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Inside Kate Bush’s Tour Of Life: “She created this whole massive world”

Kate bush’s collaborator on the ground-breaking tour of life reveals how the pair brought the singer’s unique vision to the stage..

REHEARSING KATE BUSH’S Tour Of Life was nearly the end of then budding illusionist Simon Drake. He was emerging from under a walkway at the back of the stage, when a section of plywood slid loose and cracked him on the head.  “I was knocked right out,” he recalls today. “And I came to with Kate sort of holding me in her lap. I was sick for a couple of days.”

READ MORE: Kate Bush’s 50 Greatest Songs

Drake was lucky. If one of the section’s metal braces had hit him. he might not have lived to tell the tale. It was, sadly, one of several instances where the ambition of Bush’s staging for her single tour as a star outstripped the experience of the team lashing it together, a situation that ended in tragedy after the warm-up show at Poole Arts Centre, with the fatal fall of young lighting engineer Bill Duffield.

It was an outcome unthinkable in the innocent pre-dawn of Drake’s involvement with the tour, which had begun the moment he first heard Wuthering Heights on the radio in January ’78. Bowled over, Drake – a former plugger at Decca and EMI – sent a note to Bush through Capital Radio producer Eddie Puma.

“I knew Eddie was seeing her that night. I just wrote that the record was amazing and if she ever toured, I wanted to be a part of it.”

Later, Drake invited Bush to a magic show he was performing at J Arthur’s, a club at the “wrong end” of the King’s Road, Chelsea, a party for Roxy Music. “I was on a little half-circle stage. And I distinctly remember her sitting there watching me, sat on her own.”

She was a pioneer. There wasn’t anyone doing anything quite that ambitious. Simon Drake

Subsequently, Drake was invited to tea-fuelled meetings at Bush’s flat in Lewisham. He watched the singer scribbling designs for the ankh-shaped set that later clobbered him (“she’s very aware of esoteric matters”) as the pair swapped ideas for bringing Bush’s already theatrical songs to the stage.

“She was a pioneer,” says Drake. “There wasn’t anyone doing anything quite that ambitious then. Maybe Peter Gabriel with Genesis. Certainly not with that amount of dance. Now it’s normal.”

Drake’s key scenes with Bush included two ‘dancing cane’ demonstrations on L’Amour Looks Something Like You and Strange Phenomena, and a spidery turn as a crazed fiddler during Violin.

“The violin was Kate’s own from when she was a kid. I cut out a bit of the back and put homemade pyro in it. The idea being I’d play the violin so fast, it would start smoking.” For the paranoid murder fantasies of Coffee Homeground, Drake had two liquids – one pink, another yellow – that turned black when mixed: “You know, like a poison. Then I’d come up behind her and try to strangle her. They were all these rather ‘panto’ attempts at assassination.”

Drake and Bush dubbed the assassin ‘Hugo’. The vibe was Berlin ’30s cabaret, Paris Moulin Rouge. “He’s partly based on ‘Valentin The Boneless One’ who you see in a couple of paintings by Toulouse-Lautrec with this very big, pointy chin, pointy nose and cheekbones.”

The tour itself – 24 shows between April 2 and May 14, 1979 – was a roller coaster: traumatic for Bush on account of Duffield’s death and the exposure to her own mounting fame. “I mean, fans would almost throw themselves in front of the coach,” says Drake. “It was scary.”

Factor in the demands of the show – its athletic challenges, the costume changes – and it’s miraculous that only one health scare (Bush lost her voice temporarily in Sweden) threatened to end the tour prematurely. “She was amazing every night for two and a half hours,” says Drake. “I mean, extraordinary. She created this whole massive world.”

Drake’s work on the Tour Of Life proved the beginning of a rise through the showbiz ranks, and a relationship with Bush that continued, providing magic at several of her son Bertie’s birthday parties. In 1990 and 1991 he acquired another level of fame fronting Channel 4 TV show Secret Cabaret, and at 67 continues to make a career from magic at the heart of Simon Drake’s House Of Magic. In 2014 he was pleased to receive an invite to Bush’s Before The Dawn residency at the Hammersmith Apollo. Why does he think it took her so long – over 37 years – to get back on the stage for a comparable run of shows?

“I don’t know. I can only guess,” says Drake. “Basically, a production like the Tour Of Life is hard to control. The fact that when she did do anything again, it was all in one place, with a stage crew from more of a theatre background, something extremely controlled, I think that’s probably a clue. For someone like Kate, who’s that good, it’s hard for anything to be good enough. It’s just got to be better.”

What did he make of the show? “I was so pleased and proud to see her do this incredibly grownup version of what she’d done all those years before. It was really like walking into a dream, wasn’t it?”

After the gig, Drake was ushered into VIP drinks, then the super-VIP drinks, “which was weird – only six people in there.” When Bush entered with Bertie, they hugged and she asked what he thought, whereupon Drake endeavoured to reassemble his blown mind.

“I just said, Fuuuuuuck! And she said, ‘Is that all you’re gonna say? Fuuuuuck?’”

Simon Drake hosts private and occasionally public shows at his own London theatre, where Tour Of Life memorabilia can be found. See  h ouseofmagic.co.uk

“I’m not a star. I’m still just me…” Get the latest issue of MOJO to read the full story on Kate Bush early metamorphosis, from childhood songwriting to becoming an art-pop phenomenon. More info and to order a copy HERE .

Pictures: Getty

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On Wednesday 3rd September a 5 month (and 35 Year) wait was over as I got to see one of my all time favourite musicians, Kate Bush. When 7.45pm came, so did Kate, leading a procession of her backing singers, including son Bertie, and launching straight into Lily, from The Red Shoes album. This, and nearly all subsequent songs got a standing ovation. Next up was a storming version of Hounds of Love with was received with rapturous applause. Kate's voice has matured over the years and now has a rich, mellow timbre, probably another reason why she wasn't going to perform any material from her first four 'high pitched vocal' albums. The other numbers in this first set were Joanni, Top of the City, Running up that Hill and King of the Mountain. It was now that problems set in, the next part of the gig was going to be 'The Ninth Wave' which makes up the second side of the Hounds of Love album and is a narrative piece written to be played as a whole but it just started with a film of an Astronomer calling the coast guard to report a missing ship when it stopped and we were told there were technical difficulties and we would have first a 10 minute, then a thirty minute break. This soon passed and we were back to the show starting with a canon fire of confetti out into the audience of tissue paper with an excerpt of Tennyson's poem, 'The coming of Arthur' on it.

Kate's image is on a screen at the back of the stage floating in the pitch black sea wearing a life jacket and off stage she starts singing 'And Dream of Sheep' , lip-synching perfectly and then it was through the rest of the songs that make up 'The Ninth Wave' with the stage full of waves made of silk, Ships Buoys, Fish People and even a representation of a rescue helicopter flying over the audience, its search beam flicking over the sea of people.

