Kate Bush: Klassik or Dudd

Search = "Christmas and the Beads of Sweat". Actually that's Laura Nyro, but Bush fans would like her, and all her stuff's in the bargain bin.

i say yes, she is as good. Wuthering Heights is super-spooky, very good and HOW DID SHE KNOW, like it seems impossible that anyone could do a song about that impossible book that wouldn't be totally stupid. So just for that you know ... but I am interested in klass issues here. I just feel like, was she so able to do this cause she had some kind of Bloomsbury type upbringing where she was saturated with real literature and so it presented no problem to her whereas maybe pop usually wouldn't be able to go there? Does anybody know?

As to the question in general: Classic, particularly the run of Never For Ever through The Dreaming to The Hounds Of Love. The albums on either side of that are slightly patchy but with moments of sporadic brilliance strewn throughout.

I can really understand Omar's comments about The Dreaming and techno. That album in particular always struck me as a terribly unexpected album for someone in Bush's position to make. It sounded a lot less bizarre to me once I got into post-punk, but that very connection is totally weird. A singer- songwriter discovered by Dave Gilmour shouldn't be able to make an album that at various points sounds like John Lydon, Siouxsie Sioux, Adam Ant and Diamanda Galas shoved into a room together.

I need to get more Kate Bush.

Okay, so the bit about the accent is perhaps not that much of a recommendation. How about "best pop song featuring Rolf Harris ever"???

The Dreaming is still good. Only the mumbly "Watching You Without Me" stands up off the much-slighted "Ninth Wave" section of Hounds Of Love - extra points to Danny Thompson for making the double-bass sound just like the ubiquitous fretless sound of the mid- 80s (like, why?). The singles off that are mostly umimpeachable.

I find everything on The Sensual World unlistenable save for the title track. I keep seeing The Red Shoes for tiny amounts of money on CD... worth a shot?

However, from The Sensual World I would strongly defend "The Fog" (the way the floods of sound drift in as she sings "Is this road big enough for the both of us?" is lovely) and "Rocket's Tail" before Gilmour's guitar solo ruins it. And of course "This Woman's Work" is to some extent undeniable.

I'm glad you like Hounds Of Love Gareth. If you decide to get another Kate Bush album I would say The Dreaming is the one to get. Those two are the only essential purchases in her collection, really.

Actually Tim (backpedalling furiously), I'll kinda go along with the above, save the last sentence. Still find it mawkish. This was not my initial reaction in 1989, when I thought the whole thing was a masterpiece (even the one about dancing with Hitler). I really liked hearing "Rubberband Girl" on the radio in '93 but never considered getting the LP.

any thoughts? it's a beautiful song

Actually, it is quite lovely. Perhaps Lionheart is being unfairly ignored. The song in question is the one with hand-written lyrics on the inside of the gatefold, some nice recorders, a harpsichord and the highest harmonies outside of a Stina Nordenstam LP. If I was really clever I'd link to an MP3 of it for Nick's benefit. But I'm not.

I hate her. Hate hate hate.

(My very-personal thing about The Dreaming: I simply cannot listen to it without strongly associating it with the abridged and illustrated version of Oliver Twist I read over and over as a child. This wouldn't be significant except that The Dreaming is the only Kate Bush record I do that with; I think it's the theft aspect of "There Goes a Tenner.")

And I am listening to my first ever Kate Bush (sure, she's been on in the background and parties but that's not the same) - 'Running Up That Hill' is brilliant. Every time she starts into the chorus my forearms just jelly up ("if I only could make a deal with God") - the weird-strange pronunciation of God, giving it more portent than it should, reminding me of Sophie Ellis Bextor, and all the while the drums rumbling away underneath, carrying her along. I'm about to go and put on the Hounds of Love.

Where should I (and if you know my tastes, bear those in mind), go next to find more Kate Bush stuff? I like the more pop song deals than the more freakish stuff like that song "The Dreaming" (if I'm thinking of the right song).

I hope she will soon escape from the spaceship which has kidnapped here and taken her to outer space, and return to Mother Earth to start working on some new music.

The new album's in the can, too, apparently.

When I want to get weepy-eyed, I play Kate Bush. "This Woman's Work" is a heartbreaking song, as is "Cloudbursting" ("we're cloudbursting, daddy" *sob* *sob*) and "Running Up That Hill". I think some of her material is a bit quirky, but all of it is flavored with a tiny bit of melancholy (or sensitivity) that make the songs absolutely lovely in a "reach your heart with a feather light touch that manages to shatter it in thousands of tiny pieces" sort of way.

*sighs* Once again, classic.

At the moment The Dreaming stands as my absolute big favorite, in fact, completely and utterly coincidentally, I'm listening to it right now! Wooh!

She manages to bring together quirkiness, pure pop niftyness and, ah, yeah, I guess that's it. I wish one of these so-called "Kate Bush wannabes" would be remotely near as good. Tori Amos' Little Earthquakes was good for a few listens, but it faltered under closer scrutiny. Some of these later girls, who seem to in turn be influenced by Amos, just plain suck. Damn them all!

Even if she does a mediocre album, I'd LOVE to see Kate Bush return to music. Hopefully the rumours of a new album are true this time. And hopefully frigging Nelly or whoever won't be guesting! Her voice still sounds pretty good, judging by the crap-quality MP3 I have of her guest spot on some Gilmour show last year.

(also new FT articles shockah)

Tori Amos - if I were Kate, I'd sue. Hideous woman.

I wonder if this thread revival will finally see Tom's opinions on The Dreaming...

Some of my favorites are "Breathing," "Night of the Swallow," "Suspended in Gaffa," "Houdini," "Get out of my House," "Sat on my Lap," "Cloudbusting"... ah, I could go on and on.

