FEATURE:
A Great Stage Return: Darkness Before the Dawn
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush was suspended for six hours in a tank of water at Pinewood Studios filming visuals for And Dream of Sheep on The Ninth Wave
Kate Bush’s Stunning Live Album at Six
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IN spite of there being some bootlegs…
available, the official release of Before the Dawn captures three acts of live perfection from Kate Bush (or The KT Bush Fellowship to be more precise) in Hammersmith in 2014. I know that there are also some low-quality videos fans took during one of the twenty-two nights at the Eventim Apollo. In terms of official and authorised output, the live album is the thing we have. There has not been any news regarding any DVD release. I don’t think there will be. As the Before the Dawn live album was released on 25th November, 2016, I wanted to mark its sixth anniversary. It is not for a while, but I think that people should be aware of it. The latest album in Bush’s discography, you can get the vinyl here. I have written about the residency itself, and I will do so again next year. As I did not get to see Before the Dawn, the live album is my window into what must have been such a wonderfully moving experience! As I did with my previous feature about the album, I will bring in a review. Apologies for repeating anything from that previous piece, but I want to end with an angle around Bush as an innovator in terms of her live work. To start, Kate Bush’s official website says this about the remarkable Before the Dawn:
“In March 2014 Kate announced plans to perform 15 shows in London in August and September that year, her first live shows since 1979. The shows sold out so quickly that a further 7 were immediately added, with all shows selling out in 15 minutes. This very website crashed with the demand.
The first night of the shows prompted a complete media frenzy with the Evening Standard declaring that the show was "an extraordinary mix of magical ideas, stunning visuals, attention to detail and remarkable music – she was so obviously, so unambiguously brilliant, it made last night something to tell the grandchildren about."
Later that year the show won the special Editor’s award at the highly prestigious London Theatre Awards, the only contemporary music show to do so.
On November 25 2016 the live album "Before The Dawn" was released on CD (3 CDs) and vinyl (4 vinyl) and digital download. The conceptual heart of the show is reflected in the CD format, which is split over 3 discs centred around the two integral pieces – 'The Ninth Wave' and 'A Sky Of Honey'.
CD1 ends with the pivotal track 'King Of The Mountain' which bridges into 'The Ninth Wave' suite of songs on CD2.
The album was produced by Kate Bush. Nothing on the record was re-recorded or overdubbed”.
I am not going to include them here, but Bush did give some interviews and press around the live album, where she talked about her nerves returning to the stage. The Independent have an interview, whereas The New York Times have one here. She had performed various live performances since 1979, but that year was when she delivered her first live spectacle: the awesome and groundbreaking The Tour of Life. Thirty-five years after Bush helped produce one of the more remarkable and important debut live tours in history, she returned to the same venue that she performed on the final night of The Tour of Life’s run. It is interesting reading the linear notes to Before the Dawn and hearing Bush’s feelings about the show:
“It was an extraordinary experience putting the show together. It was a huge amount of work, a lot of fun and an enormous privilege to work with such an incredibly talented team. This is the audio document. I hope that this can stand alone as a piece of music in its own right and that it can be enjoyed by people who knew nothing about the shows as well as those who were there.
I never expected the overwhelming response of the audiences, every night filling the show with life and excitement. They are there in every beat of the recorded music. Even when you can’t hear them, you can feel them. Nothing at all has been re-recorded or overdubbed on this live album, just two or three sound FX added to help with the atmosphere.
On the first disc the track, Never Be Mine, is the only take that exists, and was recorded when the show was being filmed without an audience. It was cut because the show was too long but is now back in its original position. Everything else runs as was, with only a few edits to help the flow of the music.
On stage, the main feature of The Ninth Wave was a woman lost at sea, floating in the water, projected onto a large oval screen - the idea being that this pre-recorded film was reality. The lead vocals for these sequences were sung live at the time of filming in a deep water tank at Pinewood. A lot of research went into how to mic this vocal. As far as we know it had never been done before. I hoped that the vocals would sound more realistic and emotive by being sung in this difficult environment. (You can see the boom mic in the photo on the back of the booklet. This had to be painted out of every shot in post-production although very little of the boom mic recording was used. The main mic was on the life jacket disguised as an inflator tube!) The rest of the lead vocals on this disc were sung live on stage as part of the dream sequences. The only way to make this story work as an audio piece was to present it more like a radio play and subdue the applause until the last track when the story is over and we are all back in the theatre again with the audience response.