Then it was our second and scheduled interval, a chance to catch your breathe and retrieve pieces of confetti from the stage and aisles. The second half was the performance of A Sky of Honey, from the Aerial Album, with son Bertie taking the part of the Painter and directing what happened on stage. And again it was a visual feast with an artistes wooden model controlled by a puppeteer, church bells, Blackbird's song and when we got to Aerial, a crashing crescendo with two huge trees that fell from the roof, one which impaled Kate' grand piano and then Kate herself turning into a Blackbird and briefly taking off from the stage before the lights went dark. This resulted in a huge ovation from the audience, the noise was deafening ! The expected encore was listened to in total silence as Kate played Among Angels (From 50 Words for Snow) solo at the piano before leading audience in an ecstatic rendition of Cloudbusting ! And then it was over, a magical,emotional,crazy,dreamlike, vision of this women's work. Worth waiting 35 years for, you bet !

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The last time Kate Bush went on tour was the year I was born so it seemed surreal that in 2014 she decied to hold a residency at the Hammersmith Apollo. First things first - her voice has held up amazingly well, I was stunned by how strong her vocals were on songs like 'Hounds of Love'. Unlike other artists this was not a Greatest Hits but a strong focus on her 1985 album 'Hounds of Love' and the 20 years later 2005 'Aerial' album.

Kate took an entire section from each album and followed through with a visual and musical experience.

The 'Ninth Wave' portion of the show had far less singing but more dramatics. I commend her use of staging, actors and video but there were a couple of parts that were cringe-inducing like the dramatic scene between her son and his father and it lasted probably about 10 minutes too long. Hearing the second part of the Aerial LP live was absoultey amazing in particular 'Sunset' and teh Spanish guitars through to the gorgeous 'Nocturn'. I loved the use of the live puppeteer operating the wooden puppet which helped to create quiet an unsettling and eerie image that ended with the entire on stage band, singers and actors wearing very creepy bird masks. The show lasted just under 3 hours with a 20 minute interval and she ended with a magnificient 'Cloudbusting' which felt like the perfect end to a show many never thought would ever happen.

After almost 37 years of being a huge fan I finally got to see Kate Bush sing her songs live and what an evening. No songs from the first four albums but some truly amazing performances and the most emotional concert I've ever been to. The first few songs were Kate singing with the band as a straight rock show, looking relaxed and as if she was enjoying it as much as the audience. They then moved on to an extended visual show around the Ninth Wave - the second half of the Hounds of Love album. By the time that had finished we had had an hour and a half that in itself would have constituted a great show but that was only the first half. The second half was based around A Sky of Honey with bits from 50 Words for Snow and a solo piece from her son Bertie - great voice if a bit more on the theatrical side. The whole thing was again based around a visual performance that enhanced the experience. For the encore Kate sang alone at the piano and then the finale was back to the Hounds of Love album with Cloudbustin. All in all a wonderful evening and we are back again tomorrow. Hopefully this will stir her interest in live performances and we'll see further shows - and new albums!

If anyone tells you they know what a Kate Bush live show is like, frankly, they’re either one of the luckiest people in the world, or they’re an outright liar. The singer, inarguably one of the most influential in the last thirty, forty years of modern music, has been strictly a studio based artist for so long that live shows have not been performed with any regularity since her one and only ever tour, way back in 1979. It’s no wonder then that news of her return to the stage was greeted among her fanbase as if it was the second coming of some soprano voiced Messiah. Reportedly, she retired from the stage in the late Seventies due to wanting more control over the final product - something only a retreat to the studio offered - and as such, one can expect attention to detail to be of utmost importance when she makes her live comeback. From the footage available of those long mythologized shows of yester year, with Bush crawling around the stage as if climbing a horizontal mountain, her otherworldly voice as spellbinding as her piercing stare, anyone lucky enough to grab a ticket for the forthcoming nights is in for an unparalleled treat.

So. I thought the staging and her voice were amazing. I thought all the song choices were perfect and didn't 'miss' the real oldies.. (in fact there were quite a lot of nods to the classics that haven't been picked up on) Real thought in that set and lighting design visually and aurally perfect..

I know she's not a lithe 19 year old (who is?) but I wished she had stood still a bit more. Especially in the first half when she just waddled about like a drunk at a bus stop. And I wish that both the concept pieces had been played as continuous works rather than breaking it up to give room for applause.. It lacked urgency - especially the 9th Wave. But some real WOW moments, some seriously swoonsome moments, and the ending of Ariel crystallised in about one minute why we love her . Really felt in the presence of something special.

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‘Ooh, yeah, you’re amazing!’ The wonder of Kate Bush – and 10 tracks to delight new listeners

Thanks to Netflix’s Stranger Things, the 1985 classic Running Up That Hill is in the charts again, and a new generation are discovering the singer’s unique appeal

I t tells you a great deal that when Kate Bush issued a short statement on her website, last week, about the fact that her 1985 single Running Up That Hill had re-entered the charts after its use on the soundtrack of Stranger Things , it turned into a national news story. It wasn’t that Bush had said anything particularly interesting – she apparently finds Running Up That Hill’s unexpected reappearance in the Top 10 “really exciting” and Stranger Things itself “fantastic” and “gripping”. It was that Bush had deigned to say anything at all.

The adjective frequently used to describe her is “reclusive”, which is perhaps pitching it a bit high: she can usually be prevailed upon to do a couple of interviews whenever she releases an album, although she doesn’t release albums very often. She has put out two collections of new material in the last 28 years, and the interviews are never terribly revealing. It’s more that Bush is a completely unbiddable artist. She allowed herself to be talked into some unsuitable promotional opportunities in the early years of her career – on YouTube, there’s a 1982 appearance on the TV show Looking Good, Feeling Fit, where the 24-year-old responds to questions about her skincare with the air of a woman who would happily strangle the interviewer with her bare hands. But she went on to do exactly what she wanted, when she wanted – a policy she has maintained for nearly 40 years. Her career is beholden only to her own standards and her own, occasionally imponderable, internal logic. “She must have breached her contract dozens of times,” said one executive from her longstanding record label, EMI. “But what are you going to do about it?”

It’s an approach that the music industry would have you believe would lead to a tiny cult following. But Bush remains hugely popular – in 2014, when she announced her first live shows in 35 years, all 22 dates sold out in 15 minutes; the New York Times ran a feature on fans “traversing continents” to be there – and vastly influential. Her shadow looms so large that whenever a female singer-songwriter emerges who is even remotely out of the ordinary, it’s only a matter of time before someone, fairly or otherwise, mentions Bush: it’s a comparison that has haunted everyone from Tori Amos to Fiona Apple to Björk to Florence + the Machine. Other artists line up to hymn her. Prince described her as his “favourite woman”; Lady Gaga said she covered Bush’s 1987 duet with Peter Gabriel, Don’t Give Up, “so that young people would hear and learn something about Kate Bush”; Outkast rapper Big Boi was so obsessed, he once spent a month in England trying to track Bush down. When she accepted an invitation to Elton John’s civil partnership ceremony, the singer reported, “the room was full of stars, but all the musicians there were only interested in saying, ‘You’ve got to introduce me to Kate Bush .’”

It’s fair to say that hardly anyone would have predicted Bush becoming such a revered and influential artist, when she emerged in 1978. She was immediately hugely successful – her debut single Wuthering Heights went to No 1, the accompanying album The Kick Inside sold a million copies – but her public image seemed to be that of a dippy-hippy throwback who’s every other word was “wow”, and this image was burnished further by the unbridled outlandishness of her TV performances and videos. Trained in interpretative dance and mime, from the start Bush was not at home to accepted notions of cool.