Also, what's the usual interpretation of 'Woman's Work'? I can't decide if's about giving birth or being by the death bed of a loved one.

On a lighter note, I like the secret military one on The Whole Story a lot, too. Also, is that remastered EMI anniversary edition of Hounds of Love actually better sounding than the regular issue of it? I always thought it sounded a little thin...

Anyway, Kate so far beyond Klassik this is a redundant question.

"Meet them over at Dover/I'll just pilot the motor" etc...

The latest insider those in the know sources are circulating info that Kate Bush will finally release a new album in March 2005. [Source: Tech-House mailing list]

Further web research @ UKmix - see post [Posted: Sat Oct 30, 2004 9:04 am ]

lists a March 14th release date.

I also just started listening to these albums again. Hounds of Love really is as great as I thought it was when I was 15! The Sensual World too (I was older when that came out). The REd Shoes is still really disappointing except for about four songs. If there's a new one I'll be first in line to buy it, unless that cute goth girl who used to live down the street from me whose bedroom was filled with Kate posters is there first.

Experiment IV is def. worth picking up The Whole Story for.

I don't like Reaching Out.

Someone in the office today said they wished she would burn in hell, said she was the whiniest singer of all time and was almost as bad as Sarah McLaughlin.

I mean everyone's entitled to their opinions, but i thought it was odd that someone HATED HATED HATED kate bush. Even if you don't like her she seems inoffensive enough...

was it sexyDancer?

Shyeah, I hear there's a new Scott Walker album coming out around the same time.
― retort pouch (retort pouch), Monday, November 8, 2004 5:40 AM (3 years ago)

lol

does sexydancer hate kate? i'm appalled.

Shyeah, I hear there's a new Scott Walker album coming out around the same time.
― retort pouch (retort pouch), Monday, November 8, 2004 5:40 AM (3 years ago)

lol

And of course the real irony is, they both delivered their records more or less on time.

dud forever

Noted. You've now shown your true colours, John. What took you so long? Don't get me wrong, I admire it. Coming out of the closet as a Kate hater takes real courage.

lol contrarianism

i will never listen to the mountain goats again. i will only listen to kate bush make mountain goat noises.

Don't you just hate it when you mistake An Aboriginal for a tree...Ruddy bloody aboriginals...

classic, duh.

dud forever

― J0hn D., Wednesday, October 8, 2008 9:26 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

i'm so sorry

john d losin credibility with the party base.

kate bush >>> ace of base

Kate Bush is most definitely classic!!

I totally understand why someone wouldn't like her. Her voice often sounds like it were enhanced by helium. Her songs are frequently eccentric, their vibe uncomfortable. And her sense of style is either theatrical or atrocious, depending on your point of view.

I get why people like John might not like her -- I just totally disagree.

i started to postulate a similar line of reasoning, but then i remembered all the textures.

it's just not really possible for my brain to understand how someone can listen to the dreaming/2nd half of HoL and say anything but classic.

I will only allow that when I first heard her earliest stuff (when she really did seem to have help from helium), the highness of her voice was quite jarring, almost freakish. But I quickly got used to it and yikes, judge her by that stuff alone and you're out of your mind.

Buried in this Vince Clarke of Erasure interview:

The only collaboration that didn’t work out in the end that both myself and Andy pursued was one with Kate Bush and that was quite a few albums ago. We asked her to produce an album for us but unfortunately she couldn’t do it. We got to meet her and everything but she didn’t feel that that was her area. It would have been great if she could have done it but that’s just the way it goes.

relief!

"ok vince, now tell me who you are again and why I should produce your record? ermmmm. no thank you."

LOL, god in heaven doesn't she just crap all over Erasure?

to be fair, so does my mother's tibetan spaniel

Has she produced anything other than her own stuff? She'd be great, but not for Erasure. Somebody like Keane I could see

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BjPMtLtCYAEE5Sm.jpg

whoa

wonder what made her change her mind

HOLY SHIT.

THIS IS GOING TO BREAK THE ENTIRE INTERNET.

I AM SO GOING.

i feel a bit sick thinking of the possibility of not getting tickets. next week will be intense. THANKS KATE!!!!

Argh I will be travelling across the country that day and probably not in a position to hit refresh for five hours.

i think she's already broken the internet, her official site isn't loading

but apparently tickets are like £135

i feel a bit sick thinking of the possibility of not getting tickets.

this is how i react to every major live announcement by an act i love tbh

thank god poverty has saved me a day's virtual queueing

assuming i don't get tipsy and do this by mistake

dammit maybe i can rob a building society over the weekend or something

i always found her no-touring stance admirable and never understood the clamour from her fans for her to perform

yeah i feel like if she'd toured her whole career i might easily have never gone to see her so maybe it's weird to get wrapped up in a pile-on now, but on the other hand restricting this to a single venue heavily implies that Kate is going to put on a SHOW

oh i just noticed one of the dates is on my birthday

So, tickets on sale 28th March

Where did the price news come from?

update price news: £49, £59, £75, £95, £135

(from someone i presume got on her site before it crashed)

(seriously though are people just fine with the prospect of trying to buy tickets before they sell out in 5 seconds off a website that will doubtless constantly crash? just the thought of it stresses me the fuck out)

nah it's not fine and tbh there's something crappy about the whole BIG EVENT gig thing in 2014, it's the new every-cunt-goes-to-festivals bollocks commerce-disguised-as-religious-pilgrimage death-of-the-imagination 21st century yuppie gameshow

but on the other hand, Kate Bush

reading this conclusion from a guardian article from 2010 about her non-touring

Bush is essentially a child of the studio, preferring to work over time at her creative impulses in silence and solitude. Like an author, the connections with her audience occur privately, conducted as a conversation rather than a mass declaration. The results have frequently been bewitching and yet, in a career with an abundance of creative peaks and critical praise, her reluctance to perform live remains a source of deep regret, particularly following the extraordinary promise shown on the Tour of Life.

