It took thirty five years but it finally happened British Pop Diva, Kate Bush returned to live performance. The number of concerts was minimal. and only in one venue,the Hammersmith Apollo, but at this point any kind of live Kate Bush performance is welcome. The performances are called "Before the Dawn", there were a total of 22 concerts held in London in August 26, 2014 and October 1, 2014.
Before this, Kate Bush had only toured twice. Firstly there was a series of practice gigs around London in 1977 with the KT band before she became big, and then one highly elaborate tour in 1979. She has never performed in the USA, or outside Europe. Kate's April to May 1979 tour (known later as the Tour Of Life) is famous for featuring elaborate dance routines, and her pioneering use of a non- hand held microphone. The tour featured 28 dates in Great Britain and on the Continent. Since then her only live performances have been a few live television appearances. Why hasn't Kate performed more live? She has a fear of flying, she prefers working in the studio, doesn't need the money, and she likes her privacy and spending time with her family.
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| VHS tape of the 1979 tour. |
Waiting for Kate Bush is always a long wait. She has only made four original studio albums in the past 28 years, a slow pace even in today's environment where older legacy artists usually wait a few years between releases. In those 28 years she has made no concert appearances, and appeared rarely on TV. Nor did she break up the time with stopgap compilation albums. She has released only one greatest hits album, one album of re-recordings, one box set (not released worldwide) and no DVD's over the course of her career. Her numerous non-album B-sides and rarities have only been compiled once on the aforementioned box set. Her production of B-sides, soundtrack appearances and other rarities is one area where Kate exceeds other artists with her productivity, so it's shame they haven't been compiled in a more affordable format. The same with videos--her videos were all great-why not put that out on DVD.
Kate made the unusual step of asking audiences not to record the performances on their phones. The shows were recorded for the 2016 triple album, also called Before The Dawn. The show was also filmed without an audience -but that visual document was never released. This greatly annoyed the many fans who could not get one of the 75,000 seats available for the residency.
The set list comprised most of Hounds of Love, many songs of Aerial, two songs from The Red Shoes, and one song from 50 Words for Snow. Bush's first four albums were noticeably excluded from the set list. One song "Never Be Mine" was meant to included in the show but had to removed to cut some of the time off the show. It was included on the CD version of the concert. Some fans complained that there were not more hits. Kate voice had lost more of it's higher ranges-but even so most were happy with her singing and the staging of the show.
The set list from Wikipedia... Introduction
- "Lily"
- "Hounds of Love"
- "Joanni"
- "Top of the City"
- "Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)"
- "King of the Mountain"
- Video Interlude - And Dream of Sheep
- "Under Ice"
- "Waking the Witch"
- "Watching You Without Me"
- Little Light (Performed by Backing Vocalists)
- Jig of Life
- Hello Earth
- The Morning Fog
- Prelude
- Prologue
- An Architect's Dream
- The Painter's Link
- Sunset
- Aerial Tal
- Somewhere in Between
- Tawny Moon (performed by Albert McIntosh)
- Nocturn
- Aerial
- Among Angels
- Cloudbusting