In truth, The Kick Inside was packed with evidence of how extraordinary she already was. Its 13 tracks were culled from a longlist of 120, written throughout her teens, and contained songs about menstrual pains and masturbation. The title track told the story of a woman killing herself after becoming pregnant by her own brother. It should go without saying that these were not normal topics for a platinum-selling singer-songwriter 44 years ago. She claimed to be influenced by David Bowie, Elton John and Roy Harper, but you wouldn’t have known if she hadn’t said it: from the start, she sounded only like herself.

Even at 19, there was a certain steely self-possession in her approach. Offered the seemingly unmissable opportunity to launch her career in the US with a place on Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours tour, she declined: if she was going to perform live, she wanted it to be an audio-visual extravaganza – as on her 1979 Tour of Life and, again, on 2014’s Before the Dawn shows – and you couldn’t do that in a 20-minute support slot. Her American record company was so furious at the snub, it refused to release her next three albums in the country.

Then, rather than capitalise on her sudden initial burst of commercial success, her music got stranger and richer. The cover of 1980’s Never For Ever depicted a bizarre phantasmagoria billowing out from under Bush’s skirt, which seems like a pretty accurate interpretation of how listening to her music increasingly felt, and continues to feel like: a deeply weird, frequently beautiful and occasionally unsettling world that you immerse yourself in.

Her videos and TV appearances, meanwhile, became more elaborate and idiosyncratic: it would be lovely if Running Up That Hill’s fresh success leads people to her amazing performance of the song on the chatshow Wogan, Bush singing behind a lectern, as if delivering a speech or a sermon, while her band, clad in dark robes, slowly advance from the rear of the stage. She produced more huge hits – 1985’s Hounds of Love was her biggest-selling album, despite its second side containing some of the most abstruse music of her career; her lengthy 2005 “comeback” Aerial shifted over a million copies – alongside stuff that was more coolly received, most notably 1982’s dense and demanding The Dreaming (its artistic reputation has nevertheless rocketed over subsequent decades). Occasionally, the most critical voice about Kate Bush’s work has belonged to Kate Bush. She “never liked” her rushed second album, Lionheart, and memorably described her short musical film The Line, the Cross and the Curve as “a load of old bollocks”. Her 2011 album Directors’ Cut consisted entirely of reworked songs from 1989’s The Sensual World and 1993’s The Red Shoes, complete with the implicit suggestion that she wasn’t happy with the original versions.

From the moment that Wuthering Heights appeared – a swooning, swooping ballad sung in a keening soprano, at the height of punk – Bush has always seemed entirely apart from whatever else is going on in the charts. In the long term, that has meant her music has never dated. Running Up That Hill feels completely different from everything else in the Top 10 in 2022, but it felt completely different from everything else in the Top 10 in 1985 as well. In the interim, it hasn’t taken on any patina of age; it resolutely doesn’t sound of its era.

The joy of its reappearance in the charts is that Stranger Things is a TV show with a vast audience of tween- and teenagers. You suspect it’s they – rather than anyone old enough to remember its first appearance in the charts, or even the remix that became a hit after appearing in the 2012 London Olympics closing ceremony – who are driving the surge in sales. The standard belief is that young 21st-century music consumers are interested in individual tracks rather than artists – we live in a streaming age, dominated by playlists rather than albums – but you have to hope that at least some of them choose to investigate its author’s back catalogue further. If they do, they are in for an incredible journey. Here are 10 other jumping-off points along the way.

The Man With the Child in His Eyes (1978)

Bush wrote The Man With the Child in His Eyes when she was 13, which frankly beggars belief: eerie, sexually charged and astonishingly beautiful, it would be an incredible achievement for an adult. As it was, it offered the first sign that Bush wasn’t merely a prodigiously talented writer, but an actual genius.

Breathing (1980)

A rare moment when Bush’s writing intersected with the zeitgeist: there were a lot of songs about nuclear war in the early 80s, but none of them as strange and haunting as Breathing, written from the point of view of an unborn baby, slowly dying of radiation poisoning in the womb.

Army Dreamers (1980)

Sung in a bizarre accent – is it Irish? West Country? – and performed on German TV with Bush dressed as a mop-wielding cleaner, Army Dreamers has a folk-ish melody and sparse instrumentation: the click of a reloading rifle stands in for percussion. It’s both beguilingly pretty and profoundly creepy.

Sat in Your Lap (1982)

The charts in 1982 played host to some unlikely music – the Associates’ lavishly odd Party Fears Two was a Top 10 hit – but the public seemed to draw the line at Sat in Your Lap’s thundering rhythms, guttural vocals and wild collage of noises (Bush was an early adopter of sampling). It still sounds completely nuts, in the best possible way.

Cloudbusting (1985)

The second of three big hits from Hounds of Love – Running Up That Hill and the title track are the others – Cloudbusting retells the story of the rogue scientist and psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich through the eyes of his son. The dramatic string arrangement matches the song’s emotional twists from tension to euphoria.

Waking the Witch (1985)

To experience how far out Bush was prepared to go on Hounds of Love’s second-side-long song-suite The Ninth Wave, listen to Waking the Witch’s attempt to capture the mindset of a drowning woman via disquieting shifts in sound and texture: from lambent piano to punishing electronics and atonal vocals.

This Woman’s Work (1989)

You can take your pick from the original version on The Sensual World or the sparse rerecording on Director’s Cut – both are completely devastating. Improbably, this meditation on loss, regret, female strength and male frailty, was written for the Kevin Bacon romcom, She’s Having a Baby.

Moments of Pleasure (1993)

Another winding emotional sucker-punch, Moments of Pleasure (from the underrated The Red Shoes) deals with memory, her mother’s illness (her mother died before the song was released) and the deaths of a succession of friends. Its emotional temperature plunges from warm recollection to desperate sadness: “Just being alive can really hurt.”

Top of the City (1993)

Also from The Red Shoes, Top of the City is both one of Kate Bush’s more straightforward songs and the kind of song only Kate Bush would write. The melody is direct and charming; the music surges thrillingly. The lyrics, meanwhile, entwine the unlikely topics of what London looks like viewed from a great height, and sexual jealousy.

Somewhere in Between (2005)

In contrast to the dark and unsettling The Ninth Wave, Bush’s second great song-cycle, Aerial’s A Sky of Honey, is glowing and blissful: a summer’s day condensed into 42 minutes of music. It includes the utterly gorgeous and, it has to be said, profoundly stoned-sounding Somewhere in Between, which perfectly captures dusk slowly settling.

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The story of Kate Bush's The Tour Of Life

What happened when Kate Bush finally decided to go on the road in 1979

Kate Bush has long cornered the market in reclusive, media-averse mystique, but it wasn’t always that way. On April 3, 1979, early evening news show Nationwide dedicated a show to the 20-year-old singer.

The event on which the 25-minute special was hung was the opening night of Bush’s first – and to date – only tour. “Most live artists make their mistakes either in private or in front of a very small audience,” intoned the moustachioed reporter. “Tonight, Kate Bush starts at the top, in front of several thousand. She can’t afford to fail.”

But then Bush was big news. Her star had been arcing across the firmament ever since she first appeared on Top Of The Pops just over a year earlier. That memorable performance, playing her first single, Wuthering Heights , had introduced her as an utterly new and fresh talent. There had been an instant clamour for her to play live, though it would be 14 months before she did.

