{"id":27686,"date":"2014-09-05T00:02:00","date_gmt":"2014-09-05T05:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=27686"},"modified":"2014-09-04T10:18:44","modified_gmt":"2014-09-04T15:18:44","slug":"tracey-thorn-describes-the-performance-of-kate-bush","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2014\/09\/05\/tracey-thorn-describes-the-performance-of-kate-bush\/","title":{"rendered":"Tracey Thorn describes the performance of Kate Bush"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the New Statesman<\/em>, Tracey Thorn<\/a> laments that she’s lost an excuse for not doing live performances herself and loses herself in the performance at the Hammersmith Apollo in London:<\/p>\n

Six straight songs and then, just as we are relaxing, the stage transforms, and the drama begins: a multi-sensory performance of \u201cThe Ninth Wave\u201d, the suite of songs that forms side two of The Hounds of Love<\/em> (1985). There\u2019s Kate on screen in a life jacket, apparently slipping away from us, singing \u201cAnd Dream of Sheep\u201d, one of her most beautiful songs.<\/p>\n

I should probably write this somewhere more formal \u2013 my will, perhaps \u2013 but in case I forget, let me say here that I would be happy for you to play this song at my funeral. I weep as she sings it, partly because I\u2019m imagining my own funeral, but also because we are witnessing a struggle between life and death, where a drowning woman yearns to be saved, to return to her beloved family. \u201cLet me live!\u201d she cries a few songs later. Overwhelming and exhilarating as they are, all the special effects \u2013 Kate in a tank, a helicopter search beam strafing the audience \u2013 are in the service of the songs and the story.<\/p>\n

Why is it so moving? Well, because when finally she is brought back it is not just the fictional heroine, but Kate herself who has survived the years, and those cold seas, and returned to us. The two strands, family love and audience love, intertwine as she shows us how both mean so much to her. \u201cD\u2019you know what?\/I love you better now,\u201d she sings, as the first half ends and we wipe our tears.<\/p>\n

Part two is calmer, more reflective, consisting of one side of the recent album Aerial<\/em> (2005). Reprieved from death, she now revels in the simple, sensuous pleasures of life. Birdsong on a summer afternoon. The setting of the sun and the rising of the moon. In more conventional hands this could be merely decorous and pastoral, even a little twee, but somehow she has found a way to transform contentment into euphoria. The mood is hypnotic, rhythmic and trancey, and the stage dazzles with images of light and flight; less genteel garden party, more full-on midsummer rave, it could be the ultimate blissed-out headliner of a blistering, sunny Glastonbury.<\/p>\n

And her singing voice, which I so worried about? It is a thing of wonder, any youthful shrillness replaced by a richer, occasionally gravelly tone, and with a full-throated power unbelievable in someone who has so rarely sung live. All I can think is that she must have been practising, on her own in a barn somewhere, for the past 35 years. Practising, planning, waiting for all the stars to align \u2013 her own desire, the cast of collaborators, the right time and place \u2013 in order for this to happen. And it is an ecstatic triumph, a truly extraordinary achievement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the New Statesman, Tracey Thorn laments that she’s lost an excuse for not doing live performances herself and loses herself in the performance at the Hammersmith Apollo in London: Six straight songs and then, just as we are relaxing, the stage transforms, and the drama begins: a multi-sensory performance of \u201cThe Ninth Wave\u201d, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,28],"tags":[992,200,381],"class_list":["post-27686","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britain","category-media","tag-katebush","tag-music","tag-theatre"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-7cy","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27686","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27686"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27686\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27687,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27686\/revisions\/27687"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27686"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27686"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27686"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}