Category: Before the Dawn – Live 2014 Shows Page 2 of 3

“SWEET JESUS, THAT’S AMAZING!” was the immediate on-air reaction from DJ Shaun Keaveny on BBC6Music this morning after he played the full 8-minute live version of King of the Mountain (Live) at 7.40am. Joined in studio by Matt Everitt, the giddy praise from the duo continued –  “incredible”, “beautiful”, “remarkable”.

Such was the ecstatic reaction from both listeners and presenter, the show played the track in its entirety again an hour later! You can hear the radio premiere at the 45:50 mark here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07ypdpv#play

As a result, the track is now available as a single track download on iTunes here which makes it eligible for the charts. Fan reaction focused on Kate’s extraordinary vocal (one of her finest ever?) as it builds to an unforgettable powerhouse climax, and also the simply sensational drumming of Omar Hakim. An exciting morning for fans.

Flippin eck! Breakfast goose bumps listening to Kate Bush live on @shaunwkeaveny @BBC6Music

— Paul Sheers (@muddysundays) October 21, 2016

@shaunwkeaveny holy Jesus that Kate Bush track was genius. Album ordered!

— Garry Bradley (@Gazbrad) October 21, 2016

Holy crap that @KateBushMusic live track on @BBC6Music was incredible. Weeping like I did at the live show now.

— Thorners (@ThornersSE23) October 21, 2016

Still floored by that KateBush track . Just sublime. ❤️ @BBC6Breakfast

— Dawn (@dawnlestaffs) October 21, 2016

Whole family totally wigging out to @KateBushMusic track on @BBC6Music @shaunwkeaveny 3 yr old destroying the air drums #onefortheneighbours

— claire simmons (@culture_claire) October 21, 2016

Before the Dawn Live 2014  is out as a 3 CD set and a 4 LP box set on November 25th. | Pre-Order Vinyl Box Set on Amazon | Pre-Order CD Set on Amazon|

Ken Bruce played a 40-second clip of King Of The Mountain from the Before the Dawn Live album on BBC Radio 2 today at 11am – you can catch up on the BBC iPlayer, it’s played at 1:42:50 here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07xy7x7#play

Introducing the clip in the programme’s Music News section, correspondent Matt Everitt described the shows as “…the most eagerly awaited shows I can remember, they were incredible shows; Kate’s singing was amazing, the band was superb and the production and the stage set was unlike anything anyone has ever attempted at a pop or rock gig, ever.”

The full track will also be played on the BBC6Music Breakfast show tomorrow from 7am on the Shaun Keaveny show. The track will be also be made available for download on iTunes for those who have pre-ordered the digital album, from Friday.

We will post the iPlayer link to the full track when it is made available.| Pre-Order Vinyl Box Set on Amazon | Pre-Order CD Set on Amazon| Pre-Order Digital on iTunes |

| Pre-Order Vinyl Box Set on Amazon | Pre-Order CD Set on Amazon|

Are you ready for a fresh Kate Bush release in your record collection?! We are so delighted to let you know that two years after she completed her extraordinary 2014 run of Before the Dawn shows at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith, Kate will release a live album set of these already legendary concerts on November 25th on her Fish People label (with a 5th December US release through Concord Records). This 4 disc vinyl LP OR 3 disc CD set is available to pre-order from today. The album artwork, as expected, looks stunning, and in grand Kate tradition there is a hidden KT symbol on the album cover…happy searching. Before the Dawn will also be released on the usual digital platforms also such as iTunes, Amazon etc. The album title is billed as “The KT Fellowship Presents…” underscoring again Kate’s determination to emphasise the collaborative nature of this huge production team’s work. We cannot wait to play these glorious recordings LOUD! The power and beauty of Kate’s voice combined with the sheer brilliance of her musicians and cast is going to be heart-stopping.

| Pre-Order Vinyl Box Set on Amazon | Pre-Order CD Set on Amazon|

Listen below to “Prologue” from the Before the Dawn live album

What’s included in the Before the Dawn sets? The 3 CDs encompass one act of Before the Dawn each while the tracks on the vinyl set are spread across the 8 sides of the 4 vinyl discs.