Looking at Nationwide from the vantage point of 2014, it’s amazing how much unguarded access she granted the filmmakers over a six-month build-up. Footage of early production meetings where people are crammed onto chairs and sofas in a tiny dressing room is followed by a clip of a leotard-and-leggings-clad Bush being worked hard by choreographer Anthony Van Laast during three initial weeks of “gruelling exertion” just to prepare her for several weeks of even more intense choreography.

Remarkably, the camera was allowed into Wood Wharf Studio in Greenwich, south London, where the singer was drilling her eight-piece band through Kite and Wow. Here, it’s possible to get a real sense of the pub gigs she’d started out playing just a couple of years before (“I think the main reason they listen to me is because I’m paying their wages,” she says of the rest of the band, her girlish, sing-song voice cut with chewy south London vocals).

Towards the end of the film, after a brief post-gig chat with an exhausted but exhilarated Bush at the Liverpool Empire, the camera cuts back to an earlier interview. Sitting with her back to a studio mixing desk, she puts a ‘posh’ interview voice on as she answers a string of questions.

At one point, the off-screen interviewer asks, given that she’s achieved so much so swiftly, what has she got left to achieve?

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“Everything – I haven’t really begun yet,” she says, offering a glimpse of the maturity and self-awareness that have always driven her. “I’ve begun on one level, but that’s all gone now, so you begin again.”

She would “begin again” many times over during the ensuing years, but never would she do it onstage. She didn’t retire entirely from live performances – there would be the odd one-off here and there throughout the 80s – but never again would Kate Bush put herself through such an exhilarating, ground-breaking, draining experience as her 1979 tour.

Until now...

When Kate Bush announced earlier this year that she would be performing 15 dates at London’s Hammersmith Apollo throughout August and September (a figure since bumped up to 22 shows) under the banner Before The Dawn, the reaction was shock and awe. Shock that she was finally following up that original tour, a promise she’d made many times but all but her most optimistic fans had long given up hope on her ever keeping. And awe at the prospect of what a woman who broke so much ground could deliver with 35 years of artistic and technological advancements at her disposal.

But there was also a question of just how she could follow up the original spectacle, retrospectively dubbed The Tour Of Life. 35 years on, that extravaganza has grown to almost mythical status – a strange state of affairs given that it was witnessed by more than 100,000 people at the time.

Footage of an hour or so of the show is freely available to view on YouTube, highlighting a performance that bridged the worlds of music, dance, theatre and art. But there’s even more footage that has never been made public – including that of the magician Simon Drake, who played seven different characters during the show.

But in many other respects, the tour was utterly grounded in reality. The singer spent six months beforehand working herself to the bone as she attempted to forge a brand new model of what a live show could be, then another two months doing the same as she took it around Britain and Europe. And it was hit by tragedy when lighting engineer Bill Duffield was killed in an accident after a warm-up show, his death almost bringing the whole juggernaut to a halt before it had even started.

But all that was in the future when the idea for the tour was conceived. Ironically, Bush herself was the first to admit that there was no need for her to do it. “There’s no pressure,” she said in 1979. “But I do feel that I owe people a chance to see me in the flesh. It’s the only opportunity they have without media obstruction.”

“Kate was never at ease in the public eye,” says Brian Southall, who was Artist Development at Bush’s label, EMI, and had worked with the singer since she was signed. “Whether that was performing on Top Of The Pops or doing interviews. She was very reserved, very wary, I think by nature shy. So this spotlight on her was new.”

The singer was fully aware that anything she did would have to raise the bar on everything that came before. But even then, she was trying to manage expectations – not least her own. “If you look at it, it’s my reputation,” she said 1979. “And yes, I hope that it’ll be something special.”

EMI were unsure what the show would involve, so the costs were reportedly split between the label and Bush herself. In return, they got an artist who threw everything into her biggest endeavour so far.

“She was very determined about how her music was presented and performed – that was pretty obvious from her first album,” says Southall. “So no one saw any reason to step in and stop it. The rock’n’roll story was that you put singles out, you put albums out, you went on Top Of The Pops , you toured. But she wasn’t prepared to do the conventional thing.”

In fact no one realised just how unconventional it would be – with its choreography, dancers, props, multiple costume changes, poetry and in-house magician, there was no precedent with which it could be compared.

Rehearsals began in late 1978. Bush had already trained with experimental dancer/mime artist Lindsay Kemp, one-time mentor of David Bowie. But this tour would entail a new level of aptitude entirely, and the stamina to simultaneously dance and sing for more than two hours every night.

Dance teacher Anthony Van Laast was brought in from the London School Of Contemporary Dance to choreograph the shows and help hone Bush’s abilities. Van Laast brought with him two protégés, dancers Stewart Avon Arnold and Gary Hurst. Van Laast put the singer through the equivalent of boot camp at The Place studio in Euston, working with her for two hours each morning. Bush’s own input was crucial to the developing routines.

“Kate knew what she wanted, she had very specific ideas,” says Stewart Avon Arnold today. “What she wanted was in her head, and she wanted people around her who could help her put it into movement. She had so many hats on at that point – artistic, creative, musical.”

If the mornings were for the dance aspect of the slowly coalescing show, then the afternoons were for the music. As soon as she was done with Van Laast, Bush would make the eight mile journey to Wood Wharf Studio in Greenwich, south London, where she would meet up with a band that included Del Palmer, guitarists Brian Bath and Alan Murphy and her multi-instrumentalist brother, Paddy Bush. Also present was her other brother, John Carder Bush, who would perform poetry (and whose wife would provide vegetarian food for the tour). It was hard work for everyone involved and as the show neared, Bush would work 14 hours a day, six days a week.

“You have to make things more obvious so people can hear them,” she said of the live interpretation of her songs. “Maybe make them faster.”

While Bush was utterly in command, sometimes necessity was the mother of invention. With the singer literally throwing her whole body into her performance, holding a traditional mic would be difficult. So a mic that could be worn around the head was devised.

“I wanted to be able to move around, dance and use my hands,” she said. “The sound engineer came up with the idea of adapting a coat hanger. He opened it out and put it into the shape, so that was the prototype.”

In early spring 1979, the various creative wings finally came together at Shepperton Studios. There was the odd stumbling block. Del Palmer, Bush’s bassist and boyfriend, was less than impressed with some aspects of the choreography when he first saw it.

“In those days, dance wasn’t as popular as it is now, and I don’t think Del was clear on what we were doing,” says Stewart Avon Arnold. “There was a bit where we picked Kate up. I remember him going, ‘What they hell are they doing to Kate! They’re holding her between the legs!’”

In late March, a week before the tour was due to start, the whole production moved to the Rainbow Theatre in Finsbury Park, north London, for dress rehearsals. Like everything over the past six months, the whole endeavour was undertaken in secrecy.

“It’s like a present that shouldn’t be unwrapped until everyone is there,” reasoned the singer. “It’s like hearing about a film. Everybody tells you it’s amazing – and you could end up disappointed. You shouldn’t get people’s expectations up like that.”

By the time the tour was due to start on April 3 in Liverpool, everyone drilled to within an inch of their existence. If Bush was nervous, she wasn’t letting on.

