show went well and the audience was wildly appreciative,” said Lisa Bradley in the Kate Bush newsletter, “it was unfortunate that we rarely had a chance to see it as the merchandise stand had to be looked after all the time.”
Every night of the show got stark raving reviews from the British press. Mike Davies of Melody Maker admitted going to see Bush “more as a pilgrim than a critic,” John Coldstream of the Daily Telegraph praised her “balance between the vivid and the simple,” and former Bush naysayer Sandy Robertson of Sounds announced she had “seen the light.” There were a couple reviews from more negative quarters, mostly notably by Charles Shaar Murray in NME, who opined that “her songwriting hints that it means more than it says and in fact it means less” and “her shrill self-satisfied whine is unmistakable.” One could smugly grin at Murray for panning a critically praised and influential tour in 1979, but why do that when he invented every sexist whinge about Lauren Mayberry more than three decades early? It’s a break from the orthodoxy of Bush’s tour reviews, and thus in keeping with Bush’s ethos.
The artistic precision of the concert belies what occurred behind the scenes. Bush was exhausted by the shows and the preparation for them, with her essentially all-day rehearsal schedule giving her little-to-no time off. The scale of the shows and the extensive travel involved (Bush is famously afraid of traveling by plane) are likely a contributing factor to Bush’s decision to never tour again. A likely further cause is the tragic first night of the tour. During a warm-up concert at Poole, lighting director Bill Duffield fell through an open panel around the stage and landed on a concrete floor 17 feet below. After a week on life support, Duffield died. It was a traumatic moment for everyone involved in the tour, and gave the group pause about whether to continue. When they inevitably did, it was as much as because of the effort put into the shows as it was for Bill himself.
Bush didn’t forget Duffield, keeping tabs as she did on everyone she worked with. The first date of the final London stretch of the tour was a benefit concert for Duffield’s family. The night saw a drastic departure from Bush’s other concerts in many respects: the setlist was significantly different, as Bush wasn’t the only singer performing that night. Two other artists who’d worked with Duffield were present: Steve Harley and Peter Gabriel. Bush had previously worked with established names (e.g. Geoff Emerick), but appearing onstage with established British rock stars was a step forward for her. Harley had scored a #1 single with his glam band Cockney Rebel in 1975 when they released “Make Me Smile (Come Up and See Me),” and didn’t fall out of the albums charts for the next few years. While in 1979 he was hardly the big name he had previously been, with his attempt to go solo beginning with a critically savaged and commercially disappointing album, he had hardly been forgotten by listeners of British pop. Peter Gabriel, however, was at the top of his game. Unlike Harley, Gabriel was confidently traversing through the early years of his post-Genesis career, with the first two of a quartet of self-titled albums under his belt, both of which had made the top 10, and a major solo tour under his belt. The classic “Solsbury Hill” had climbed to #13, and Gabriel was good to go. At the Duffield concert he performed the effervescent “I Don’t Remember,” a wild ballad of the kind of formalist mountain-climbing and despair Gabriel had made his bread and butter while in Genesis. A wailing Kate Bush joins him on backing vocals, and sounds like her larynx is about to combust under the weight of the song’s Frippertonics. Much easier on Bush is a traditional cover of “Let It Be,” a song she’d sung before but still hadn’t made her way into (this would change — wait until this blog hits the late Eighties). Conversely, Gabriel seems to struggle with the song, as Paul McCartney’s gentler songwriting chafed with the new modes of composition he’d been exploring on his own albums and tour. A duo was established, however: Bush and Gabriel would sing together again.
It was a wild time for Bush. “It’s like I’m seeing God, man!” she said enthusiastically. When she’s onstage in a black-and-gold bodysuit and blasting her bandmates with a golden, it’s easy to believe she made that comment while looking in a mirror. It takes a shot of the divine (or perhaps a deal with it?) to stage a tour of this magnitude and success while dealing with such severe drama behind the scenes? It’s no wonder Bush stayed in the studio after this, recording closer to home all the time until she set up a studio in her backyard. Even when she finally returned to the stage thirty-five years later, she made sure her venue was in nearby London. 1979 was a different time. A Labour government was feasible, and Kate Bush was regularly on TV. She plays things close to the chest now, never retiring from music but often looking infuriatingly close to it. In a way, she retired in 1979. Kate Bush the media sensation was a spectacle of the Seventies. She cordoned herself off afterwards, becoming Kate Bush the Artist. Next week we’ll look at Never for Ever, the first post-tour Kate Bush album where she unleashes a flood of ideas into the world. What does one do after the Tour of Life? In Bush’s words: “everything”.
