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Up Late With Kate – The Melbourne Fringe 22nd September 2012

Where: Studio 1, Northcote Town Hall, 189 High Street, Northcote, Mebourne, Australia  (Tram #86, Stop 31)

When: Saturday 22nd September at 8.30pm

What: As part of the Darebin Music Feast, Benn Bennett and friends will bring together a selection of their finest local musical and cabaret performers to reinterpret and pay tribute to the songs of British artist Kate Bush. A wonderful night full of Kate’s classics including Running Up that Hill, Babooshka, The Man with the Child in His Eyes, and the perennial favourite: Wuthering Heights. One night only! Featuring: Rebecca Barnard, Tina del Twist, Wes Snelling, Yana Alana, Benn Bennett and more!

Tickets for this event are sold through Northcote Town Hall. For bookings visit their website or call (03) 9481 9500.

The Darebin Music Feast began in 1996 and in recent years has evolved to become a high profile and well respected Victorian community music festival, while still retaining its grass roots music ethos. The festival is dedicated to song-writing and celebrating the diversity of one of Melbourne’s most thriving musical communities.

Melbourne Fringe is the leading organisation for the independent arts in Victoria.  It facilitates the presentation of contemporary work across all artforms. Its artistic program gives both emerging and established artists opportunities to gain diverse professional skills and present new work. The culmination of independent arts activity throughout the year, the Melbourne Fringe Festival presents the work of thousands of artists to a large and committed audience.

Update: Extremely rare artwork by Kate

Neville has told this site that he now has a number of offers for the two pieces by Kate.

He is about to end the auction and anyone interested should get in touch with him at nevillejudd@gmail.com within the next few days.

Al.Hy performs Wuthering Heights on ‘The Voice France’

Another entrant in the current crop of talent shows reaches for the Kate Bush Songbook:

Laura Bunting gets approval from “Voice Australia” judges for Wuthering Heights

Whilst we’re on the subject of talent shows, New Zealander Laura passed her “blind audition” on Oz Nine Network’s ‘The Voice’ with a rendition of Wuthering Heights which went down very well.

Close your eyes and open your ears, The Voice Australia is set to be the musical and social media phenomenon of 2012. On The Voice the four superstar musician coaches begin to select teams of twelve based solely on an artist’s voice. Seal, Joel Madden, Delta Goodrem and Keith Urban, are competing as coaches – each one hoping to discover, and nurture Australia’s next great voice. During the blind auditions, if a coach is impressed, they push a button to select the artist for their team of competitors, (they’ll need to select 12 acts in total). At this point, the coach’s chair will swivel so that they can face the artists they have selected. If more than one coach selects the artist, the power shifts to the artist who may choose which coach they want to work with throughout the competition. An artist is eliminated when they have not been chosen by one of our coaches who are superstar music talents themselves… ”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS35_sUUtg0[/youtube]

Laura is now part of coach Joel Madden’s team.

Somewhere the shade of Hughie Green must be very pleased that anyone should think Kate was the product of his ‘Opportunity Knocks’ …

Hope gets approval from “Talent” judges for This Woman’s Work

Although she appeared to believe that the song was by Maxwell, and no-one on the judging panel corrected her, Essex girl Hope seriously impressed the panel with her rendition of Kate’s This Woman’s Work. 

Hope had started with Jessie J’s Mamma Knows Best, but Simon Cowell complained: “I’ve heard that song so many times, “I want to hear something different to whatever anyone else is singing.” so Hope turned to Kate and won a standing ovation from the audience, and pass marks from the panel into the next part of the competition.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpeaYFmMCik[/youtube]

Later:  As a consequence of this it appears This Woman’s Work (both versions) has reappeared in the i-tunes Top 20.

Later Still: This from the Radio Times:

Hope Murphy was from Upminster and was not ashamed to be an Essex girl. She was 16 but already had the flinty, aged look the county specialises in, with solid blonde hair and Barry M cladding. You could imagine her quite comfortably running a large pub/carvery. But her singing voice! Perfect clarity and hints of a freakish range achieved without effort.

She sang This Woman’s Work “by Maxwell” (it’s by Kate Bush!), a canny leftfield song choice arrived at after Simon, looking down at his producer’s notes to see the words “TELL HER TO CHANGE HER SONG”, told her to change her song. Shameless, but who cares any more?”

Gig Review: WOW – A celebration of the Music, Lyrics & Dance of Kate Bush

LSMedia on last night’s Maaike Breijman’s tribute gig:

There may have been the odd one or two in the audience… that would have been in the audience the only time Kate Bush actually played in Liverpool and …the only ones to be there over 30 years later from that date to hear the sensational talent of Maaike Breijman go through two sets of the most sensual, inspiring and classic music from one of the queens of British popular music …There are not many women who would willingly go through so many costume changes in the name of music but as soon as Maaike came out on stage for the opening numbers of Moving, James and the Cold Gun and the haunting Babooshka, the audience knew they were in for a night that went …into the realms of performance high art…

The second act of the show was just as impressive with tracks such as This Woman’s Work, the incredible Running Up That Hill, Cloudbusting and the sensational Wuthering Heights …This was so much more than a gig or even a celebration of music created by one of the most endearing song writers of her generation …it became a show of importance, a moment in time that captured the essence of the music and left the audience stunned by the spectacle and roaring with their approval…”

