FEATURE:
“I Was There!”
PHOTO CREDIT: Trevor Leighton
Before the Dawn at Ten: The Excitement Around Kate Bush’s Return to the Stage
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MOST Kate Bush fans remember where they were…
PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/REX
when she announced that there would be a new residency, Before the Dawn. Originally intended as a fifteen-date residency, because of demand, that then expanded to twenty-two nights. I shall come to the tension and atmosphere that was building outside the Eventim Apollo for that first night on 26th August, 2014. The contrast between what was happening outside the venue and backstage on that opening night. The sort of people who mixed together to welcome Kate Bush back to the stage. One reason why we were rocked by the announcement on 21st March, 2014, was that there had been little word from her about it. If you think about the few years before that, nobody was expecting a residency or any live work. Kate Bush put out two albums in 2011. Director’s Cut arrived in May. 50 Words for Snow came out in November. Apart from Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) being remixed in 2012, there was not a lot of activity. Also in 2012, Bush made her first public appearance after a decade as she accepted the South Bank Sky Arts Award in the Pop category for 50 Words for Snow. Tickets for Before the Dawn sold out in fifteen minutes. There were pre-sale tickets that were available to fans who signed up to her website. After such a surge in demand, seven extra dates were added. There was this explosion of interest and a rush to get tickets. The ticket actually went on sale on 28th March. One of the most exciting things that has happened in her career. In the sense there was already this anticipation and curiosity. I love how the announcement made us feel. A complete shock! Thirty-five years after The Tour of Life, Kate Bush was back in terms of large-scale live work. There was a mixed blessing with it being a residency rather than a tour.
The fact that she performed in Hammersmith and did not need to travel meant there was more energy for the performance. Not having to move around. She liked 1979’s The Tour of Life, though it was exhausting. So much travel and energy need to keep the show moving. Now, near her home, she could enjoy herself a bit more by not having to worry about logistics and transportation. Though, ‘enjoy’ might not be the right word when it came to Before the Dawn. Bush revealed to Matt Everitt in a 2016 interview – when discussing the live album of Before the Dawn -, how she was terrified each time going on. It was not really until the end of the final show (1st October, 2014) when she could relax. One of the downsides about staying in London was that so many fans could not attend. Being based around the world, the cost and commitment of coming to see her perform was too high. Even though a lot of international fans attended, many couldn’t make that sacrifice. Also, as tickets sold out in fifteen minutes, it meant that those not fast enough missed out. So many people (me included) regretting the fact that there were no tickets left! Prior to that first night on 26th August, 2014, there was speculation what Before the Dawn would consist of. Most people interested in the potential setlist. As it was called Before the Dawn, many figured that Aerial’s A Sky of Honey could feature.
That is a song cycle about an entire summer’s day. She did perform the sublime and epic A Sky of Honey and Hounds of Love’s The Ninth Wave. I remember press trying to uncover what might be included. In The Guardian’s review of the opening night of Before the Dawn, they discussed the fact that not a lot was leaked or known before that first night:
“There have been a lot of improbable returns to the stage by mythic artists over the last few years, from Led Zeppelin to Leonard Cohen, but at least the crowd who bought tickets to see them knew roughly what songs to expect. Tonight, almost uniquely in rock history, the vast majority of the audience has virtually no idea what's going to happen before it does.
The solitary information that has leaked out from rehearsals is that Bush will perform The Ninth Wave, her 1985 song cycle about a woman drowning at sea – which indeed she does, replete with staging of a complexity that hasn't been seen during a rock gig since Pink Floyd's heyday – and that she isn't terribly keen on people filming the show on their phones.
The rest is pure speculation, of varying degrees of madness. A rumour suggests that puppets will be involved, hence the aforementioned mannequin, manipulated by a man in black and regularly hugged by Bush during her performance of another song cycle, A Sky of Honey, from 2005's Aerial.
The satirical website the Daily Mash claimed that, at the gig's conclusion, Bush would "lead the audience out of the venue, along the fairy-tale Hammersmith Flyover and finally to a mountain where they would be sealed inside, listening to Hounds of Love for all eternity”.