Unlike The Ninth Wave which was about the struggle to stay alive in a dark, terrifying ocean, A Sky Of Honey is about the passing of a summer’s day. The original idea behind this piece was to explore the connection between birdsong and light, and why the light triggers the birds to sing. It begins with a lovely afternoon in golden sunlight, surrounded by birdsong. As night falls, the music slowly builds until the break of dawn.
This show was one of the most exciting things I’ve ever been involved in. Thank you to everyone who made it happen and who embraced the process of allowing it to continually evolve. (Album liner notes)”.
I will come to talk about The Ninth Wave and that coming to the stage. Given the fact the residency was so celebrated and sold-out, the reviews for the live album were going to be pretty good. That is not always the case. If the sound is mixed wrong or there is something out of place, it can ruin a live album. It is not a case of grabbing recordings from one of the nights and leaving it there! Bush herself produced the live album and took a lot of care to ensure that it was as good as it could be. I remember buying Before the Dawn and being blown away by the sound and atmosphere. Such a beautifully mixed and produced album, you are transported to Hammersmith and imagine yourself in the audience! This is what Consequence said in their review of the mesmeric Before the Dawn album:
“When we think of musicians, fear isn’t usually the first emotion that comes to mind. Even when the stakes are high — say, the first run of shows in nearly four decades — audiences usually assume artists will still have a cool, controlled demeanor. Kate Bush, despite the absolute wealth of accomplishments she has secured over her decades of musicianship, however, felt deep fear. Her surprise reappearance on the live circuit caught many off guard; perhaps, even herself. In a recent interview with BBC 6, Bush admitted that calming her nerves proved to be a challenge every single night of the tour. Nevertheless, in the grand span of her career, fear has always been the least of her concerns.
As a woman struggling to make her mark in an industry controlled by men, Bush’s journey was never easy. Still, she was a force to be reckoned with, and her whip-smart intelligence, passion, innovation, and creative genius have ensured her a spot in Britain’s cultural pantheon. The tour that spawned her new live album, Before the Dawn, then, was one of the last hurdles Bush had to overcome. She had not toured at all since “The Tour of Life” in 1979, when Bush pushed herself to the point of exhaustion. The stress of bringing together a theatrical production of that scale, coupled with the death of a crew member midway through, would prove to be too much. While a handful of false starts and rumors persisted throughout the years, nothing would materialize until 2014’s “Before the Dawn”, and with it a string of twenty-two shows.
Beyond that engaging backstory, Before the Dawn remains fascinating despite a lack of focus on Bush’s greatest hits. “Hounds of Love” and “Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)” are relegated to the first of three discs, rather than acting as the thunderous ending that they could have been. While “Cloudbusting” acts as an appropriate finale, the show’s emphasis is firmly placed on two of Bush’s more experimental and ambitious works: “The Ninth Wave” (side two of Hounds of Love) and “A Sky of Honey” (side two of Aerial). That means there is no “Wow”, no “The Man With the Child in His Eyes”, and sadly no “Wuthering Heights”.
Bush, as always, never takes the easy way out. Much like “The Tour of Life”, the “Before the Dawn” tour is an amalgamation of concert, theater, and dance; without that multimedia extravaganza, the resulting album is a little awkward. Throughout “The Ninth Wave” and “A Sky of Honey”, extended versions of songs carry along a plot and dialogue that, without any visuals, sometimes lack for impact.
While “The Ninth Wave” was conceived with a narrative in mind, the subtlety of its studio counterpart’s story made it all gel as a listening experience. “Waking the Witch” still crackles with energy, but the additional two minutes of dialogue add little to the song. Dialogue-only tracks, such as “The Astronomer’s Call” and “Watching Them Without Her”, are interesting distractions that are safe to skip upon a second listen.
The transition from stage to disc is a bit smoother for “A Sky of Honey”, perhaps due to the fact that it was presented as one, extended piece of music on the studio album. While Bush’s songwriting isn’t as direct or attention-grabbing as it in “The Ninth Wave”, the simpler narrative of “A Sky of Honey” solidifies quickly and allows Bush to stretch out into her more atmospheric tendencies. The story revolves around an outdoor summer adventure, and its charming to hear Bush chirp with the birds in “Aerial Tal” and revel along with a jubilant crowd at the ending jig of “Sunset”.
