It took 35 years for Kate Bush to follow up her lone tour, but she returned to the stage in London last night for her first full performance since May 14, 1979, performing a highly theatrical, 22-song set that featured nearly all of her classic LP Hounds of Love, the second side of Aerial and a few other selections. It was the first of 22 performances.
True to her request that the concerts not be filmed or photographed, there is very little video evidence of the performance online, and the photos that have emerged are mostly official shots or press pictures.
Below, we’ve collected a few of those, the full setlist and the best video that has yet emerged: a partial performance of show-closer “Cloudbusting,” via 666MOWZER.
Also, some reviews:
Pitchfork: Live Review: Kate Bush’s First Show in 35 Years
New York Times: Kate Bush Returns to the Stage, and Her Fans Are There to Welcome Her
The Guardian: Kate Bush: Before the Dawn review – a lithe grace and note-perfect vocals
NME: Kate Bush’s Before The Dawn Shows Begin: The Story Of The First Night
The Telegraph: Kate Bush, Hammersmith Apollo, review: ‘still wondrous, rich and powerful’
Video: Kate Bush, “Cloudbusting” (Partial), London, 8/26/14
Setlist: Kate Bush, Eventim Apollo, London, England, 8/26/14
1. “Lily”
2. “Hounds Of Love”
3. “Joanni”
4. “Top Of The City”
5. “Running Up That Hill”
6. “King Of The Mountain”
The Ninth Wave
7. “And Dream Of Sheep”
8. “Under Ice”
9. “Waking The Witch”
10. “Watching You Without Me”
11. “Jig Of Life”
12. “Hello Earth”
13. “The Morning Fog”
A Sky Of Honey
14. “Prelude”
15. “Prologue”
16. “An Architect’s Dream”
17. “The Painter’s Link”
18. “Sunset”
19. “Aerial Tal”
20. “Somewhere In Between”
21. “Nocturn”
22. “Aerial”
23. “Among Angels”
24. “Cloudbusting”
FIRST PICS: Kate Bush wows music lovers in AMAZING comeback gig http://t.co/1kG1FWoEVA pic.twitter.com/Ntr7uJMnu5
— Daily Star (@Daily_Star) August 26, 2014
.@KateBushMusic ‘was so obviously, so unambiguously brilliant’ ★★★★★ http://t.co/xpMlIl7TUu pic.twitter.com/YkwuB5s6ht
— Evening Standard (@standardnews) August 27, 2014
Kate’s show looks amazing! #KateBush #beforethedawn 😍 pic.twitter.com/ApirG40xKY
— Louie Bromley (@louie1401) August 26, 2014
Wow! This looks stunning! I’m so excited!!!! Counting the sleeps to my first show! #KateBush #beforethedawn 😘 pic.twitter.com/vCPZpM1x0N
— Louie Bromley (@louie1401) August 26, 2014
PREVIOUSLY ON SLICING UP EYEBALLS
- Kate Bush asks fans to ‘share in the experience,’ and not film, photograph upcoming shows
- Kate Bush expands London residency to 22 concerts following ‘massive’ ticket demand
- Kate Bush to play 15 concerts in London this summer — first live dates in 35 years
- Kate Bush to release new ‘Running Up That Hill’ remix at close of London Olympics
Worse than any camera, ipad, tall person, person with a giant wig, person with a giant hat, inconsiderate chatter, etc. is CLAPPING ALONG TO THE SONG. That should be banned everywhere. You ruin it for everyone else at the show. You are off time. You stop halfway through because you get tired. You don’t need to do it or even really want to–you’re just being a sheep, and not the kind she sings about in The Ninth Wave. NOTE: If you ever attend a concert with me and start clapping along, I may take the opportunity to shove you, hard.
ha ha ha ha… I couldn’t agree with you MORE! group clap-alongs are the worst. I’m not a fan of high-fiving either. oh, I’m tall too – but still – clapping takes the cake.
Honestly, all I hear is the clapping.
not the exact setlist I’ve waited 35 years to see, but I’d give anything to actually be at any of the shows to see it!
if only she’d bring the residency to somewhere in the US (which we know she won’t)
That’s what I thought. No, Babooshka, no, Man With The Child In His Eyes, no, This Woman’s Work??
3 excellent examples Nick :) x
Thank you for posting this and helping us stay abreast of this monumental event!!
This is exactly the reason why she asked her fans not to film it with their smartphones/ipads, etc. – because it sounds shit. It doesn’t do the performance justice.