I shall get to the atmosphere that must have been building in Hammersmith on 26th August, 2014. I love how Peter Gabriel almost gave the game away! As Graeme Thomson notes in his book, Under the Ivy: The Life and Music of Kate Bush, in 2000, Gabriel revealed to the world that Kate Bush had a new son. That was not public information. It soon was! I can imagine that his old friend gave him a call and perhaps gave him a stern warning! So trustful and forgiving, Kate Bush must have made it known to Peter Gabriel that she was working on Before the Dawn. Gabriel spoke to Graeme Thomson on 26th February, 2014 and said how the and Bush did not really talk that much. Some cards exchanged and the odd bit. Intriguingly, he did say that her period of quiet might be interrupted soon as she has been working on something. Knowing what that meant (I assume), he almost gave everything a month before Kate Bush announced Before the Dawn! Few expected something new. Going back to my earlier thread, in fact, it was a Kate Bush re-recording of Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God) that featured at the London Olympics in 2012. I guess it is technically a remix as the vocal was new but there was an edit and rejig of the song. A blend of the new and existing. In any case, in March 2013, Bush asked her young son Bertie whether she should go back on the stage. He encouraged her. Kate Bush was keen to connect with an audience after recording and being away from the stage for so long. Among her collaborators and choice of people, she invited Adrian Noble (former creative director of the Royal Shakespeare Company) to co-direct. Author David Mitchell was asked to help write dialogue that would sew together The Ninth Wave. The two hit it off right away.
I am wandering slightly, though I will end with that first night and moments before doors opened. Bush and Mitchell were a dream team. With Mitchell more of a sounding board – as Graeme Thomson writes in his biography of Kate Bush -, drafts would be changed and worked up. It was part of an incredible eighteen months of preparation. Credit to the KT Fellowship rather than Kate Bush, this was a troupe and group effort. Actors and singers were auditioned without being aware of what it was for. There was so much secrecy around Before the Dawn. That collective bond made Before the Dawn such a familial and spiritual thing. I love how the rehearsals were quite low-key. Bush rehearsed in an old school building. It was similar to the atmosphere and dynamic of The Tour of Life rehearsals. Smaller spaces and buildings. Intimacy and focus. Different departments and people would work in different rooms. Whether that was an office or gymnasium. That school environment was one of discipline and respect. Those working with Bush asked not to talk about what they were working on. The same obsessiveness and attention to detail that Bush displayed during The Tour of Life’s preparation – from set designs and costumes and everything else – went into Before the Dawn. Making sure the tickets and programmes were as beautiful, inviting and detailed as possible. The lack of PR and hype from Kate Bush is not something other major artists would do. Making sure that the announcement would be a surprise and no insights and secrets would be given out.
PHOTO CREDIT: Ken McKay/Rex
The press reacted with archive pieces, features, hagiography, song rankings and everything Kate Bush-related! A flurry of interest and column inches that ranged from the interesting to filler and recycled. Even so, one cannot deny that Kate Bush had taken people by surprise and dropped a beautiful and life-changing bomb! The same sexist and ageist criticism that Madonna faced prior to her recent Celebration Tour was applied to Kate Bush in 2014. Many asking whether a woman in her fifties could pull off such a physical feat. In the next feature about Before the Dawn, I shall talk about some of the celebrities in attendance. The BBC commissioned a documentary, The Kate Bush Story: Running Up That Hill, which I shall dissect in another feature. It is not great…though it was a useful accompaniment and addition to all the writing and discussion about Kate Bush around her new stage venture. Bush herself was eager for people not to take photos and videos. Asking people not to use their phones or tablets, most observed her request. It was quite strict when people got inside the venue. One of the first artists to ask audiences not to photo or film her shows, this approach has been taken up by so many artists. From Jack White to Adele, Beyoncé and Prince, many legends have adopted this policy. Recently, Bob Dylan announced that he would ask people to switch off their phones when he arrives in the U.K. later in the year for a series of dates. It provoked retaliation from Damon Albarn (who seems to be annoyed by everything these days!).
Even if many artists don’t mind phones at their gigs, it does distract audiences and the performer. Crappy videos get leaked - and it is all intrusive and unnecessary! People watching phones rather than the gig! Kate Bush (and all others) was right to ban phones. She wanted people to be there in the moment and not feel the insane need to document everything and, in the process, annoy others and waste a ticket price not engaging with the show. With about 16 degrees centigrade showing on the thermometer and there being about 78% humidity, on a drizzly afternoon (but a drier night) on a Tuesday, people lined up excitedly outside the Eventim Appollo in Hammersmith. A historic night on 26th August, 2014, inside the venue, Kate Bush would have been backstage nervously pondering. After such hard work, secrecy and passionate input, this was it! People outside already excitedly saying how pleased they were to be there. The day after, they would take to social media to proclaim: “I was there!”. Little did they know they would witness one of the greatest live performances of the century. Drama, beauty, theatrics and a note-perfect star, I can only imagine the contrasting thoughts in the minds of the thousands of fans…and Kate Bush. The pressure and expectation on her shoulders. As she was in her first costume and getting her in-ear microphones fitted (the first time she had used them; it meant she could move around stage and hear the other musicians clearly). Last-minute checks and chats about the show.