"It's a tragedy she didn't go back out touring, an absolute tragedy," says Jon Kelly, who co-produced Bush's first three records. "A huge loss to the world. Like a star dying early."

such an irritating attitude. IS HER FUCKING GENIUS NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU? is a three-decade body of work insufficient to sate your entitlement? there was nothing regrettable or tragic about kate bush's career. if she's a studio musician and not a performing seal that's FINE. the live arena should not be the ultimate field of aspiration for artists.

Wonder why he got dropped as a producer?

goddamnit i was actually in london in early september last year. if only she'd made the decision to play 12 months earlier!

See, I'd call it a "bit of a shame" that she didn't do more tours, but that's as far as I'd go. She clearly didn't enjoy it as much as she wanted to, even though her dances and staging were things she was good at.

(When I say "more" I mean more than one. Five. That'd be an OK number)

That's the way people talk in TV documentaries. "Yeah that was great Jon but could we do one more take and maybe you could call it an absolute tragedy this time? A star dying early? Love it. Perfect."

hold on misty-eyed gaze off camera for 3 seconds

"y'know, the real tragedy of Joyce was that he didn't do more reading tours"

The thing about Kate Bush is that you get the feeling she could have put on genuinely amazing live shows, like ones that made you completely reconsider what a great gig actually looked and sounded like.

Now she's older I suspect the pressure is off, these will probably be quite stripped-down affairs and that's fine with me. Like she's obviously a great musician and not someone who can only operate in the studio.

most useful thing radiohead could do at this point in their career is to put out a surprise album on the very same day these tickets go on sale, thereby creating the perfect diversion while i purchase a seat at my leisure

"y'know, the real tragedy of Joyce was that he didn't do enough/too much drinking..."

Am waiting for the rest of America to wake up and react to this.

oh shit, people are going to be flying in from all over the place for this thing right? not that there's anything wrong with that but eek, so much competition

Why can't she come to america?

She probably will, America. So, don't worry about logging in on Friday week!

There's basically zero chance of her taking this to a festival though, I'd imagine.

Well, the first one is two days after Reading Festival finishes..

Support band will be The Avalanches.

And special guest Scott Walker.

Just put £50 on surprise Reading performance between Macklemore and You Me At Six.

Now she's older I suspect the pressure is off, these will probably be quite stripped-down affairs and that's fine with me.

I, for one, am rooting for her to tote Ryuichi Sakamoto along for Fairlight, David Gilmour on guitar and Dr. Linn on drums. Alas, Eberhard Weber had a stroke so I'm pretty sure he won't be able to make it.

Actually, scratch that -- Steve Gadd will do just fine.

and don't forget rolf harris as the painter

True enough.

Listening to The Director's Cut version of "Lily" right now and getting chills imagining her doing this arrangement live.

Rolf's having problems getting his calls returned at the moment for some reason.

i don't really wish i was wealthy very often but goddamnit

I am glad that my geographical and financial distance is pushing this into virtual reality (in which I will in due time certainly avail myself of all means of said reality).

this is going to put The Knife tickets debacle in the shade (also it would be cool if KB comes out with a similarly audience-alienating live show)

oh that would be amazing!

a set of deep cuts only please

Guys, the Before The Dawn promo photo that the BBC have published in the "Why did Kate Bush never tour after 1979?" article is this:

http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/73726000/jpg/_73726467_katedawn.jpg

Am I wrong in reading The Ninth Wave in its entirety from this? And then hyperventilating?

the last song on the ninth wave suite is the morning fog, which often happens BEFORE THE DAWN

15 gigs. Any chance this won't sell out in a minute?

trying not to think about what i would pay a scalper for these :(

just thinking of what the atmosphere will be like in the building 5 minutes before the show starts is sort of crazy.

first show i mean obviously. going to be so so intense!

Trying to calculate which show to attempt to buy tickets for to have the best chance of actually getting some

major spoiler avoidance hassles for anyone going late in the run.

pulling for an Outkast cameo

xp EACH SHOW WILL BE COMPLETELY DIFFERENT

Get Out Of My House live and *loud* in a darkened theatre..

How long will the standing ovation be on Kate's entrance?

Tommy Steele will be jealous!

"It's a tragedy she didn't go back out touring, an absolute tragedy," says Jon Kelly, who co-produced Bush's first three records. "A huge loss to the world. Like a star dying early."

such an irritating attitude. IS HER FUCKING GENIUS NOT ENOUGH FOR YOU? is a three-decade body of work insufficient to sate your entitlement? there was nothing regrettable or tragic about kate bush's career. if she's a studio musician and not a performing seal that's FINE. the live arena should not be the ultimate field of aspiration for artists.

― lex pretend, Friday, March 21, 2014 5:38 AM (6 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I think people put such emphasis on live show cos that's really the only way other people that are not Kate Bush are going to be able to make money off Kate Bush. So bravo, guys, it's Christmas!

I hope she only plays songs from her new album.

What, her *new* new album,

Whatever she's doing now, wherever her head's at.

yes

the absolute last thing i would want from these shows is a crowd-pleasing setlist of the hits

Given the changes in her voice over the past 10 years or so, I doubt she'd be able to sing a lot of the early songs even if she tried.

"And now my favorite songs by Muse."