“No one had ever treated her as a composer…”

The New York Times remembers Theo Bleckman’s January live show, reviews his album of Kate covers, and interviews the man:

I fell in love with her music in high school,” said Mr. Bleckmann, who said he listened to Ms. Bush’s recordings incessantly until his interests shifted toward jazz in his late teens. After hearing her 2005 record, “Aerial,” he revisited her old albums. “I thought, oh my God, this is still incredible: it’s actually better now,” he said. So Mr. Bleckmann decided to make a project out of it “because no one had ever treated her as a composer in that way,” he said. “There are a few cover versions out there, but that’s it. The songs are hard to do. Some are very rangy, and weird intervallic stuff is going on; there’s a lot of meter changes and uneven bars. There’s so much weirdness about it, which, of course, I love and is exactly the reason I wanted to do it …”

Theo Bleckmann: The Soul Of Kate Bush

NPR previews and reviews Theo’s version of Love and Anger:

Theo Bleckmann gives an enthralling reading of her classic “Love and Anger” … Bleckmann’s band loosens the rhythmic feel of “Love and Anger,” making it more suitable for jazz interpretation without sacrificing its surging momentum and bucolic sensibility. His limpid baritone soars amid the sumptuous rearrangement, as he conveys the song’s themes of unspeakable hurt, disappointment and the thorny process of forgiveness and liberation. Bleckmann articulates this jumble of mixed emotions with sonic and sentimental clarity … Grasping and then expressing the meaning of Bush’s words takes both a sharp mind and a soulful heart. Bleckmann brings both to the fore with idiosyncratic ingenuity.”

Robyn Loau Covers Kate Bush Classic

From Noise.11.com (Australia):

Robyn Loau has recorded a cover of the Kate Bush classic ‘Wuthering Heights’.

Two versions of the song were done, one with Josh Abrahams and Davide Carbone (S:amplify) in Melbourne and the other with Stu Hunter in Sydney.

“Kate Bush is a genius and I’ve adored this song for so long. It is exhilarating, beautiful and twisted. While this is a complicated tale of eternal love, the thought of haunting a bastard ex lover from beyond the grave appeals to me… and why the hell not?!! I’m sure that’s what I’ll be doing!” she said in a statement.

The original ‘Wuthering Heights’ was written by Kate Bush in 1978. It reached the top of the charts in the UK, USA and Australia.

Robyn’s version is available on her ‘Only Human’ album.

Digital Spy: Ten Things About Kate Bush

Mayer Nissim at Digital Spy digs into the archives: “When Kate Bush released her tenth studio album 50 Words For Snow this week, we put aside our contrary tendencies and gladly fell in line with the avalanche of critical opinion in our praise. Bush has flitted in and out of public life in recent years, so to celebrate her return in 2011, we’ve taken a look back at her career to give you ten fast facts about one of pop’s most enigmatic stars…”

Stand up for Tibet

Last night, Kate posted her thoughts at the situation in Tibet on her official site (see news posting below). We’d like to urge you to visit the Stand Up For Tibet website here and sign the pledge to show your concern about the current self-immolations and the crackdown in Tibet. (With thanks to Mandie at International Tibet Network)

[youtube width=”640″ height=”360″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYbwNwc9xIc[/youtube]

What to say about Maggie and Kate?

Tom Gatti film critic of The Times (behind the pay wall) has some fun this morning ….

What binds the former first ladies of politics and pop? This week Meryl Streep’s portrayal of Margaret Thatcher had its first screening and Kate Bush’s first album of new songs for six years had its first airing — the return of one Eighties female powerhouse may be regarded as natural; the return of two seems like conspiracy. But what binds the former first ladies of politics and pop?

1. Their career dates tally. Thatcher came to power in 1979, when Bush was in the midst of her first and only tour. Thatcher retired from the House in 1992. A year later, Bush released her last album for more than a decade …”

… and Kate was pictured with Jim Calaghan during the 1979 General Election … and Maggie was depicted as Kate in a press cartoon during the same election with said Jim Callaghan going “Wow!”.

Top Ten Reasons to Love Kate Bush

From Daiana Feuer in todays’s LA Weekly:

“Kate Bush is one of the most important female musicians of all time. As an innovator and producer of her own sound, she’s sort of like the female Prince. It’s about the unitard. It’s about her googly eyeballs and interpretative dance moves, her music videos, and her way with a synthesizer. It’s about this 5 foot 3 woman standing up to the music industry and her refusal to let anyone make her be sexier than she wanted to be–which was plenty sexy as long as it was on her own terms. Bush’s ninth studio album, Director’s Cut, debuted today at #2 in the UK. It’s a re-imagining of some songs from 1989’s The Sensual World and 1993’s Red Shoes, and it’s a good opportunity to revisit her legacy. Here are The Top 10 Reasons To Love Kate Bush ...”

Hounds of Love Tribute in Brisbane

The Satelite reports: TO celebrate the 25th anniversary of the classic album The Hounds Of Love, a selection of Brisbane’s most unique cabaret performers will perform their favourite Kate Bush songs live on stage. With a DJ, film clips and rare footage, the Kate Bush tribute will be held this Sunday, November 7, at the StageDoor Dinner Theatre. It will start at 5pm and tickets cost $15 per person. There will be a fully licensed bar at the event with hot food available. For bookings phone 3216 1115.

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