This is exactly the reason why she asked her fans not to film it with their smartphones/ipads, etc. – because these devices can’t capture the quality and it just ends up sounding poor. It doesn’t do the performance justice.
I agree with the clapping taking away from the experience. I felt the same way with some of the video clips from the recent Thompson Twins tour.
This whole endeavor feels like a cash grab to me. Regardless of her possible motives I’m still glad its happening.
Doesn’t play live = doesn’t care about fans.
Plays live = stealing fans’ money.
Honestly, there’s no winning with some people. [insert eye-roll emoticon here]
People, she has 21 more shows to perform. I am sure that there will be more variation. It anyone ever satisfied?
I’m pretty sure there will be zero variation in the set list – as there wasn’t during her first tour. It’s too choreographed to allow for variations in the set list… There’s a ton of fan favourites missing, but me too – I’d love to be there!
Gone.
@lotus – I don’t normally think that about older artists but in her case it really seems so. Her albums sold well during the 80’s but she never toured but now she performing live all of a sudden but in a way that makes it easy to do so and call it a day. I’m not knocking her for doing it, it just seems so calculated in its execution. Like Andy Partridge she had phobia issues that kept her from playing live her whole career but suddenly gets over it right before what might be the end of her career.
Roll your eyes as much as you’d like, have a nice day!
‘t Has nothing to do with grabbing money – simply making a living. She’s an artist – she can make a living by recording music and releasing it, and/or she can perform shows. It’s up to her to decide what she wants to do when. It’s up to the audience to buy albums or see shows.
There’s lots of people wanting to see her perform and the reviews have been unanimously good, so everyone wins, I’d say!
I’m sorry, she doesnt have to explain the need or want to make money. Are you entertained ? Yes. Did you pay for it ? Yes.
Love that she played The Ninth Wave, but I would have liked to see her ditch A Sky of Honey and play more hits, especially since she hasn’t played most of them live before. Nothing off The Sensual World? Didn’t play Breathing?
After 5 months and many sleepless nights trying to get tickets I was thrilled to see Kate Bush’s amazing opening show. Seeing Kate dancing barefoot with her child-like look of awe and wonder was magical and beautiful. Fabulous hearing Hounds of Love and Running up That Hill. The ‘drowning woman’ was well-staged and imaginative, but the subject matter was upsetting and often weird – I did not like that segment at all. I was disappointed not to hear a few more songs from the first part of her career (I would have LOVED to just one of either Army Dreamers, Sensual World, Wuthering Heights, Babooshka, Man with the child in his Eyes ) BUT finishing with Cloudbusting was wonderful. Overall it was an awesome spectacle and I’m so happy that I got to see this real icon of British music.
• If she were in it for the money, why not play three huge outdoor concerts, sell 200,000 tickets? She easily could do that. Instead she chooses a 3,500 capacity venue, a return to her last show 35 years earlier. Full circle, not full purse.
• As she is cited in the tour programme, her 16-year old son (a very good actor and so-so singer), who is featured prominently in the show, was the major motivation to develop this live presentation. She writes that her team has been working on the play for 18 straight months. You can feel it throughout the whole performance: This is a labour of love, not of commercial expectations.
• From the enormous effort taken to present the long parts (Wave & Honey) it’s obvious that these pieces are what Kate’s heart is really beating for in the live shows. Having seen 300+ concerts within 30 years, I haven’t witnessed a more intense and overwhelming live performance than the ‘Ninth Wave’. I doubt she could have added as much to some more older ‘hits’ than she did to these two long suites.
• The “conventional” rock band performances of the hits (Hounds, Running, Cloudbusting) were very appealing, but I wasn’t the only attendant who liked the spot-on rendition of ‘King of the Mountain’ best in the ‘normal’ set. Skipping the first four albums might seem an offence for a fan who expected a ‘Greatest Hits’ show. But I haven’t heard a single voice of even the slightest disappointment after last Wednesday’s show.
@Charles: I think you are missing the point completely.
Wow–I’m shocked at the hate here. A lot of angry people. Thanks Christian for responding, thoughtfully, to the critics.
I went to see the 27th August show (second night) and felt overwhelmed by the beauty of the spectacle. Her voice may not be the same as it used to be, but she has proven to be able to convey so much. There was music, theatre, cinema, miming, and…her imagination come true. The breathtaking beauty of the show will remain with me for the rest of my life. There were litterally ”waves of love” between Kate and the audience. I’d never experienced anything like that before. A must see show. A life-changing event.