AmazingAmazingAmazingAmazingAmazingAmazingAmazingAmazingAmazingAmazing news :))))))). This is great.

goddamn one hopes she manages to bring it stateside

there is no way I am financially going to be able to make it across the pond for this let alone afford tickets

Nor is there any way she's playing the US. Sadly.

why not?

morally opposed to tipping

just seems so co-oh-oh-old

I'm half imagining her canceling the rest of her British dates halfway thru the tour.

Would love to be proven wrong.

that's quite a half imagination you have

People who are recluses for almost 3 1/2 decades do not easily let it all hang out in public. History is littered with people who seem odd but then when they are exposed in the light of day come up with all sorts of reasons to crawl back into the shadows – with bizarre medical conditions, irreconcilable "technical difficulties" etc.

I'm not trying to be a bummer here. Tho I'm probably being one. I'm just trying not to get my hopes up that she'll come to the States.

Then again Brian Wilson repeatedly proves all of this wrong. So, optimism!!

i don't think brian wilson is a good reference point here. dude struggled with serious mental illness and i don't think that's the case with bush, from what we know

Kate Bush has just been really domestic, right? She's not exactly a recluse. She's got a family, etc., seems perfectly normal in interviews. As does Scott Walker, come to think of it. Just because someone is not in your face all the time does not make her a recluse. She's just doesn't tour.

Well, Harry Nilsson didn't your either but I wouldn't have called him a recluse either. My sense of her has always been that she's a little odd. Agreed, not mentally ill – but my point would be, if Brian Wilson could do it, Kate certainly could.

pretty sure her exact words on the subject are "I'm not some weirdo recluse"

Ok then. Carry on.

I would be beyond stoked to see her

I hope she's still blocking Coachella's phone number though.

this doesn't leave the thread, but she's playing my birthday party next month.

cool

http://www.katebush.com/news/message-kate?utm_content=bufferd3d8e

so she's doing the ninth wave?! fuckkkkkk i can't deal with the thought of "hello earth" live

Just came on to post the same omfg

omfg

she doesn't actually say that, she's just explaining that that's where it's from and she thought it would be a cool img to use

as part of the show centres around this musical piece though

oh duh missed that

hope I get to this damn thing

back of the queue pal

some of us have been camping out next to our computers since friday y'know

Umm. Wow. I appear to have a pre-sale code that let's me buy tickets on Wednesday.

Eh what? How'd you get that?

prepare the auction thread....

My son has got one that seems to have come from the official twitter feed on a DM. It sounds dodgy, and I need to look into what exactly it is, but it came 10 minutes after the announcement yesterday which feels too quick for scammers to have got it together.

If you email it to ismaelklata at gmail dot com, I can check it out for you.

Hahaha.

Anyway, if genuine I have no idea what this means for the chances of getting tickets on Friday.

it's genuine probably, I think it came from the mailing listq

yep it is. its fucking with my weekend good mood that i wasn't subscribed and so didn't get it...obviously who the fuck would have thought it was actually necessary to be on Kate's website mailing list to get up to date info on tour dates. BLEURGH!

don't give up, you're not beaten yet

BLEURGH indeed. I'll do my best on Friday, fail, and live the rest of my life with remorse.

Do you guys think bertie's voice has broken yet

http://ampp3d.mirror.co.uk/2014/03/21/what-are-the-chances-of-you-getting-a-kate-bush-ticket/

i'm not even going to try on fri...

well, that's depressing

just hoping that there are plans to film this whole thing

would gladly pay a tenner for a live stream tbh

You know that thing that opera houses to when they simulcast the performance to cinemas around the country? This is pretty much the only time I would want to see that applied to pop music.

http://epetitions.direct.gov.uk/

Matt that was exactly the model I was thinking of! Let's fucking do it!

yep, I also got a presale code from the mailing list. I live in Texas so this is stupid, but I'm going to attempt to buy a pair of tickets.

which I guess means I need to stay up until 3:30am tonight

I live in london (albeit 8 miles from the venue) - perhaps you might let me have a go of your code?

oh no, if there is a chance she will be performing the Ninth Wave, I will be attending one of these shows

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/23/Donotmesswithtexas.jpg/250px-Donotmesswithtexas.jpg

stop squabbling man, and start digging the tunnel

clearly I am going to be going way over budget for concert expenses this year

good luck anyone going for the presale tomorrow. my fingers double crossed for all the fellow kate obsessives out there!

http://25.media.tumblr.com/c9e0683471ba4a9c89c8e3042941e4dc/tumblr_mz6mb3Pfsz1srop9do2_r2_250.gif

I would like to second Jamie's good wishes to the presale people and add that if you feel like buying any extra tickets don't forget your pal wins

yeah me too if you don't mind running up that bill

"Hello Mirth" lol

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/KATE-BUSH-tickets-fan-presale-code-/291108230230

**Tickets**
Ticketing procedures have been put in place to ensure that tickets do not get sold on and fans do not pay a higher price for their tickets.

Ticket purchases are limited to a maximum of 4 per order. For example, you can try to purchase up to 4 tickets for just one of the 15 concerts, or 4 tickets for 4 separate shows.

The name of the lead booker will be printed on each ticket. The name cannot be changed once the booking has been made.

The lead booker will be asked to present ID to gain entry into the venue. Failure to adhere the terms and conditions may result in the customer's order being void. There are no exceptions to this rule.

This is pretty awesome. Sounds like it will work!

That's from Ticketmaster's site, btw.

but if it's just the lead booker's name on all 4 tickets then there's nothing to stop the lead booker from selling three of them to a third party at inflated prices. what normally happens at these high-demand events (e.g. Kraftwerk) is that each ticket is printed with the name of the person who will be using that actual ticket

I think the idea is that when you show up at the venue, the lead booker has to be present to get in everyone who is using the tickets the lead booker purchased. So if you buy from a scalper, the scalper has to be at the venue and has to use one of the tickets themselves.

