FEATURE:
Got Me in Those Desert Eyes
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during 1979’s The Tour of Life/PHOTO CREDIT: Max Browne
Live Translations of Kate Bush’s Music
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THERE are two major…
IN THIS PHOTO: Kate Bush during 1979’s The Tour of Life/PHOTO CREDIT: Rob Verhorst
bookmarks or points of Kate Bush’s career where the live representations of songs had to be at their best. Many songs never released as music videos, it was down to Bush and her team to envisage something that was true to the song but would work brilliantly on the stage. 1979’s The Tour of Life combined songs from 1978’s The Kick Inside and Lionheart. There were also some unreleased tracks that would be included on 1980’s Never for Ever – including Egypt. This song is one that was brought to the stage but never truly visually arresting. It is a hard song to get right in the sense. I shall come back to that. The other notable live bookmark was 2014’s Before the Dawn. The two main albums featured this time were Hounds of Love (1985) and Aerial (2005). Aside from some pleasing inclusions from The Red Shoes – Lily and Top of the City – and a lone inclusion from 2011’s 50 Words for Snow, Among Angels, it was these two big albums that were focused on. In the case of Hounds of Love, singles like Hounds of Love and Cloudbusting already had videos. However, Bush performed A Sky of Honey from Aerial. The second disc of Aerial, until 2014, people could only imagine these songs. Bush spent a long time realising the concept of Before the Dawn and The Tour of Life. Making sure the songs fitted together and there was this theatrical feel. Rather than it being like any live show where the songs do not form part of a larger narrative arc or concept, she treated these big events more like films or theatrical productions. Some criticised parts of The Tour of Life. In terms of various songs and how they were visualised. Bush as the central performer wouldn’t have wanted too much of a cast or to have too many other people there apart from her and her dancers, so she was a bit limited in those terms. However, for Before the Dawn, it was a more collaborative effort. Bush in 1979 wanted to be the standout and be at the centre. 2014 was in part realised because of her young son Bertie (who appeared on stage); circumstances were different.
I was not lucky enough to see Before the Dawn. I can imagine that everything was executed beautifully, though there may have been one or two moments that were not perfect. However, the most curious case of songs translating to the stage occurred at other times. When Bush was performing liver around the world. Of course, her first televised live performance was on Germany’s Bio's Bahnhof in 1978. She performed Wuthering Heights and Kite. In terms of translation, language and interpretation was a factor. Where one might expect a backdrop or Yorkshire moors or something windswept, maybe the producers did not know about Emily Brontë’s novel. Rather than giving it any English touches, Kate Bush was backed by a volcano! I am not sure what the thinking was. It did show that there were barriers when it came to her music being taken to the stage – especially in other countries. Bush performed in Japan in 1978 and faced similar issues at the Nippon Budokan during the Tokyo Music Festival. I have recently written features about Babooshka. A single from 1980’s Never for Ever, Bush performed this song live a few times. One example of her in Italy is especially odd. In the sense that the staging was not really related to the song. For ZDF in Germany, on the Rock Pop show, Kate Bush lip-synched to Babosohka and Army Dreamers. The latter is particularly interesting how it was visualised. Quite humorous, Bush was this mother figure with a broom and a cigarette. Quite eccentric and camp, I am not sure how much say Kate Bush had when it came to the performance! I imagine more control than a couple of years later when she performed in Germany.
Kate Bush fans will have their own view when it comes to the best or maddest lived performance. Bush in some very odd settings. Her 1978 appearance at a Dutch amusement park, where she performed songs from The Kick Inside. Her 1979 Christmas special had a few moments that were either odd or you felt the visuals did not match the song. Egypt unusual because of how Bush looked and the fact it looked more like parody or a cheesy advert than anything else. Ran Tan Waltz, a great song, was performed live for the one and only time as far as I know. Some of the oddness of these T.V. performances were orchestrated by Kate Bush. Other occasions were examples of the song being misread. That Wuthering Heights performance in Germany. As this article explores, there was a very special performance in Germany once more. On 27th September, 1982, Kate Bush performed the title track from her fourth studio album, The Dreaming, shortly after that album came out. It was a typically original and unusual Kate Bush take:
“This video was the basis of a series of TV performances around Europe. There’s a couple on YouTube from Italy – Discoring and Riva Del' Garda – where Bush and two of her dancers do their routine in what looks like twin versions of Light Entertainment Hell. But the most renowned performance is from the German show Na Sowas!, which takes a decidedly more inventive approach…
Host Thomas Gottschalk – who with his cream jacket, skinny tie and mullet would literally implode if he was any more 80s – excitedly introduces the song, but the first thing we see is a giant lizard beadily surveying a similar landscape to The Dreaming video. Bush and the dancers gradually fade up in the foreground, and writhe in some very real dirt. But the lizard looms large at the back, looking like it’s about to join them for a tasty snack. Then the lizard fades, and the three performers are left to complete their routine against a black sky and glowering red orb – the effect is genuinely eerie.
The song ends, and Gottschalk can’t resist showing us how it was done, with the giant lizard revealed to be just an ordinary iguana in a model desert, filmed and superimposed behind Bush & co in a clever piece of video mixing. All that’s left is for Gottschalk to bound across the studio – “Kate, I’m coming!” – and present a gold disc to Bush for her previous album Never For Ever. She accepts with a combination of bemusement and good grace – her default response in nearly all her TV appearances at the time – then takes a bow”.
There are a lot of videos available of Kate Bush performing live. Or miming in a lot of cases. Of course, there are some wonderful examples. I think most of the more questionable ones happened before 1985. Especially in the earliest years, when it came to some international recordings, maybe it was hard to get the set and staging right. Some of the more humour and stranger examples were where Kate Bush had a say. A few beyond her control. Even some of the U.K. performances were either strange or the song didn’t fit the show maybe. When she performed There Goes a Tenner (from The Dreaming) on Razzamatazz. A kid’s T.V. show. I am not sure how many of those T.V. performances Kate Bush enjoyed. I think the ones she did for the Wogan show were favourites, as she loved Terry Wogan. A lot of those international trips perhaps quite draining. Her only tour gave her the chance to bring her songs to the stage. It was quite tricky making every song a visual delight. Maybe Before the Dawn was more successful. From the odd to the delightful, I am interested in how Kate Bush’s music was brought to the stage. Whether the backdrop or staging of the performance matched the song and its visual possibilities or not, every one of these examples is truly the work of Kate Bush. Never boring or phoned in, the amazing live outings were…
DISTINCTLY her.