The more I read about The Tour of Life, the more it blows me away. I see photos of Bush in Amsterdam and other locations. It must have been exciting she got to visit all these places. Perhaps with very little time to explore and unwind, a lot of her time in international locations was taken up with rehearsals, performance and sleep. However, when you consider everything she achieved and how she delivered these spellbinding sets throughout April/May 1979, it cemented her as one of the world’s greatest live performers. After two studio albums in 1978, The Kick Inside and Lionheart, there was little rest after The Tour of Life ended. She was recorded and preparing her third studio album, Never for Ever (1980). In April, 2020, in the most extensive feature about The Tour of Life, Prog looked at the rehearsal and reaction. Although I wanted to mainly focus on the reception and celebration, it is worth exploring the background and run-up too:
“But in many other respects, the tour was utterly grounded in reality. The singer spent six months beforehand working herself to the bone as she attempted to forge a brand new model of what a live show could be, then another two months doing the same as she took it around Britain and Europe. And it was hit by tragedy when lighting engineer Bill Duffield was killed in an accident after a warm-up show, his death almost bringing the whole juggernaut to a halt before it had even started.
But all that was in the future when the idea for the tour was conceived. Ironically, Bush herself was the first to admit that there was no need for her to do it. “There’s no pressure,” she said in 1979. “But I do feel that I owe people a chance to see me in the flesh. It’s the only opportunity they have without media obstruction.”
“Kate was never at ease in the public eye,” says Brian Southall, who was Artist Development at Bush’s label, EMI, and had worked with the singer since she was signed. “Whether that was performing on Top Of The Pops or doing interviews. She was very reserved, very wary, I think by nature shy. So this spotlight on her was new.”
The singer was fully aware that anything she did would have to raise the bar on everything that came before. But even then, she was trying to manage expectations – not least her own. “If you look at it, it’s my reputation,” she said 1979. “And yes, I hope that it’ll be something special.”
EMI were unsure what the show would involve, so the costs were reportedly split between the label and Bush herself. In return, they got an artist who threw everything into her biggest endeavour so far.
“She was very determined about how her music was presented and performed – that was pretty obvious from her first album,” says Southall. “So no one saw any reason to step in and stop it. The rock’n’roll story was that you put singles out, you put albums out, you went on Top Of The Pops, you toured. But she wasn’t prepared to do the conventional thing.”
In fact no one realised just how unconventional it would be – with its choreography, dancers, props, multiple costume changes, poetry and in-house magician, there was no precedent with which it could be compared.
Rehearsals began in late 1978. Bush had already trained with experimental dancer/mime artist Lindsay Kemp, one-time mentor of David Bowie. But this tour would entail a new level of aptitude entirely, and the stamina to simultaneously dance and sing for more than two hours every night.
Dance teacher Anthony Van Laast was brought in from the London School Of Contemporary Dance to choreograph the shows and help hone Bush’s abilities. Van Laast brought with him two protégés, dancers Stewart Avon Arnold and Gary Hurst. Van Laast put the singer through the equivalent of boot camp at The Place studio in Euston, working with her for two hours each morning. Bush’s own input was crucial to the developing routines.
“Kate knew what she wanted, she had very specific ideas,” says Stewart Avon Arnold today. “What she wanted was in her head, and she wanted people around her who could help her put it into movement. She had so many hats on at that point – artistic, creative, musical.”