I feel like that process would be so unwieldly at the venue that there is no way they will follow through and are hoping the threat of it will be enough to discourage scalping.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fXv2ttd2Ig

me, to tickets

Presale code sold for £52

http://skatebush.tumblr.com/

i anyone wants my presale code hit me up. I'm the US, no way I can make this.

i'd like it!

ilx mailed you

and fail... wouldn't accept my credit card information. had row E center but lost them.

Lots of things went really quickly, but managed to snag tickets for Sat 6th!

Gutted for you. This is going to be hell, unless she announces a load more dates.

Um, xp. There is hope!

I'm over it. Trip would have cost me about two grand anyway.

I know the mailing list tickets were supposed to be limited but apparently we were down to last choices after less than 5 minutes. We couldn't even get 4, had to settle for 3.

I'm glad some folks got tickets!

hazel :(

Just seen the details, we are Circle Row E. I don't know whether all the fan presales were this price, but £135 each is a bit more than I expected to pay.

Apparently there were also £500 hospitality tickets, no idea what was included in them.

those prices for the top seated tickets were confirmed everywhere beforehand. i'm guessing pricewise its split into - front stalls / back stalls / front balcony / back balcony / standing back of stalls

I don't suppose one of those three is a spare?

It's not, unfortunately. If we had got the 4 then one conceivably would have been a spare, although with a notional taker and another ilxor in mind for second refusal (but a moot point anyway).

I knew what the pricing structure was going to be, just didn't really want to be paying full whack.

My friend had a pre sale code but couldn't work out the website...YOU HAD ONE JOB!!!!

oh god, that's what I'm worried about! there should be some sort of demo mode we can access in advance so we can have a practice beforehand

Presale code was also quite explicit that if you got it wrong then tough shit and it would be cancelled.

lol discourage touting by charging tout prices to begin with

"Hello, I know that you've been feeling tired.
I bring you love and deeper understanding.
Hello, I know that you're unhappy.
I bring you love and deeper understanding.
BTW if you get your presale code wrong,
Then tough shit, it will be cancelled"

lol

I was just thinking...do you think Bertie Bush will be on backups...

"Ooh, there goes a tenner. 
Hey, look! There's a fiver. 
There's a ten-shilling note. 
Remember them? 
Now you only need another hundred quid to get in."

thanks Ismael and NickB : )

and the web site was pretty confusing. if you buy concert tickets with any frequency (as most of us probably do) it isn't bad, but you can't call it straightforward, especially with the presale code.

I might try again on Friday, but honestly I can't afford this and I am sure reason will set in by then. Anyway there is the Cure's late-2014 Trilogy tour to budget for!

sorry I slept through the requests for my presale code!

7 more London dates added:

http://www.gigwise.com/videos/89668/kate-bush-adds-seven-london-more-dates-to-residency---tickets

!!!

Fleetwood Mac added an extra date in the middle of the first day of sale, which how I managed to sneak a ticket for them. This'll likely just be swallowed up in the initial rush.

Also, how about non-London dates?

every time I think I'm out

she takes another piece of you..

kind of worried she's going to be overstretching herself with all these dates from a baseline of nothing at all. like is it going to do terrible things to her vocal chords? similar feeling of trepidation to when michael jackson announced 2,000 dates at earl's court, and he didn't even make it to the start line

um vocal cords

kind of worried she's going to be overstretching herself with all these dates from a baseline of nothing at all.

yeah honestly this seems like a terrible idea. I know everybody has faith in saint kate to be amazing no matter what but performing is a skill one develops by performing - even performers who slow down and become rare sightings on stages (Streisand, Michael Jackson for the last decade-plus of his life) are people who spent years and years doing the work in front of crowds. to just hop on stage after how long offstage?? and say, cool, I'm spending eighteen nights onstage in a single month after a lifetime avoiding the stage"...good luck to her, she'll need it

Who's to say she hasn't *performed* in the shower every day for thirty years? She'll be fine.

Per Uncut, she's added 7 more London shows.

Showers don't tend to last for 90+ mins though. I'm sure she's surrounded by people telling her it'll be fine, some with good intentions, others maybe a bit more out of self-interest, and I'm sure she would love for all her fans to be able to see her, but just on the physiological level this is going to take a toll, especially if there's a lot of dancing or physical theatre involved. Just wish she was easing herself in a bit more gently.

do people seriously think she'll be dancing?! I'd think she seems like the sort of person who would have thought this out very well and have some very sensible people around her advising on the plans for this.

There's no way she won't be working with a proper voice coach + people who know what they're doing in the run-up to these gigs.

do people seriously think she'll be dancing?!

who knows? i wouldn't rule it out totally though, always seemed a big part of her thing. could easily imagine some dance interludes between her sitting at a piano or whatever.

If there's dancing then other people will be doing it.

^

Like, everything we know about Kate Bush suggests that she's intelligent, grounded and eminently sensible in terms of her career, does anyone really think she'll be signing up to 22 nights of something so physically and musically demanding that it exceeds her capabilities?

when i say dance, i do mainly mean rhythmic physical movement rather than some all-out terpsichorean spectacular

xp it is possible that she's underestimated the demands of it or overestimated her own capabilities. these are all complete unknowns to everyone obv

anyhow, just mildly worried about her really rather than trying to poop on anybody's picnic

Well, bear in mind it's one of the reasons (probably) she sacked live work up to now.

It can be emotionally and psychologically and physically hugely demanding but will be less so if she's been comprehensively rehearsed and doesn't over-reach within the show itself (and there's no evidence that she will).