“There was no suggestion that Kate was scared about going on the road,” says Brian Southall. “I certainly never got a sense that she was nervous about the financial aspect of it. If money was her concern, she’d have been out making albums every year rather than every 10 years. It’s not something that crossed her mind. The creativity was all-important.”

Still, to iron out any potential last-minute problems, a low-key warm up show had been arranged at the Poole Arts Centre in Dorset. It was there that tragedy struck.

Lighting director Bill Duffield was an integral part of the show. A 21-year-old boy wonder who had worked with Peter Gabriel and Steve Harley, he shared the same forward-thinking mindset as Bush herself.

The circumstances of what happened in Poole remain unclear. Some reports said that Duffield fell from the lighting rig while helping to clear the stage away following the show, others said that he fell 20 feet through a hole in the stage. Either way, Duffield sustained serious injuries that would result in his death a week later.

“People were concerned for his well-being,” says Brian Southall, who met up with the Bush entourage in Liverpool the following night. “They were wondering how he was and if and when he would recover. Sadly he didn’t. I think the real shock came when his death was announced.”

24 hours later, with the Nationwide TV cameras posted outside the Liverpool Empire, Kate Bush’s first tour got properly underway under a cloud – albeit one the public weren’t aware of.

If the build up had been intense, then the show itself was a magnificent release. Theatrically divided into three acts, the 24-song set featured tracks from her first two albums, The Kick Inside and Lionheart , plus two as-yet-unheard tracks, Egypt and Violin .

But that was where any similarity with a standard rock show began and ended. On an ever-shifting stage of which only a central ramp was the sole constant physical factor, Bush was a human conductor’s baton leading the entire show. As the scenery shifted through the opening Moving , Room For The Life and Them Heavy People , so did the costumes – and the atmosphere.

“I saw our show as not just people on stage playing the music, but as a complete experience,” she later explained. “A lot of people would say ‘Pooah!’ but for me that’s what it was. Like a play.”

Indeed it was – or perhaps several plays in one. On Egypt , she emerged dressed as a seductive Cleopatra . On S trange Phenomena , she was a magician in top hat and tails, dancing with a pair of spacemen. Former single Hammer Horror replicated the video, with a black-clad Bush dancing with a sinister, black-masked figure behind her, while Oh England My Lionheart cast her as a World War II pilot.

Like every actor, she was surrounded by a cast of strong supporting characters. As well as dancers Stewart Avon Arnold and Gary Hurst, several songs featured magician Simon Drake, who performed his signature ‘floating cane’ trick during L’Amour Looks Something Like You . And then there was her brother, John Carder Bush, who recited his own poetry before The Kick Inside , Symphony In Blue (fused with elements of experimental composer Erik Satie’s Gymnopédie 1 ) and the inevitable encore, Wuthering Heights .

But at the heart of it all was Bush, whirling and waving, reaching for the sky one moment, swooping to the floor the next. Occasionally she looked like she was concentrating on what was coming next. More often, she looked lost in the moment.

“When I perform, that’s just something that happens in me,” she later said. “It just takes over, you know. It’s like suddenly feeling that you’ve leapt into another structure, almost like another person, and you just do it.”

Brian Southall was in the audience at the Liverpool Empire. Despite the fact he worked for EMI, he had no idea what to expect. “You just sat in the audience and went, ‘Wow’. It was extraordinary. Bands didn’t take a dancer onstage, they didn’t take a magician onstage, even Queen at their most lavish or Floyd at their most extravangant. They might have used tricks and props in videos, but not other people onstage.

“That was the most interesting thing about it – her handing it over to other people, who became the focus of attention. That’s something that never bothered Kate – that ‘I will be onstage all the time and you will only see me.’ It was like a concept album, except it was a concept show.”

Two and a quarter hours later, this ‘concept show’ was done and the real world intruded once again. If there was any sense of celebration afterwards, then the main attraction was keeping it to herself. “I remember sitting in the bar after the show at Liverpool and Kate wasn’t there. She was with Del,” says Southall. “She wasn’t an extrovert offstage. There were two people. There was that person you saw onstage, in that extraordinary performance, and then offstage there was this fairly shy, reserved person.”

Her reluctance to indulge in the usual rock’n’roll behaviour was both characteristic and understandable. It was a draining performance, night after night as the tour continued around Britain and then into Europe. It was hard work for everyone involved.

“We went out, but not exceptionally,” says Stewart Avon Arnold. “We weren’t out raving until seven o’clock in the morning on heroin. There’s no way we could have done the show the next day.”

They occasionally found time to let their hair down. The Scottish Sunday Mail reported that certain members of the touring party indulged in a water-and-pillow fight at a hotel in Glasgow, causing a reported £1,000 damage. EMI allegedly agreed to foot the bill, though they stressed that the singer wasn’t present during this PG-rated display of on-the-road carnage.

After 10 shows in mainland Europe, the tour returned to London for three climactic dates at the Hammersmith Odeon between May 12 and 14. The second of these shows was arranged as tribute to the late Bill Duffield. Bush and her band were joined onstage by Peter Gabriel and Steve Harley, both of whom had worked with Duffield. Gabriel and Harley tackled various Bush songs ( Them Heavy People , a renamed The Woman With the Child In Her Eyes ) and played their own songs (Gabriel’s Here Comes The Flood and I Don’t Remember , Harley’s Best Years Of Our Lives and Come Up And See Me ), before everyone came onstage for a cover of The Beatles’ Let It Be .

“Kate asked us all to come and sing with Peter Gabriel and Steve Harley,” says Stewart Avon Arnold. “We were onstage, singing chorus with these two icons. And I’m not a singer. It was an emotional night.”

48 hours later, the tour was over. And so was Kate Bush’s career as a live artist – at least for another 35 years.

Kate Bush hasn’t truly explained why she never took to the road again after that very first tour. Various theories have been posited – a fear of flying, the psychic damage inflicted by the death of Bill Duffield, the sheer effort of will and vast reservoir of energy that it took to get what was in her head onto the stage. The latter seems most likely, though it could just as easily be a combination of all three. Or it could be none of them.

“I need five months to prepare a show and build up my strength for it, and in those five months I can’t be writing new songs and I can’t be promoting the album,” she once said, the closest approximation to a reason she has ever offered. “The problem is time… and money.”

Not that there wasn’t a call for it, especially overseas. America was one of the few countries where she didn’t sell records, and the idea was floated that she play a show at New York’s prestigious Radio City Music Hall so that her US label, Capitol, could bring all the important media and retail contacts to the show to see what the fuss was about. “She’s not a great flier,” says Southall. “And she wouldn’t do it.”

Even more tantalising was an offer to support Fleetwood Mac in the US in late ’79. A high-profile slot opening for one of the most successful bands in the world would was an open goal for most artists. But Bush wasn’t most artists.

“Like most support acts, she was going to get half an hour, no dancers and no magicians, so just going up there with four musicians and banging out a couple of hits,” says Brian Southall. “And she wasn’t prepared to do that.”

Not that she has ever ruled it out. In fact, in all of the increasingly infrequent interviews she has given since then, she’s been asked when she would next tour. The answer has always been a charmingly vague tease that, sure, it could happen if the circumstances were right. She once floated the idea that she would write a concept album specifically to base a stage show around (it never materialised), while at one point she was rumoured to be working with Muppet creator Jim Henson’s Creature Workshop on a new idea, even announcing in 1990 that she would be playing live the following year (that never materialised either).