Kate Bush knew she would come on to Lily. After that, it was a case of ensuring that each song was delivered as tightly and professionally as possible. Having not experienced a crowd as excitable and expectant since the last date of The Tour of Life – 14th May, 1979 at the then-named Hammersmith Odeon (Eventim Apollo) -, this was a big moment. The audience that packed in to the venue came from all corners and walks of life. The critical reactions were ecstatic! Bush was perhaps too nervous and focused to realise the impact her performance was having. How everything came together. Having imagined how her ideas would form and be executed, the rapturous reaction that first-night audience gave her on 26th August, 2014 made it clear that her hard work, secrecy and incredible vision had paid off! What was realised nearly ten years ago was a rare but always-stunning live performer showing that she had not missed a beat. Few artists could take thirty-five years away form major performance and nail it! Before rounding off, NME reacted to the first night of the phenomenal Before the Dawn:
“Outside the venue, there is a sense of celebration and heightened anticipation. I’m experiencing the same fizzing anxiety I had when trying to buy a ticket to one of the shows. Lots of people I speak to say they’re feeling “nervous.” There are costumes, t-shirts of Bush from all eras and lots and lots of velvet. Like many of the fans congregating on this drizzly, grey August day, Kate Bush changed my life. It feels good to be part of a tribe; I’m wearing a maroon velvet dress like the one in ‘The Sensual World’ and have a makeshift Kate Bush symbol tattoo on my hand. Some, though, have gone to a huge amount of time and effort to show their appreciation. I speak to a few punters outside the Apollo.
Chad, Los Angeles: “It cost me thousands of dollars in total to get here from the US but it’s totally worth it because Kate is an artist who puts her work and her relationship with her fans above commerce, above making money. That’s why she takes a long time to make an album because she cares so much about the outcome and that means more to her fans than anything.”
Ben: “We were lucky because Cloud (pictured above) got a pre-sale code as she’s been a fan for a long time but while I was trying to get the tickets she was having a fit. I’ve never seen someone so possessed, literally holding on to the walls, crying to the Lord. Every time I clicked, she screamed. It was very intense. But we got them!”
Emerson, San Francisco: “I’m a perfumer so I actually see Kate as all these layers to build this ultimate perfume, so I’m here just to be in awe of her.”
Andrea, Brooklyn: “I said to my friends that if I die after tonight then everything should feel totally OK with it. Everything else is a bonus from here on out.”
Stuart: “She’s an artist that stayed true to her self. She’s never followed fashion, she’s followed her art. I saw her in 1979 which was fabulous.”
Inside the venue, there’s tension in the air around the merchandise stall which features pendants, a first aid kit (all becomes clear later on), fish masks and the usual t-shirts, mugs and posters. People queue up for over an hour worried that they’ll miss out.
The programme is snazzy as hell and written at length by Bush herself with all sorts of interesting detail. It smells like it has real oil paint on it.
Act I
The show can be split into four parts, starting with a traditional beginning, which almost acted like a trick false start. Bush, all in black with a fringed cape-cardigan, bare foot and hair long to her lower back, stood before an impressive seven-piece band featuring two extensive drums kits with various percussion: in the programme notes she says the two key people at the start of the project were the lightning designer and the drummer. She saw the drummer as the “heart” of the project.
The Gayatri prayer – an old Vedic mantra – opened ‘Lily’, a track from ‘The Red Shoes’. ‘Hounds of Love’, ‘Joanni’, ‘Top of the City’, ‘Never Be Mine’, ‘Running up that Hill’ and ‘King of the Mountain’ followed and thus ended the ‘hits’ section of the set. Her voice sounded exquisite and remained rich, powerful and controlled through the night.
She thanked Mark Henderson, the lightning designer, and her son Bertie McIntosh, who she said had been there for 18 months and ‘pushed the button’ for her to do the show. “It’s been an adventure and it’s only just beginning,” she beamed. Bertie provided vocals and acted in the part of the son and the painter later on. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.
There is something about Bush’s vocal delivery that made me hear lyrics as if it were for the first time. They way she sang the “wind is whistling” during ‘King Of The Mountain’ imitated the wind whistling through the venue. Though I’ve heard the lyrics “snow and Rosebud” from the same song thousands of times before I’d never actually imagined the literal imagery. It was an enriching symptom of the show I hadn’t expected.
Act II
Just when we thought we were in for a greatest hits set – although it seemed unlikely that Bush would choose such a traditional template – everything turned completely upside down. Yes, the rumours were true. We were going to watch ‘The Ninth Wave’, the second suite to ‘Hounds Of Love’ (1985), a concept album about a “person who is alone in the water for the night.”
Confetti canons trumpeted the change of gear; yellow pieces of paper with a verse from Tennyson’s The Coming Of Arthur, the poem the ‘ninth wave’ phrase is from. Rumbling thunder and gathering crowds gave way to a film part with an astronomer reporting a phone call from a sinking ship.