The fact that this is a residency rather than a tour will make it easier as well.

true, but often the toughest bit of any physical challenge is actually surviving the training in the first place. but at least she's got a good long time to prepare anyway

Also if Brian Wilson of all people can survive a lengthy tour and get (by and large) hugely positive reviews then Kate should be able to do 22 dates in one theatre.

Showers don't tend to last for 90+ mins though.

unless you're Kanye West

ILM: Some or Another Kate Bush Thread in New Answers 24/7/365®

Bet it'll pretty much be musical theater / Cirque du Soleil, which means an incredible amount of performance energy required but also visual interludes vs. it being nonstop singing song after song.

Kate Bush songs don't seem particularly easy to sing, either.

depends on the song

lol I knew the Kate booster society would be mad at the implication that anything isn't easy as pie for KB

it'd seem like a bad idea to me for anybody to play 22 dates in a month after an absence from the stage of over 20 years, even more so somebody who spent a tiny fraction of their career on stages. Matt's reaction does suggest though that KB can take it easy, her fans will say it's incredible no matter what it's like

Tho I cannot be held harmless, I love that 90% of the posts on a thread dedicated to Kate Bush touring for the first time in 30 years are 1) Anguish about getting tickets or being able to see her across the pond, 2) Fear that she might cancel the tour and (LOL) 3) Despair that she may physically collapse from the stress of it all.

I think we all need to cuddle up with an afghan and a nice warm cup of cocoa.

And a Kate Bush album!

aero I share your reservations, and for this reason I'm passing on this run, but knowing Bush's attention to detail, consistent cast of good musicians on record, the budget she likely has at her disposal, I'd bet she's been demoing and rehearsing these shows for a long time and they won't be, like, "unprofessional"

I have a question though. The implication I've read elsewhere is "Bush needs cash" and I had been told, in 2001, by the biggest Kate Bush fan I've ever known, that Bush bought lots of stock in Fruitopia in the 90s and made out like a bandit-- part of the reason why she did those ads for them-- and this has been the primary reason she could afford to spend the 90s and 00s focusing on raising her family. Is rumour completely fabricated? I spent a little time googling yesterday and there were no results. (These past years since I heard this I've always thought of Kate Bush when buying a Fruitopia, "you deserve it!")

what the basis for the claim that she needed money? that just sounds bizarre to me.

Any time a retired or semi-retired artist comes out of retirement (in this case, retirement from playing live) there are always some "is she broke?" speculations

Being aware of the financial situations of a handful of other famous-legacy-acts-you'd-never-expect-to-be-broke (publicly at least, Leonard Cohen, The Queen of England) I would not in the slightest think it would be bizarre if it turned out Kate Bush is low on funds. Though I don't really want to speculate on it, I'm much happier believing she's a fruit juice magnate

Leonard Cohen situation

OK, that's reasonable in a general way. I would guess, without much actual knowledge, that she's sitting on at least ten million pounds. Probably more.

where on earth would she have gotten ten million pounds from? zero touring income, record sales plenty respectable in their day in the UK but not enough to live a lifetime on. back catalog is not a reliable source of income for anybody.

OTOH the daily mail says she's worth thirty million pounds so what the fuck do I know

fruitopia innit

that
makes me really happy :) she should buy the monarchy

an absence from the stage of over 20 years,

35 years, u old

some of us with connections caught her house shows in '94, don't be mad

where on earth would she have gotten ten million pounds from?

Multiple advances from EMI, record sales, and songwriting royalties? Her first single went to #1 in the UK and made her a household name, and every one of her albums has landed in the top ten. That bodes well for getting massive advances from the record company during the age of massive advances, and it doesn't hurt to have had David Gilmour on your side from day one giving career advice. Plus she doesn't appear to have blown any on extravagant living or drug habits, so if she's even half-decent at investing, Fruitopia or no, she's probably multiplied her fortune in last thirty years. I suspect the Daily Mail, being the Daily Mail, is full of shit, but I have little doubt she is a millionaire many times over.

yeah I don't think she lives very extravagantly. it's not like she travels all over the place and has houses on every continent.

Perhaps she feels this is her best chance/opportunity to do a full-out long run live show. I'm sure she's thought "what if" lots.

speaking of back catalogue it's kinda crazy she's not had a Best Of or Hits type compilation in 28 years. can't think of any artists with no major compilation for so long.

director's cut comes closest but even that was kind of "fuck you, I do what I want, and what I want is The Sensual World and The Red Shoes, goddamnit"

Good luck to everyone trying this morning.

speaking of back catalogue it's kinda crazy she's not had a Best Of or Hits type compilation in 28 years. can't think of any artists with no major compilation for so long.

she's only had four studio albums in that period of time, two of which are very much albums to be heard as a whole with only one token single from each. so, not that crazy unless you're really craving the whole story with added the sensual world/the red shoes bonus tracks which i'm sure you can make yourself. of course, this might make her an exception, but in a good way, ie she's not been concerned about rinsing her fans every few years for pointless reissues and compilations like some other artists.

a remix album at some point would have been a nice idea i guess.

I'd like to hear what d lissvik might do with some cuts from her last two

omg yes

t minus 1 hour

lol I knew the Kate booster society would be mad at the implication that anything isn't easy as pie for KB

it'd seem like a bad idea to me for anybody to play 22 dates in a month after an absence from the stage of over 20 years, even more so somebody who spent a tiny fraction of their career on stages. Matt's reaction does suggest though that KB can take it easy, her fans will say it's incredible no matter what it's like

lol I knew you wouldn't actually read my post properly. No one's saying it's going to be easy for her. No one's saying every gig is going to be amazing - although frankly some of her fans will whether they are or not, enough bands with less talent than Kate manage to get away with all sorts of half-arsed shit onstage without anyone caring.