But now, out of the blue, she’s finally delivered on that promise (though, tellingly, it’s for a residency rather than a tour). “She’s only playing one venue,” says Southall. “That means she can nest without the hassle of taking it all on the road for weeks on end.”

What exactly her belated live return holds in store for her fans isn’t clear. “I don’t know whether she’ll refer back to the original show in any way,” says Southall. “Will there be dancers, will there be magicians, will there be dancing elephants? I think she feels comfortable with more people onstage with her. I think the idea of her sitting down at a piano and playing an hour and a half of Kate Bush songs would terrify the life out of her. The idea of having people around who she is comfortable with and finds some support from, whether that’s Dave Gilmour turning up or whoever.”

The only thing that’s certain is that it won’t be a by-the-numbers live show.

“She’s an innovator,” says Stewart Avon Arnold. “She did things that had never been done before. She was the first one in this country to merge creative rock music with creative dance. She didn’t have a genre. She had a mentality.”

This article originally appeared in issue 46 of Prog Magazine, May 2014

Dave Everley has been writing about and occasionally humming along to music since the early 90s. During that time, he has been Deputy Editor on Kerrang! and Classic Rock , Associate Editor on Q magazine and staff writer/tea boy on Raw , not necessarily in that order. He has written for Metal Hammer, Louder, Prog, the Observer, Select, Mojo , the Evening Standard and the totally legendary Ultrakill . He is still waiting for Billy Gibbons to send him a bottle of hot sauce he was promised several years ago.

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Kate bush is touring again. but why now.

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Here’s What Kate Bush Is Up To Today

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The post Here’s What Kate Bush Is Up To Today appeared first on Consequence .

Kate Bush , 63, may have not released an album in more than a decade, but she’s back in the Top 10 — with a 37-year-old track. That’s because her song “Running Up That Hill” — often subtitled “(A Deal With God)” prominently turns up in Season 4 of Stranger Things , one of the most-watched shows in Netflix history.

For some context (light spoilers ahead), while the character Max Mayfield — played by Sadie Sink — mourns her half-brother Billy’s demise, she salves her grief by listening to the 1985 hit on repeat. And such is its spiritual power that it eventually saves her from the clutches of the ghoulish Vecna.

In the nick of time, Lucas Sinclair (Caleb McLoughlin), Dustin Henderson (Gaten Matarazzo) and Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) play the song and deliver her from certain death. The Hounds of Love song’s heartfelt incorporation into the scene — and season — was enough to warrant a rare response from Bush herself .

So, where’s Kate Bush been all this time — and what’s she up to these days? Here’s a quick rundown of a few recent career updates.

When Did Kate Bush Last Release Music?

Bush’s most recent album came out eleven years ago; in 2011, Fifty Words for Snow was released to near-universal critical acclaim. The Guardian said it’s “packed with the kind of ideas you can’t imagine anyone else in rock having,” while Consequence gave it an A- in a glowing review .

Editor's Pick

Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” Hits No. 8 on Billboard Hot 100 in US

That year, Bush expressed frustration with the length between album releases. “I wish there weren’t such big gaps between them,” she told the BBC . Still, Bush denied she was a perfectionist: “I thinkBush Has Largely Stepped Away From Live Performances it’s important that things are flawed,” she said.

She Turned Down the 2012 Olympic Closing Show in London

That happened a year later , in 2012; according to reports, Bush had agreed to perform, but due to her reluctance to appear in public, a pre-recorded remix of “Running Up That Hill” was used instead. Still, it wasn’t that unheard of: David Bowie and the Sex Pistols also declined to participate.

Bush Has Largely Stepped Away From Live Performances

However, in 2014, Bush performed her first shows in 35 years. The “Before the Dawn” residency , which entailed 22 nights at the Hammerstein Apollo in London, received rave reviews; a live recording followed in 2016. The nearly two-hour set included hits like “Hounds of Love,” “Joanni” and of course, “Running Up That Hill.”

She Published A Book Of Lyrics in 2018

The year 2018 brought How to Be Invisible , a career-spanning and carefully curated book of Bush’s lyrics that featured an introduction from Cloud Atlas author and longtime Bush fan David Mitchell. “For millions around the world Kate is way more than another singer-songwriter: she is a creator of musical companions that travel with you through life,” Mitchell said in a press release at the time. “One paradox about her is that while her lyrics are avowedly idiosyncratic, those same lyrics evoke emotions and sensations that feel universal.”

That year, Bush also released her remastered catalog in the form of boxed sets , with 2019’s The Other Side as something of a sampler platter.

In 2021, She Fought For Music Creators

In 2021, Bush was among the signatories — including Paul McCartney and Annie Lennox — of an open letter aiming to reword the 1988 Copyright Act. “For too long, streaming platforms, record labels and other internet giants have exploited performers and creators without rewarding them fairly,” the letter, which was signed by 156 artists, noted. “We must put the value of music back where it belongs — in the hands of music makers.”

Stranger Things Brought Her Back

Bush may have led a quiet semi-retirement over the past several years, but her vaulting back into the conversation speaks to her profound resonance with younger generations — and Bush is equally thrilled to be here, as her statement noted. “You might’ve heard that the first part of the fantastic, gripping new series of Stranger Things has recently been released on Netflix,” she wrote on her site. “It features the song, ‘Running Up That Hill’ which is being given a whole new lease of life by the young fans who love the show — I love it too!”

“Because of this, ‘Running Up That Hill’ is charting around the world and has entered the US and UK charts at No. 8,” she continued, adding that the overall development was “really exciting!”

Here’s What Kate Bush Is Up To Today Morgan Enos

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THOR-GODS OF ROCK!!! – Saturday 10th August 2024

FLEETWOOD BAC – Saturday 17th August 2024

Cloudbusting – the music of kate bush – friday 16th august 2024.

Cloudbusting - The Music Of Kate Bush - 2024 TOUR

‘ Utterly, surreally brilliant ’ - Mick Wall, Classic Rock Magazine

Cloudbusting are thrilled to bring their stunning ‘The Line, The Cross and The Curve’ tour to venues across the UK for 2024! Featuring songs from the legendary short film of the same name which Kate Bush released in 1994, this spectacular new show offers audiences a fresh ‘take’ on those tracks that first appeared on ‘The Red Shoes’ album - all delivered with breath-taking vocals from Mandy Watson and superb musicianship from the live band.

With a set list that also includes classic hits such as Wuthering Heights, Babooshka, Hounds of Love and Running Up That Hill - the world-wide No.1 hit single that took every music chart by storm 37 years after its release; this concert tour will no doubt be selling out fast, so book your tickets now!

‘That gave me a shiver’ - Jeremy Vine BBC Radio 2

Cloudbusting are the longest running and most universally celebrated tribute to the music of Kate Bush. With TV appearances and live performances across both the UK and Europe, the band has earned an enviable reputation for being unquestionably the most accurate and authentic live experience for Kate fans.

Significantly, they are the only band in the world to have performed Kate’s music with her original bass player and long standing sound engineer Del Palmer, as well as drummer and percussionist Preston Heyman who appeared on the Tour Of Life, Never For Ever & The Dreaming . The band has also performed with Stewart Avon-Arnold - Kate’s co-choreographer and dance partner who appeared with her in so many of those iconic videos and performances throughout her career. That’s quite an endorsement for Cloudbusting but it also stands as a reflection of the talent, tenacity and passion that the 5-piece band has for Kate’s stunning music.