Billowing silk sheets, towering spikes that gave the impression the stage was in the stomach of a whale, helicopter search lights, lasers and a drag-on living room were just a few of the surreal facets of stage design that told the story of a woman lost at sea, struggling to stay a live during her dark night of the soul, surrounded by Fish People – a reference to her record label – inept coastguards with tails and stunning music. A soliloquy about sausages sat alongside a moving scene of Bush’s character visiting her son and partner knowing that she might never see them again.
From the first few notes of ‘And Dream Of Sheep’, which saw Bush in the lifeboat ring you’ll recognise from the tour pictures, the audience sat stunned and with baited breath. This wasn’t music with theatre and a splice or two of film thrown in; somehow the team had balanced together the three elements to create something else and rewritten the rule book of live performance along the way. It was a reminder of how avant-garde she is.
Act III
The stage shifted so the band was far left and an enormous ceiling-high Moroccan-style door stood on the right out of which a puppeteer walked with jaw-droppingly impressive skills. The puppet would remain throughout the act embraced by Bush at times as if it might be a comfort to her to have it (him? Bertie?) there as a prop. It was impossible to gauge what could be next. And it was fittingly perfect: the whole second side of ‘Aerial’ (2005), ‘The Sky Of Honey’.
You could call this part the nature segment. The backdrop changed between stunning close-up footage of British birds such as geese, gulls, chaffinches, robins and blue tits flying with the motion of their wings seen in crystal-clear detail. Never has a pigeon looked so romantic. During ‘An Architect’s Dream’ a huge screen appeared with Bertie (16, pictured above) acting the part of the painter. The main background at times resembled the burnished painting by Russian artist Ivan Aivazovsky called The Ninth Wave.
It was during this point that Bush’s impeccable movement and skilled control, taught by Lindsay Kemp in the late 70s, shone through, though her dancing was – comparably to the tour 35 years ago – at a minimum. This kinetic effect was mesmeric, as was the visuals showing a vivid crimson sunset and hyper-realistic tawny moon spinning on its axis.
‘A Sky Of Honey’ is an elemental album filled with natural sounds, including Bush herself imitating bird song, and the visuals mirrored the music, with murmurations of starlings a particular highlight. The effect was pastoral, calming and warm although typically the fairy-tale had a dark undercurrent; at one point it looked as though the puppet was savaging a sea gull and a spatter of scarlet blood hit the screen. It had that feeling of the surreal moment between waking and dreaming. Towards the end Bush had a prosthetic winged arm in the Edward Scissorhands vein before being suspended in air and flown briefly in blackbird guise to enormous cheers. Again, the lyrics sounded completely different live. I’d never realised how beautiful and evocative the line “the stars are caught in our hair” from ‘Nocturn’ was.
Act IV
“Thank you so much for such a wonderful, warm and positive response,” said Bush before closing the show. As she sat at the piano, some might have assumed she’d break into an older classic such as ‘The Man With A Child in His Eyes’ or ‘This Woman’s Work’. Oh no. ‘Among Angels’ from ’50 Words For Snow’ was followed by a euphoric version of ‘Cloudbusting’.
After she left the stage, the crowd cheered and applauded for a good 10 minutes but there was no re-entrance. There was a sense that the audience were stunned as we filed out of the Apollo; there was just so much to digest and process.
It is no ordinary artist that can tackle life, death, synchronicity, identity, spiritual transformation, empathy and the chaos of relationships with idiosyncratic ease in the space of a few hours. Some may have wanted to hear more of the older hits – music from her first four albums, including ‘Wuthering Heights’ was eschewed – but there was no denying the vitality, creativity and huge amount of work and character that’s gone into the Before The Dawn tour. Though perhaps it surprised people when watching it, the show was perfectly ‘Kate’. In an interview with Simon Reynolds in the 90s, she made this comment, which rings true today”.
From major celebrities to new fans, everyone joined together in appreciation and love for Kate Bush! I am not sure whether there are going to be many tenth anniversary features or anything special closer to 26th August. There should be. No ordinary concert or live performance, this was seismic and epochal! As Kate Bush and the KT Bush Fellowship spilled backstage and breathed out, they knew that they had delivered something magical! After Kate Bush took out her in-ears and absorbed the air and atmosphere of the Eventim Apollo, her players and cast would have been excited and releived! In the Hammersmith summer air, fans made their way in all directions. Discussing what they had just seen. Disbelief and a state of bliss! That night, I doubt few would have been able to sleep or even wanted to! The volume, drama and epic-ness of that performance ringing in their ears and around their heads. They were recalling with smiles and breathlessness a live performance like no other that had happened only a matter of hours…
BEFORE the dawn.