The bit I'm taking issue with is the implication in several posts here that she's a fragile little thing who doesn't know what she's letting herself in for, rather than a grown woman who might have been singing every day of her life and understands what the risks are here. She might be standing stock-still and/or sitting at a piano for the whole thing, which is still hugely demanding if you do it 22 times in a month, but not impossible, especially if you've been properly rehearsed. And these shows will, I suspect be properly rehearsed, and I mean in the way they rehearse Broadway musicals, or the way orchestras are rehearsed, not in the way that standard touring indie bands rehearse.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BjzW9OQIEAAZ_rt.jpg

I feel for the people who are inevitably going to end up buying one of these by mistake.

goon tie i feel the sad need to point out that the Queen is still unbelievably wealthy and the current sob stories are based on some bullshit around imaginary stats also the sooner her head is on a stick the better k thx

Wow that was... surprisingly easy.

otm

oh and nv otm too, especially head/stick

Everything gone afaict :(

Got through straight away and then.... nothing ;_;

i got through okay... and then i bailed cos i couldn't tell whether the tickets i was being offered were seated or not and there's just no way my wife could stand up through the whole thing so

i thought i had got through ok and then it just froze up :(

Continued good luck, you guys.

Got tickets.

For Reading Saturday, but hey...

http://31.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m83o6d05461qkrirro1_500.gif

A friend has just managed to get for the first night.

That's good because we all know her voice will be permanently damaged by night #2!

good luck uk

most of my friends seem to have been able to get tickets for this, which is excellent :-)

can start the "underwhelming response to Kate Bush gigs" stories then

NV otm

(re Queen, xpost)

I see Tickets at viagogo at ridiculous prices. Any idea as to how they are going to circumvent the "ticket utilized by booker"-requirement?

meet them outside the venue and escort them in?

see what you mean about the prices though...
http://www.viagogo.co.uk/search?q=kate%20bush#day=-1//////query=kate%20bush//tx=1/page=1

o hai im the guy chrgin u 10x the regular tkt price u ready to go in bro?

wouldn't they also have to sit beside them? That might be a tad uncomfortable

slip them a few pringles and pretend it's a hospitality package

"No hard feelings eh? Hey, listen, she's covering the Futureheads!"

I guess there's the eskorte-option. Just can't really see that happening. Maybe they're just screwing people.

Escort*

hoping for a high-concept set of obscurities/ninth wave/sky of honey and NO HITS. alienate those casual fans! ^_^

as for the worries about whether she can endure it, i'm sure her reluctance to perform live makes it more likely that she's thought those concerns through. the physical demands of performing live are hardly a secret. she's got half a year to prepare (and has probably started already anyway), she'll be fine.

speaking of back catalogue it's kinda crazy she's not had a Best Of or Hits type compilation in 28 years. can't think of any artists with no major compilation for so long.

Does that satin box set count? I guess not. I don't see how her albums from Sensual World onward could be compilable.

NV thanks for clarifying the Queen's financial situation but how you violently deal with your monarchy is not my business

isn't she yr monarch too technically? i forget

Yep. She's prorogued our parliament twice in the last seven years iirc and her mug is on our coins and $20s

as for the worries about whether she can endure it...

Queen of Pop Kate Bush's 'This Is it!'

i wonder how many "casual fans" will actually be at these gigs? considering she sold out 22 shows in 15 minutes, i'd presume that you'd have to be more a punter fond of "wuthering heights" to bother with the stress of ticketing etc

Of the big hits, I can't think of many songs less likely to be played than Wuthering Heights, not because of wilful contrarianism but because it's highly unlikely she can still hit the high notes. Same reason Neil Young doesn't play After The Gold Rush any more.

Husky reinterpretation

if she does play the hits i hope she totally fucks with the arrangement, structure, vocals, radically reimagines them. actually i can't really see her NOT doing this to at least a couple? i mean if taylor swift does it habitually it's not that weird to think kate will.

I predict she'll do a cover of After The Gold Rush, replacing the low notes with a contemporary dance routine.

I'm really impressed by the number of American friends I have who have bought tickets and are planning trips around these shows.

if i had the money, i'd do the same.

^^^^^ on this

Same reason Neil Young doesn't play After The Gold Rush any more

He still plays it, most recently in LA the other day.

I think Neil will keep playing it as long as there are 3-5 guys in every audience that'll go "whoo" after the "I felt like getting high" line.

LOL

Rational me is kinda relieved I failed to get tickets to one of the KB shows, because it would have been an expensive trip! Still woulda done it though.

first off, grats to all of you that got tix. hope it's as awesome as you hope.

secondly, I'd been exposed to Kate via a few tracks here and there, and of course "Don't Give Up", but never full albums, so this thread inspired me to pick up Hounds of Love and I instantly took a loving to it, but was surprised at how much more I loved The Dreaming. this is my wheelhouse! where should I go next after that one?

That's my fave but Aerial is amazing... Never For Ever is probably the most like The Dreaming

Never For Ever

Go with the Kick Inside because it's awesome yet very different from Hounds of Love or the Dreaming, or try The Sensual World or Aerial (especially Sky of Honey if you liked side two of Hounds). Avoid Lionheart, The Red Shoes, and Director's Cut/50 Words for Snow. They've got some good stuff on them, but they can definitely wait.

50 words for snow is pretty incredible but aerial should come first.

50 words is amazing! but listen to other albums first, I agree (except for maybe red shoes and lionheart).

I still rep hard for Sensual World. It has some reputation as being poppier than Hounds which is weird. It's smokier and sexier; smoother, I suppose, than the 9th Wave, but it's not some pop sell out album.

Never For Ever is really underrated in her canon. I love the best bits of The Kick Inside, which has higher highs, but never want to listen to it all the way through.