‘I could have been listening to Kate herself!’ - Preston Heyman The show is enhanced with stunning back-projection visuals which reflect the character and mood

of the songs, making a Cloudbusting concert an event that no Kate Bush fan will want to miss! ‘Blown away - your spin on Kate Bush is amazing’ - RTÉ Radio

Tickets & Venue Information

Friday 16th August 2024

Doors 19:00 

Start time 19:30 

Bar and refreshments on-site

Peak Cavern, Castleton

Admission is 14+ with adult 18+

Ahead of arrival, please make yourself familiar with the route (follow brown tourist signs) from Peak Cavern Car Park, S33 8WP

https://what3words.com/hitters.dreaming.bulbs

Tickets £25.00  + booking fee from Seetickets

Privacy Overview

Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush

‘If you missed seeing Kate herself, Cloudbusting are the next best thing!’ Simon Mayo, BBC Radio 2

Cloudbusting have been championed by BBC ONE as more...

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• May 11 Sat Falmouth, Princess Pavilion Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
• May 15 Wed Crewe, Lyceum Theatre Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
• May 29 Wed Blackburn, King George's Hall Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
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• Jun 01 Sat Tewkesbury, Roses Theatre Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
• Jun 13 Thu Queens Theatre Hornchurch Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
• Jun 14 Fri Nottingham, The Rescue Rooms Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
• Jun 21 Fri Belfast, The Empire Bar & Music Hall Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
• Jul 25 Thu Bath, Komedia Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets

August 2024

• Aug 02 Fri The Lights Andover Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
• Aug 16 Fri Hope Valley, The Peak Cavern (Devil's Arse Cave) Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
• Aug 17 Sat Holmfirth Picturedrome Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
• Aug 18 Sun Newark, Walesby Forest Torchlight Festival of Camping Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush More info

September 2024

• Sep 04 Wed Swindon, Wyvern Theatre Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
• Sep 05 Thu Milton Keynes, The Stables Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
• Sep 06 Fri Bromley, Churchill Theatre Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
• Sep 19 Thu Runcorn, The Brindley Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
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• Sep 26 Thu London, Half Moon Putney Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
• Sep 29 Sun Shanklin Theatre Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets

October 2024

• Oct 12 Sat Belper, St Peter's Church Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
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• Oct 18 Fri Neath, Gwyn Hall Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
• Oct 31 Thu Derby, The Flowerpot Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets

November 2024

• Nov 01 Fri Manchester Academy Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
• Nov 02 Sat Leeds, Brudenell Social Club Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
• Nov 03 Sun Worcester, The Swan Theatre Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets
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December 2024

• Dec 20 Fri Southampton, The Brook Cloudbusting: The Music Of Kate Bush View Tickets

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Kate Bush, new Studio Album and Tour in 2025?

• By Susan Garner
• Last updated on April 18, 2024

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Has Kate Bush been working on a new album? While representatives are keeping tight-lipped, reports have been circulating on the Internet. There have been strong rumors that the singer is finally returning to the recording studio working on a what might be a back-to-roots album.

UPDATE 18/04/2024 : This story seems to be false. (read more)

According to a source, rumors of Kate Bush working in recording studio are true, with as many as eight songs having been put to tape. “ It’s still in the early stages, ” “ She’s got security on the doors to ensure no-one hears a whisper, ” a source said.

World Tour To Follow New Album?

Kate Bush is rumoured to be planning a worldwide tour at the end of 2025. When contacted, a representative had no information on a new album, or any of the singer’s future plans. This isn’t the first time in recent memory reports have surfaced about Kate Bush recording sessions. Fans will be anxiously awaiting...

Do you think Kate Bush will pick up right where he left off and deliver another excellent album? Have you heard any rumors about the new album? Let us know!!

© 2024 MediaMass All rights reserved. Do not reproduce (even with permission).

Kate Bush: Recent News

• Breaking news April 17, 2024 Kate Bush to announce retirement at age 65
• Pets April 12, 2024 Kate Bush’s Dog Recovering from Surgery
• Money April 17, 2024 Kate Bush is Highest-Paid Singer in the World

Celebrity Central

• The Kick Inside
• Never For Ever
• The Dreaming
• Hounds of Love
• The Sensual World
• The Red Shoes
• Director’s Cut
• 50 Words for Snow
• Before the Dawn
• How To Be Invisible

Record Store Day – 20.04.2024

Record Store Day UK have announced this year’s fund-raising activities supporting their official 2024 charity partner, War Child . The money raised will go towards helping children in conflict all over the world, which is more important than ever before.

One lucky vinyl fan could be in with the chance of winning a one-off Rega Planar 3 deck that’s signed by Kate, who is this year’s RSD ambassador. A further two fans could win decks signed by Blur and Young Fathers .

To enter, fans simply need to buy raffle tickets from 11th April on War Child’s Crowdfunder pages for: Kate Bush , Blur and Young Fathers . Each entry only costs £5, with no limit on the number of times a fan can enter, and winners will be announced on 5th May 2024.

Head of War Child Records Richard Clarke said: “ We are delighted to be the charity partner for Record store Day again in 2024. Music is ingrained in our DNA at War Child and every year we are so excited to celebrate the art of the album and the incredible role independent record stores play getting those albums to fans by partnering with the brilliant team at RSD. It is a partnership that we are extremely proud of, and one that continues to make a difference to children whose lives have been torn apart by war. ”

As with all the titles on this year’s Record Store Day list of releases , the Record Store Day War Child exclusives will only be available in-store at one of over 260 participating independent record shops on 20th of April 2024. You can find your local store here .

The Last Dinner Party

July 20 - july 23.

The Last Dinner Party have announced their headline Australian shows for July 2024, touring Brisbane’s Fortitude Music Hall, Melbourne’s Forum and Sydney’s Enmore Theatre.

Conceived during a wine-stained evening in Brixton, the name embodies a musical and aesthetic ethos of decadence, mystery, spectacle and charm. Finding artistry in the intersection between the beautiful, sublime and grotesque, the band are guided by their favourite Romantic poets and Gothic novelists.

The preceding years of isolation and anxiety have only served to heighten The Last Dinner Party’s creative appeal as they usher in a new era of unashamed maximalism and untethered euphoria. They cast their net of inspiration across artists and genres, from Kate Bush and David Bowie, glam rock and new wave, to unexpected moments of twelve bar blues, classical overture and heavy synth breakdowns.

Singer Abigaille, guitarists Emily and Lizzie, keyboardist Aurora and bassist Georgia weave a fantasy of haunting melodies, explosive choruses, and lyrics that embrace tragedy and triumph in equal measure. At their shows, the band lead audiences through the soaring crescendos and pin-drop silences of the most debaucherous dinner parties, gathering a dedicated and growing company of attendees with every performance.

The band are currently based in London writing, recording, and preparing for their next spectacle.

You are cordially invited.

Saturday, July 20, 2024

Fortitude music hall, licensed all ages, monday, july 22, 2024, tuesday, july 23, 2024.