If the mornings were for the dance aspect of the slowly coalescing show, then the afternoons were for the music. As soon as she was done with Van Laast, Bush would make the eight mile journey to Wood Wharf Studio in Greenwich, south London, where she would meet up with a band that included Del Palmer, guitarists Brian Bath and Alan Murphy and her multi-instrumentalist brother, Paddy Bush. Also present was her other brother, John Carder Bush, who would perform poetry (and whose wife would provide vegetarian food for the tour). It was hard work for everyone involved and as the show neared, Bush would work 14 hours a day, six days a week.
“You have to make things more obvious so people can hear them,” she said of the live interpretation of her songs. “Maybe make them faster.”
While Bush was utterly in command, sometimes necessity was the mother of invention. With the singer literally throwing her whole body into her performance, holding a traditional mic would be difficult. So a mic that could be worn around the head was devised.
“I wanted to be able to move around, dance and use my hands,” she said. “The sound engineer came up with the idea of adapting a coat hanger. He opened it out and put it into the shape, so that was the prototype.”
In early spring 1979, the various creative wings finally came together at Shepperton Studios. There was the odd stumbling block. Del Palmer, Bush’s bassist and boyfriend, was less than impressed with some aspects of the choreography when he first saw it.
“In those days, dance wasn’t as popular as it is now, and I don’t think Del was clear on what we were doing,” says Stewart Avon Arnold. “There was a bit where we picked Kate up. I remember him going, ‘What they hell are they doing to Kate! They’re holding her between the legs!’”
In late March, a week before the tour was due to start, the whole production moved to the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, north London, for dress rehearsals. Like everything over the past six months, the whole endeavour was undertaken in secrecy.
“It’s like a present that shouldn’t be unwrapped until everyone is there,” reasoned the singer. “It’s like hearing about a film. Everybody tells you it’s amazing – and you could end up disappointed. You shouldn’t get people’s expectations up like that.”
By the time the tour was due to start on April 3 in Liverpool, everyone drilled to within an inch of their existence. If Bush was nervous, she wasn’t letting on.
“There was no suggestion that Kate was scared about going on the road,” says Brian Southall. “I certainly never got a sense that she was nervous about the financial aspect of it. If money was her concern, she’d have been out making albums every year rather than every 10 years. It’s not something that crossed her mind. The creativity was all-important.”
Still, to iron out any potential last-minute problems, a low-key warm up show had been arranged at the Poole Arts Centre in Dorset. It was there that tragedy struck.
Lighting director Bill Duffield was an integral part of the show. A 21-year-old boy wonder who had worked with Peter Gabriel and Steve Harley, he shared the same forward-thinking mindset as Bush herself.
The circumstances of what happened in Poole remain unclear. Some reports said that Duffield fell from the lighting rig while helping to clear the stage away following the show, others said that he fell 20 feet through a hole in the stage. Either way, Duffield sustained serious injuries that would result in his death a week later.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush pictured in Liverpool shortly before her The Tour of Life date at the city’s Empire Theatre on 3rd April, 1979
“People were concerned for his well-being,” says Brian Southall, who met up with the Bush entourage in Liverpool the following night. “They were wondering how he was and if and when he would recover. Sadly he didn’t. I think the real shock came when his death was announced.”
24 hours later, with the Nationwide TV cameras posted outside the Liverpool Empire, Kate Bush’s first tour got properly underway under a cloud – albeit one the public weren’t aware of.
If the build-up had been intense, then the show itself was a magnificent release. Theatrically divided into three acts, the 24-song set featured tracks from her first two albums, The Kick Inside and Lionheart, plus two as-yet-unheard tracks, Egypt and Violin.
But at the heart of it all was Bush, whirling and waving, reaching for the sky one moment, swooping to the floor the next. Occasionally she looked like she was concentrating on what was coming next. More often, she looked lost in the moment.
“When I perform, that’s just something that happens in me,” she later said. “It just takes over, you know. It’s like suddenly feeling that you’ve leapt into another structure, almost like another person, and you just do it.”
Brian Southall was in the audience at the Liverpool Empire. Despite the fact he worked for EMI, he had no idea what to expect. “You just sat in the audience and went, ‘Wow’. It was extraordinary. Bands didn’t take a dancer onstage, they didn’t take a magician onstage, even Queen at their most lavish or Floyd at their most extravangant. They might have used tricks and props in videos, but not other people onstage.