I finally played Lionheart for the first time yesterday and, yeah, it's definitely minor in the context of the rest of her work.

co-sign on the Never For Ever love. probably my third fave after Dreaming and Hounds

Aerial is fabulous - they all are - but I agree that you probably want to be going backwards before looking forwards.

Never For Ever is fantastic and sounds great on headphones, especially that part in 'All We Ever Look For'.

I came way late to Kate Bush, but that great run of HoL, The Dreaming and NFE sounds to me like solo Peter Gabriel as fronted by flower-costume and funny-voice Genesis-era Peter Gabriel. Totally genius/bonkers/awesome/funny and even a little annoying, all in equal, baffling, brilliant measure.

I always thought her pairing with David Gilmour was as wackadoodle an old guard/new guard mentorship/shepherding as Ray Manzerek was with X.

and of course Never For Ever also has this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fJvXpvH2-Hk

(RIP Mick Karn)

With Pete Townsend and Phil Collins on drums too? Triple whoah.

^^From one of the Secret Policeman's Balls iirc.

imagined Peter and Phil playing bongo-like percussion on a cop's tucked away testicles and wondered how I got to this place in life.

definitely expected that mental image upon re-opening this thread

"Running Up That Hill" from the same place:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwQQbfJFc5U

pretty sure the clips are about five years apart.

I still need Kick Inside and the latter 4 albums. Total bummer that you can't get the 2 bonus discs of b-sides/rarities of This Woman's Work by themselves or even on mp3. That collection costs a fortune.

Even though it isn't nearly the best, Lionheart is probably my favourite, my appreciation of her really deepened with that album. Particularly for the utterly incredible "Wow"; "In The Warm Room" is great too.

That "Running Up That Hill" is a lot better in paper than in reality. Yikes.

On paper.

"I still need Kick Inside and the latter 4 albums. Total bummer that you can't get the 2 bonus discs of b-sides/rarities of This Woman's Work by themselves or even on mp3. That collection costs a fortune."

you can find them illegally easily enough, or if you send me a personal message.

It's not really a priority right now but it annoys me that those two discs don't have their own collection. How many people shelled out for that who didn't already have the studio albums in the box? I bet there is a YouTube playlist somewhere. Kind of hoping if I wait, a more complete collection will come out (I think it might have just been a alternate versions left off and I'm not really one to get excited about different mixes).

How much of it is worthwhile?

I've heard contrasting opinions on Cathy's Home Demos. Anyone here think it's worth getting?

I've also heard that the Japanese editions of her albums have superior remastering. Is this just collector bragging nonsense?

I have the japanese box set. It's been ages since I had the original US pressings but I don't remember there being any earth shattering difference.

Think it was the difference between the American CDs and the British EMI reissues with the bonus tracks. Sound on the American CDs is pretty awful – HoL in particular.

If you're a fan of her music the B-Sides/rarities are a must listen, I think. there are often some wonderful diversions from what she was doing on her albums of the time as well as surprisingly deep yet minimal pieces ("Under The Ivy", Donovan cover "Lord Of The Reedy River").

Penman on the return

I take a different view from his reading of Bertie, its a very well realized idea and the only thing I would listen to again from Aerial

Probably agree on the majority of the piece - not that bothered to check the records. It may reflect on both Kate and the piece too. Or myself.

It's the best, most on-the-money thing I think I've read about her. Thanks for the link!

the only thing I would listen to again from Aerial

seriously wtf

I've heard contrasting opinions on Cathy's Home Demos. Anyone here think it's worth getting?

it's definitely worth a download. there are a bunch of different editions of the same material, but the best sounding version I've heard online is Alone At My Piano (hope it's ok to link to that). that particular download is sped up slightly — every other version I've heard sounds unnaturally slow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQ5ouR6p-gM

^probably my favorite unreleased demo track

just read the penman essay, it's typically great but I can't really hang with the iconoclazzzm here, as with the michael jackson piece where he indulges in similar tropes of the sole clear-sighted non-kool aid drinker: part of me can't help wondering, admit it, let's face it, &c. It's annoying when lesser challop-merchants do it and it's annoying from a writer as thoughtful and incisive as penman. That said, I agree with a lot of what he says, I just draw different conclusions (I adore aerial)

tbh felt relief reading his assessment of Aerial. I never managed to see what others saw in it

well nobody has to like anything! but defaulting to "risk" and "edge" as intrinsically valuable allegedly missing qualities is a bit lazy I think

I mean ok, punk orthodoxy would have an automatic antipathy towards certain moves yet some of those same critics now love kate for doing similar - maybe that's cause they were wrong and they now realise it! And the whole sting hypothetical, where if he wrote a song like "bertie" "we" would dismiss it out of hand - this is probably true, but that's a more trenchant criticism of "us" than the song imo.

And this is coming from a guy who very recently wrote a beautiful essay defending apparently "cosy" (but often unsettled) music, in the scott walker book. Or, you know, everything he says here could equally be applied to robert wyatt or whoever. I think he's getting at something, but it reads as empty contrarianism whether it is or not.

TPL reaches The Whole Story and wonders who's really listening: http://nobilliards.blogspot.co.uk/2014/10/kate-bush-whole-story.html

Currently reading "Under The Ivy". It's breezy enough - like an extended Mojo artist bio but with great detailed descriptions of her recording process on each album. I also didn't know she was such a pothead haha.

15 years

But what the fuck do YOU think of the lass?

The accuracy

In honour of the fact that there is now one week left until the Oscars, here is Kate Bush as each of the ten Best Picture nominees. 🧵

— 𝕋𝕠𝕞𝕒𝕤 (@cinema_gay) March 5, 2023

Rest In Peace Del Palmer.