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Please read about the age restrictions before purchasing your tickets to The Last Dinner Party’s shows:

Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane – Licensed All Ages

Forum, Melbourne – Ages 18+ Only

Enmore Theatre, Sydney – Licensed All Ages

Please take note of each venue’s entry requirements before purchasing your ticket/s

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‘The Masked Singer’ Reveals Identities of Ugly Sweater and Starfish: Here Are the Celebrities Under the Costumes

By Michael Schneider

Michael Schneider

Variety Editor at Large

• How O.J. Simpson’s Impact on Media Coverage Still Leaves Mixed Feelings Among Broadcast Journalists 6 hours ago
• ‘The Masked Singer’ Reveals Identities of Ugly Sweater and Starfish: Here Are the Celebrities Under the Costumes 20 hours ago
• Chris Stapleton to Perform at First ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live’ Outdoor Stage Concert in Four Years (EXCLUSIVE) 2 days ago

SPOILER ALERT: Do not read ahead if you have not watched Season 11, Episode 7 of “ The Masked Singer ,” “Queen Night,” which aired April 10 on Fox.

“The Masked Singer” dropped a bomb on us: Singer/songwriter Charlie Wilson , who has enjoyed a tremendous career as a solo artist in addition to his time as lead vocalist for the Gap Band, was one of two celebrities revealed on Wednesday night’s edition of “The Masked Singer.” Also unmasked: “The Office” star Kate Flannery (who played the frequently inebriated Meredith).

Wilson was unveiled during the show’s Group A finals as Ugly Sweater, while Flannery was Starfish.

Popular on Variety

And then, for Starfish, Jeong figured out it was Kate Flannery. Ora picked Amy Schumer, McCarthy-Wahlberg thought it was Lisa Kudrow and Thicke went with Kate McKinnon.

Ugly Sweater was first to be revealed, as Wilson. Then, in a battle royale, Starfish and Goldfish of fishy proportions, the two battled it out to win Group A and move on to the semi-finals. The duo sang their own versions of Queen’s “Another One Bites the Dust,” which Goldfish emerging victorious and Starfish emerging as Kate Flannery.

Indeed, it was “Queen Night,” and the contestants opened by singing “We Are the Champions” by the supergroup.

Kate Flannery as Starfish and Charlie Wilson as Ugly Sweater join DeMarcus Ware (Koala), Colton Underwood (Love Bird), Sisqó (Lizard), Billy Bush (Sir Lion), Joe Bastianich (Spaghetti & Meatballs), Savannah Chrisley (Afghan Hound) and Kevin Hart (Book) as the celebrities unmasked on “The Masked Singer” this season.

Back for Season 11 are host Nick Cannon, alongside panelists Jenny McCarthy Wahlberg, Ken Jeong and Robin Thicke, while Rita Ora has joined the desk to fill in for Nicole Scherzinger, who was in London to star on the West End’s “Sunset Boulevard.”

With sixteen total celebrity singers, including three “wildcards,” Season 11 features new costumes including “Gumball,” “Lizard,” “Ugly Sweater,” “Goldfish,” “Starfish,” “Book,” “Gumball,” “Miss Cleocatra,” “Afghan Hound,” “Beets,” “Poodle Moth,” “Clock,” “Spaghetti & Meatballs,” “Lizard,” “Koala” and “Sir Lion.” According to the show, the Season 11 contestants boast a combined 22 Grammy nominations, 11 platinum albums, 33 Teen Choice nominations, 108 million records sold, 326 film appearances and 1.7 billion Spotify streams.

This means Group A winner Goldfish will join Group C’s Poodle Moth and Clock later this season for the quarter finals. (Next up: Group B faces off.)

Here were the Group A finals performances on Wednesday’s Episode 7, “Queen Night”:

Song: “The Show Must Go On,” by Queen

Panel guesses: Hilary Duff, Selena Gomez, Vanessa Hudgens

Clue: Delivered by Galileo, who reveals she’s connected to Ken. “Well, Ken, you’re ridiculous and you have so much heart, and I love it so much. You obviously haven’t changed since the last time we worked together.”

Package voiceover: “I’m so excited that I’m in the Group A finals! I really tried to appreciate every moment. Because I’ve learned that life comes in waves. I had just gotten a dream role. But the night before my debut, I received the worst news I could have ever imagined. I lost my No. 1 supporter. Nothing could have prepared me for that. I felt like I couldn’t move. But then I remembered, there was no one in the world that enjoyed watching me perform more. So, I reached down inside and found the courage to take that stage. And I performed for the one seat that wasn’t filled. It was heartbreaking, but so beautiful to honor them. It was one of those ‘the show must go on’ moments. And I had the resilience and strength to push through because of everything they had taught me. And this song is for them.”

Previous songs: “Vampire,” by Olivia Rodrigo, “Baby Come Back,” by Player

Previous panel guesses: Lea Michele, Selena Gomez, Carly Rae Jepsen, Sarah Hyland, Kristen Stewart, Nina Dobrev

Song: “Under Pressure,” by Queen and David Bowie

Panel guesses: Kate McKinnon, Amy Schumer, Kate Flannery

Clue: Magician reveals, she’s connected to Jenny. “Jenny, last time we hung out, I offered you tickets to my show. You can consider this one on the house too.”

Previous songs: “Material Girl,” by Madonna; “21 Guns,” by Green Day

Previous panel guesses: Catherine O’Hara, Cheri Oteri, Molly Shannon, Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph

Ugly Sweater

Song: “I Want to Break Free,” by Queen

Panel guesses: Smokey Robinson, Aaron Neville, Charlie Wilson

Clue: Connected to Nick. “Nick, listen. I never forget giving you dating advice. And honestly, you didn’t forget either.”

Package voiceover: “I love being this colorful sweater, and making it to the Group A finals. I can’t wait to honor Queen with a song about freedom, baby! They say what’s old is new again. And I should know. I’ve been upcycle, and recycled more times than I can count. Inspired everyone from Snoop Dogg to Nirvana. Talk about a fashion statement! I even worked with the legendary Tupac. I like to keep that tidbit in my pocket. Yep, you can say I’ve influenced a circle of stars. All by doing my own thing. As a sweater who was once tossed aside, getting to the quarter finals will show you can always break free from anything. Whether it’s your past, your dirty laundry or your skinny jeans. Just roll up your sleeves, and do what you love like it’s going out of style!”

Previous songs: “The Best,” by Tina Turner; “Brick House,” by Commodores

Previous panel guesses: Charlie Wilson, Nile Rodgers, Verdine White, Lionel Richie, Smokey Robinson

Last season’s performers included Ne-Yo as Cow, John Schneider as Donut, Macy Gray as Sea Queen and Janel Parrish as Gazelle join John Oates as Anteater, Keyshia Cole as Candelabra, Sebastian Bach as Tiki, Ginuwine as Husky, Ashley Parker Angel as S’more, Metta World Peace as Cuddle Monster, Luann de Lesseps as Hibiscus, Tyler Posey as Hawk, Billie Jean King as Royal Hen, Michael Rapaport as Pickle, Tom Sandoval as Diver, Anthony Anderson as Rubber Ducky and one-time special guest Demi Lovato as Anonymouse.

Fox Alternative Entertainment is behind “The Masked Singer,” which is exec produced by showrunner James Breen, Craig Plestis, and Nick Cannon. The series is based on the South Korean format created by Mun Hwa Broadcasting Corp.

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