Of course, this would all be for naught if the main attraction wasn’t up to par — but despite the time away, Bush still sounds absolutely astounding. A full 31 years after releasing Hounds of Love and her vocals still tug and tear at the heartstrings. It’s a glorious display of passion empowered by a tight and focused band. (The album’s press release proudly proclaims that “nothing on the record was re-recorded or overdubbed.”) While some of the heavier ’80s guitar crunch may sound a bit silly and outdated, Bush’s complex arrangements and knack for implementing uncommon, international instruments keep things sounding fresh and relevant.
With her usual keen eye for storytelling, a coda of “Among Angels” and a triumphant closing “Cloudbursting” act as a magnificent link between “The Ninth Wave” and “A Sky of Honey” — as well as tying up Before the Dawn rather nicely. Despite the 20-year difference between the two medleys, Bush’s overarching vision is all the more apparent in this grand merging.
While it’s tempting to look at this as an endpoint — a final and well-deserved victory lap — Bush has described this album as “a rather big comma.” This isn’t the end, apparently, and nor should it be. If anything, Before the Dawn is living, breathing proof that Bush still has the creative prowess and unique sensibilities that made her a superstar in the first place. Like most live albums, this is not essential listening for new or casual fans. However, for dedicated fans, both those who could and could not attend the run of shows, it is a reminder of the still very potent lust for life that Bush has always exhibited in her music, art, and personality. It’s a reminder that fear can be conquered in the most ambitious and uplifting way, that fear does not define who we are”.
Some reviewers noted how, if Bush had not performed the suite from Aerial, A Sky of Honey, she could have put some more hits in the mix. One of the reasons for Bush performing that suite was so that it could pair with Hounds of Love’s, The Ninth Wave. The Tour of Life was a brilliant event, as it combined songs from her first two albums, The Kick Inside and Lionheart (1978). In fact, one of the alternate names is The Lionheart Tour. A lot of the brilliance came from the staging and the combination of mime, theatre and different artforms into a live show. Rather than it being conventional and rather static, there is so much movement and sense of concept and cinema throughout. One of the great losses is the fact Bush had not yet brought the mighty The Ninth Wave to the stage. That changed in 2014. When it comes to live innovation, the staging and execution of The Ninth Wave takes some beating. As such an important and loved aspect of Hounds of Love, getting the visuals and story right was a must. With Astronomer’s Call opening the suite, and ending on The Morning Fog, Bush’s 1985 odyssey was recreated for twenty-two nights. If you do not know the story of The Ninth Wave, it involves a woman adrift at sea in need of rescue. She slips in and out of dreams and nightmares.
She loses hope and then regains it. The suggestion is she makes it out though, if you read between the lines, it seems more likely that she did not make it out – and any suggestion of rescue was a dream or her looking on from the skies. In the stage version, Bush did make it out and to safety. The thrill of seeing her winched from the water must have been otherworldly for old and new fans. That said, as Bush herself said, what we see filmed is real. That would be And Dream of Sheep. Everything that is on stage is a dream. It makes me wonder whether, again, what was on stage was part of a dream - and Bush’s heroine ever actually made it out. It is such an intriguing and inscrutable scenario. I think Kate Bush would like to say that everything worked out (to please fans who saw her perform), but I think something darker and less hopeful is the actual reality! Few people who know and love Hounds of Love would ever think they’d get to see its creator bring its suite to life on stage! Of course, other songs from Hounds of Love are included in Before the Dawn. I think The Ninth Wave was one of the major reasons why Bush did come back to the stage. On 25th November, its live album turns six. Aside from remastering her studio albums in 2018, Before the Dawn is the latest album from Kate Bush. I guess the future is open, so you can never say what Bush will do. I do love that she came to the stage and gave fans such a phenomenal show! The live album is absolutely wonderful to hear. It makes me wonder whether we will ever get a live album of The Tour of Life. Maybe not. Back in 2014, before going on stage for that first date of Before the Dawn on 26th August. One can imagine how Bush felt! The live album did relatively well internationally. Except for the U.S. (where it charted very low), it made the top forty in more than a few countries. Reaching four here in the U.K., Before the Dawn got to number two in New Zealand! One of the all-time great live albums, it is something that…
EVERY Kate Bush fan needs.