Not only does each set include every song performed each night, it also includes a surprise live version of “Never Be Mine” which was presumably cut from the actual shows for running time, marking the first appearance of a song from The Sensual World album in a Before the Dawn setting. The track was clearly originally intended to be part of the “band performance” opening act of the shows. We also now have titles for two of the dramatised elements of the live show. Attendees will remember that actor Kevin Doyle (of Downton Abbey fame!) played the part of the concerned astronomer in the film segment that opens The Ninth Wave, “Astronomer’s Call“.  A comedic scene between Kate’s son Albert McIntosh and actor Bob Harms is now titled “Watching Them Without Her“. “Little Light” provides the serene choral lead-in to the powerful live version of “Jig of Life”, and Albert McIntosh takes on lead vocal duties as The Painter on the new song “Tawny Moon“, giving the lunar spectacle a prominent place in this wonderfully expanded production of A Sky of Honey in Act Three. | Pre-Order Vinyl Box Set on Amazon | Pre-Order CD Set on Amazon|

Act One
Lily
Hounds Of Love
Joanni
Top Of The City
Never Be Mine*
Running Up That Hill
King Of The Mountain

Act Two – The Ninth Wave
Astronomer’s Call (feat Kevin Doyle spoken monologue)
And Dream Of Sheep
Under Ice
Waking The Witch (feat Jo Servi)
Watching Them Without Her (feat Albert McIntosh and Bob Harms)
Watching You Without Me
Little Light
Jig Of Life (feat John Carder Bush)
Hello Earth
The Morning Fog

Act Three – A Sky of Honey
Prelude
Prologue
An Architect’s Dream
The Painter’s Link (feat Albert McIntosh)
Sunset
Aerial Tal
Somewhere In Between
Tawny Moon (feat Albert McIntosh)
Nocturn
Aerial

Encore
Among Angels
Cloudbusting

*Previously unheard live performance

Seán Twomey writes:

In the end it came down to a single smile.

After over sixteen years running the news website there was still no guarantee back in March 2014 that I’d score a ticket. Over those years I would occasionally revisit my site’s dusty FAQ page, maybe sometimes slightly rewording the question and answer section about whether Kate would ever tour again. I’ll admit it: I had more or less decided that she wouldn’t. Fast forward to August 26th 2014 and I had turned down several radio and TV interviews wanting to get my immediate post-show reaction to Kate’s first concert since 1979. Surreal.

Opening night was all so overwhelming to me that I needed to shut all that stuff out. Excited, busy journeys from Dublin brought myself and five friends together, sitting in an impressively tiled Wagamama restaurant on the Shepherds Bush Road. It was 5.30pm when my day-long, breezy euphoria at what was unfolding came to an abrupt halt. As my friends animatedly poured over the menu, something sank in my stomach. I felt weak. Actual cold sweat. I started searching my mind for the root cause of this sudden unexpected change of mood. The weight of all the hype I’d poured on this occasion for myself condensed down into a single thought; “How is SHE feeling right now, just how is SHE doing?”

As we headed out into Hammersmith and approached that now iconic ‘Before the Dawn’ marquee sign, my thoughts were mostly focused on Kate herself. The person. The private human being. She had somehow agreed to this enormous responsibility after years of avoiding such exposure. I had fleetingly and politely met her in the kitchen of East Wickham Farm many years earlier in 2002. She was a friendly, busy mother that evening, and afterwards I “left the room, caught my breath outside the door and didn’t dare to go back in again” – to borrow Kate’s description of her own first meeting with Bowie. For the briefest moment I had at least once encountered the person behind the famous name, and as I approached the queue at the Apollo, it was hard to imagine that the same unassuming, low-key woman was responsible for all of THIS.

