You really can’t go wrong with a Kate Bush release. Kate Bush’s “Before the Dawn (Live)” is recommended!
Purchase Kate Bush – Before the Dawn (Live) from Amazon
ARTIST: Kate Bush
ALBUM: Before the Dawn (LIVE)
DURATION: 29 songs, 2 hours and 25 minutes
YEAR OF RELEASE: November 2016
LABEL: Fish People
Act I – LIVE
1. Lily
2. Hounds Of Love
3. Joanni
4. Top Of The City
5. Never Be Mine
6. Running Up That Hill
7. King Of The Mountain
Act II – LIVE
8. Astronomer’s call
9. And Dream Of Sheep
10. Under Ice
11. Waking The Witch
12. Watching them without her (dialogue)
13. Watching You Without Me
14. Little Light
15. Jig Of Life
16. Hello Earth
17. The Morning Fog
Act III – LIVE
18. Prelude
19. Prologue
20. An Architect’s Dream
21. The Painter’s Link
22. Sunset
23. Aerial Tal
24. Somewhere In Between
25. Tawny Moon (lead vocals by Albert McIntosh)
26. Nocturn
27. Aerial
28. Among Angels
29. Cloudbusting
The legendary performing artist, Kate Bush, who became the only female artist to have top five albums in the UK charts for five successive decades.
And who’s chart topping 1985 hit single “Running Up That Hill” found new popularity in 2022 after it was featured in the fourth season of the Netflix series “Stranger Things” and became the most streamed song on Spotify in the US, UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand and more. So popular, the song reached No. 1 in the UK Charts in June 2022 and climbed up to No. 3 in the Billboard 100 in July and breaking numerous musical records around the world.
And considering that a new generation of fans are discovering Kate Bush’s music, that is fantastic.
But before the “Stranger Things” phenomenon, there was also a resurgence in 2012 when her music was utilized for the 2012 Summer Olympics closing ceremony in London.
And in 2014, Bush announced that she would be doing her first live concert in decades titled “Before the Dawn”, a 22-night residency in London from August to October 2014 at the Hammersmith Apollo.
Tickets sold out in 15 minutes, people paying top money from scalpers just to see the concert and attracting fans globally.
Bush said of “Before the Dawn”, “It was an extraordinary experience putting the show together. It was a huge amount of work, a lot of fun and an enormous privilege to work with such an incredibly talented team. This is the audio document. I hope that this can stand alone as a piece of music in its own right and that it can be enjoyed by people who knew nothing about the shows as well as those who were there”.
In addition about the album, Bush said, “Nothing at all has been re-recorded or overdubbed on this live album, just two or three sound FX added to help with the atmosphere”.
“Before the Dawn” is the second live album available in CD, Vinyl and Digital. I am reviewing the digital version with three discs and 29 songs.
For the “Ninth Wave” about a woman lost at sea, floating in the water and trying to stay alive in a dark, terrifying ocean and it was projected onto a large oval screen. To capture this feeling, the tracks for this first act was recorded when she was inside a deep water tank in Pinewood. Bush wanted the sound to be more realistic and emotive while singing in a difficult situation.
According to Bush, “The rest of the lead vocals on this disc were sung live on stage as part of the dream sequences. The only way to make this story work as an audio piece was to present it more like a radio play and subdue the applause until the last track when the story is over and we are all back in the theatre again with the audience response”.
A total of two promotional singles were released from “Before the Dawn”, “King of the Mountain” (Live) and “And Dream of Sheep” (Live).
But the album features many of Kate Bush’s songs such as “Lily”, “Hounds of Love”, “Joanni”, “Top of the City”, “Never Be Mine”, “Running Up That Hill (A Deal with God)” and “King of the Mountain” for the first act.
By the second act, you have tracks with spoken monologue but included songs such as “And Dream of Sheep”, “Under Ice”, “Waking the With”, “Watching You Without Me”, “Little Life”, “Hello Earth” , “The Morning Frog” and there is also a track featuring Kate Bush and her brother, renown photographer/writer John Carder Bush for “Jig of Life”.
But the third act would feature Kate Bush’s son Albert McIntosh, who sings the track on “The Painter’s Link (Live)” and on “Tawny Moon”, and many more live songs performed by Kate Bush such as “An Architect’s Dream”, “Sunset”, “Aerial Tal”, “Somewhere in Between”, “Nocturn”, “Aerial”, “Among Angels” and “Cloudbusting”.
For the most part, the live album features an energetic Kate Bush and an excited audience. The last time Kate Bush released a live album was “Live at Hammersmith Odeon” was back in 1994, and that concert was a re-release of video recorded back for the 1979 “Tour of Life” that was first released in 1981. But a home video and CD version of the concert was released.
In the case of “Before the Dawn”, it was released only on CD, vinyl and digitally. So, there is no accompanying Blu-ray or DVD release.
But still, for those who had the opportunity to watch Kate Bush perform 35-years later, no doubt witnessed history. And while many still hold out hope for a Blu-ray or DVD release, the music album itself has done well, “Before the Dawn” was certified Gold in the UK by the British Phonographic Industry.
It was no doubt a treat to hear the performance, but to be truthful, you could only wish that you know what the context was the song while Kate Bush was performing (I personally won’t watch the fan recordings posted on YouTube, as I want to watch a professional production) but many who watched the performance said it was “exciting”.
But fans have been waiting for any new work from Kate Bush as she is truly a music legend. As of 2022, aside from the album remasters/re-releases and the 2019 compilation album “The Other Sides” (featuring B-sides, covers and mixes), the 2014 performance of “Before the Dawn” (released in 2016) is her most recent work released that features her newer work.
You really can’t go wrong with a Kate Bush release. Kate Bush’s “Before the Dawn (Live)” is recommended!