“That was the most interesting thing about it – her handing it over to other people, who became the focus of attention. That’s something that never bothered Kate – that ‘I will be onstage all the time and you will only see me.’ It was like a concept album, except it was a concept show.”
Two and a quarter hours later, this ‘concept show’ was done and the real world intruded once again. If there was any sense of celebration afterwards, then the main attraction was keeping it to herself. “I remember sitting in the bar after the show at Liverpool and Kate wasn’t there. She was with Del,” says Southall. “She wasn’t an extrovert offstage. There were two people. There was that person you saw onstage, in that extraordinary performance, and then offstage there was this fairly shy, reserved person.”
PHOTO CREDIT: House of Magic
Her reluctance to indulge in the usual rock’n’roll behaviour was both characteristic and understandable. It was a draining performance, night after night as the tour continued around Britain and then into Europe. It was hard work for everyone involved.
“We went out, but not exceptionally,” says Stewart Avon Arnold. “We weren’t out raving until seven o’clock in the morning on heroin. There’s no way we could have done the show the next day.”
They occasionally found time to let their hair down. The Scottish Sunday Mail reported that certain members of the touring party indulged in a water-and-pillow fight at a hotel in Glasgow, causing a reported £1,000 damage. EMI allegedly agreed to foot the bill, though they stressed that the singer wasn’t present during this PG-rated display of on-the-road carnage.
After 10 shows in mainland Europe, the tour returned to London for three climactic dates at the Hammersmith Odeon between May 12 and 14. The second of these shows was arranged as tribute to the late Bill Duffield. Bush and her band were joined onstage by Peter Gabriel and Steve Harley, both of whom had worked with Duffield. Gabriel and Harley tackled various Bush songs (Them Heavy People, a renamed The Woman With the Child In Her Eyes) and played their own songs (Gabriel’s Here Comes The Flood and I Don’t Remember, Harley’s Best Years Of Our Lives and Come Up And See Me), before everyone came onstage for a cover of The Beatles’ Let It Be.
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush on stage with Steve Harley during the final night of her The Tour of Life residency in London on 14th May, 1979
“Kate asked us all to come and sing with Peter Gabriel and Steve Harley,” says Stewart Avon Arnold. “We were onstage, singing chorus with these two icons. And I’m not a singer. It was an emotional night.”
48 hours later, the tour was over. And so was Kate Bush’s career as a live artist – at least for another 35 years.
Kate Bush hasn’t truly explained why she never took to the road again after that very first tour. Various theories have been posited – a fear of flying, the psychic damage inflicted by the death of Bill Duffield, the sheer effort of will and vast reservoir of energy that it took to get what was in her head onto the stage. The latter seems most likely, though it could just as easily be a combination of all three. Or it could be none of them.
“I need five months to prepare a show and build up my strength for it, and in those five months I can’t be writing new songs and I can’t be promoting the album,” she once said, the closest approximation to a reason she has ever offered. “The problem is time… and money.”
Not that there wasn’t a call for it, especially overseas. America was one of the few countries where she didn’t sell records, and the idea was floated that she play a show at New York’s prestigious Radio City Music Hall so that her US label, Capitol, could bring all the important media and retail contacts to the show to see what the fuss was about. “She’s not a great flier,” says Southall. “And she wouldn’t do it”.
On 3rd April, we get to mark forty-five years since Bush’s first – if you think of the warm-up of 2nd April as just that – of The Tour of Life. A mesmeric and hugely impressive live show, Bush would not return to the stage for something similar until 2014. Before the Dawn has a big anniversary later in the year. Back in 1979, so soon after a busy year and endless promotion for her first two albums, Kate Bush brought The Tour of Life to the U.K. and Europe. It made a big impact in 1979. I think its influence is such that is resonates to this day. When you look at other artists who have incorporated aspects of The Tour of Life into their own shows. Because of that, forty-five years after its first date – 2nd April warm-up show -, The Tour of Life warrants…
MUCH more exploration and respect.