Now the experience is flash-bulb quick. Barricades are set up to guide ticket-holders in. We stroll past the television crews, the blissfully willing interviewees, the mouthy ticket touts and cagey security guards and into the slow moving throng of fans, proudly/shyly wearing their t-shirts and badges as we got closer to the doors. Fan tickets are scanned: no, they don’t tear them, your seaweed and anemones are safe. The merchandise stall: is that really an inflatable life preserver ring? The venue: very Art Deco, Eberhard Weber music floats out hypnotically from the stage speakers. The stage: we can see the instruments. All of them. Did someone accidentally raise a curtain? Are these the actual instruments that will produce ACTUAL Kate Bush songs? Did she really mean to show that? The programme: I rapidly flick through it in my seat. Spoilers. Glimpses of….elaborate, theatrical stuff and pages of notes carefully written by Kate. Our seats: three rows from the front. Dead centre.

My excitement was back. Full force. As the venue filled, as the voice-over announcement came welcoming us to the show, as Lily Cornford’s voice bathed us all in a spell of protection – it felt like a deep inhale before the explosion of sound and lights. And there she was. Dance-marching out into the stage, out into that cacophonous outpouring of love from three thousand people. And there it was, Kate’s reassuring smile.

Portrait by Debi Bowes © 2014

Nodding and studying the audience, she smiled as the chorus took their place stage right and she presented herself with open arms to the roars of the crowd. It was a relieved, mischievous smile, tinged with only a little nervousness. Bertie was right there with her. Her family and friends were there. She was about to unleash something truly extraordinary, and she knew it. This was going to be an unforgettable night. And oh, how it was.

Kate has received the Editors Award at tonight’s Evening Standard Theatre Awards at a glittering ceremony in the Palladium, London. The awards, now in their 60th year, are presented annually for outstanding achievements in London theatre, and were hosted tonight by comedians Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. Kate was presented with her award by Sir Ian McKellen. The Before the Dawn shows at the Eventim Apollo, which ended last month, won the Editors Prize for achieving “a new high in music performance.”

“It was just an incredible experience,” she said in her acceptance speech, crediting both the encouragement of her son, Bertie, and the enthusiasm of London audiences. “You hope that the audience will like what you’re doing, but my God – every night these people were there, driving us on and filling us with energy! Thank you to everybody who came to the shows and made it feel like it was something special.”

A special mention also for KT Fellowship member Mark Henderson, Kate’s lighting designer, who was deservedly nominated but lost out in the Best Design category for Before the Dawn. Tom Hiddleston was awarded Best Actor for Coriolanus at the Donmar Warehouse and Gillian Anderson picked up the Natasha Richardson Award for Best Actress for her performance in the Young Vic production of A Streetcar Named Desire. More at the Whats On Stage site here. The awards will be televised tomorrow night (Monday 1st December) on the London Live channel (Sky Channel 117) Freeview (8), Virgin (159) at 8pm. UK viewers can also watch it on the channel’s website.

Congratulations Kate, richly deserved!

Daily Mail … Evening Standard … Classic Rock …

We’re experiencing so many mixed emotions at the end of this EXTRAORDINARY series of concerts from Kate. It’s been incredible. Here is a beautiful tribute to the KT Fellowship, by our friend and colleague in Kate, Brian Cloughley.

BBC … NME …NME Blog (Ben Hewitt) … Yahoo Music … Daily Express … ContactMusic … SuperDeluxeEdition … A Journal of Musical Things …. SupaJam … Independent … Music Times … Daily Mirror ( and here) …

Today fans have started to receive the first batches of tickets being sent out. If you were lucky enough to order your ticket from the Eventim website – you may be aware that they sometimes produce a special “fan ticket” with collectable artwork on it that people can keep as a momento of their evening.

Kate has clearly embraced this idea, and interestingly seems to have revealed some of the artwork or possibly visuals associated with her Before the Dawn shows in the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith.  As this may be considered something of a spoiler for some you’ll have to look at the image after the following jump.

***Possible spoiler image after this jump***

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