Before the Dawn was a concert residency by the English singer-songwriter Kate Bush in 2014 at the Hammersmith Apollo in London. The residency consisted of 22 dates, attended by almost 80,000 people. It was Bush's first series of live shows since The Tour of Life in 1979, which finished with three performances at the same venue. The live recording album Before the Dawn was released in physical and digital formats in November 2016.
On 21 March 2014, Bush announced via her website her plans to perform live. Pre-sale tickets were on sale for fans who had signed up to her website and an additional seven dates were added to the original 15, due to the high demand. Tickets went on sale to the general public on 28 March and sold out within 15 minutes.
Bush won the Editor's Award at the Evening Standard Theatre Awards; and was subsequently nominated for two Q Awards in 2014: Best Act in the World Today and Best Live Act.
Contents
Overview
Before the Dawn was presented as a multi-media performance involving standard rock music performance, dancers, puppets, shadows, maskwork, conceptual staging, 3D animation and an illusionist. Bush spent three days in a flotation tank for filmed scenes that were played during the performance, and featured dialogue written by novelist David Mitchell. Also involved with the production were Adrian Noble, former artistic director and chief executive of the Royal Shakespeare Company, costume designer Brigitte Reiffenstuel, lighting designer Mark Henderson and Italian Shadows Theatre company Controluce Teatro d'Ombre. The illusionist was Paul Kieve, the puppeteer Basil Twist, the movement director Sian Williams and the designer Dick Bird. The video and projection design was by Jon Driscoll.
The performance was centred on a band featuring the following musicians:
Kate Bush – vocals (plus occasional piano/keyboards)
David Rhodes – guitar
Friðrik Karlsson – guitar, bouzouki, charango
John Giblin – bass guitar, double bass
Jon Carin – keyboards, guitar, vocals, programming
Kevin McAlea – keyboards, accordion, uilleann pipes
Omar Hakim – drums
Mino Cinélu – percussion
and the following actors:
Albert McIntosh – chorus, Son, Painter
Jo Servi – chorus, Witchfinder
Bob Harms – chorus, Dad
Sandra Marvin – chorus
Reception
The news of the residency prompted a surge of interest in Bush, with a number of music websites, radio stations and newspapers running the story, as well as causing Bush's own website to crash due to the high web traffic. Bush was said to be "completely overwhelmed by the response to the shows", adding she was "looking forward to seeing you all later this year". In the week before the show's debut, The New York Times ran an article documenting Bush fans who were traveling from around the world to attend the show.
The show received widespread critical acclaim. The Evening Standard gave the opening show five stars out of five, commenting: "[an] extraordinary mix of magical ideas, stunning visuals, attention to detail and remarkable music ... she was so obviously, so unambiguously brilliant, made last night something to tell the grandchildren about." Alexis Petridis of The Guardian gave the show five stars out of five, calling the show "another remarkable achievement". Following the first week of performances, eight of Bush's albums charted within the UK Top 40, making her the first female artist in history to achieve this, with The Whole Story at number six and Hounds of Love at number nine being the highest charting.
Credits
Production credits
Before the Dawn – written by Kate Bush
Directed by – Kate Bush, Adrian Noble
Creative advisor – Albert McIntosh
Lighting designer – Mark Henderson
Set designer – Dick Bird
Projection designer – Jon Driscoll for Cinelumina
Creative consultant – Robert Allsopp
Costume designer – Brigitte Reiffenstuel
Movement direction – Sian Williams
Oceanic wave design – Basil Twist
Illusionist – Paul Kieve
Tour management
Tour director – David Taraskevics (David T)
Production director – Keely Myers
Assistant to tour director – George Sinclair
Show production
Production manager – Simon Marlow
Production coordinator – Georgie King
Technical stage manager – Richard "Wez" Wearing
Stage manager – Dan Shipton
Show caller – Sharon Hobden
Head of wardrobe – Natasha DeSampayo
Wardrobe assistant – Kerry Harris
Production runner – Dom Dryburgh
Sound credits
Sound designer / FOH engineer – Greg Walsh
Monitor engineer – Ian Newton
Kate vocal navigator – Stephen W. Tayler
FOH sound engineer / systems engineer – Davide Lombardi
Stage tech – Baz Tymms
Surround systems engineer – Davey Williamson
Sounds FX consultant – James Drew
Record archive – Ian Sylvester
Record supervisor – Jim Jones
Backline credits
Guitar and bass technician – Chris Lawson
Keyboard (and guitar) technician – Morten "Turbo" Thobro
Drums and percussion technician – Steve Gray
Set list
The set list comprised most of Hounds of Love featuring the entire The Ninth Wave suite, most of Aerial including the entire A Sky of Honey suite, two songs from The Red Shoes, and one song from 50 Words for Snow. Bush's first four albums and The Sensual World were excluded from the set list, though a recording of "Never Be Mine" (supposedly from initial rehearsals) is included on the CD and LP releases.
All tracks were performed live for the first time, except "Running Up That Hill", which had been already performed live in 1987 with David Gilmour of Pink Floyd at the Secret Policeman's Third Ball.
Show dates
26 August 2014
27 August 2014
29 August 2014
30 August 2014
2 September 2014
3 September 2014
5 September 2014
6 September 2014
9 September 2014
10 September 2014
12 September 2014
13 September 2014
16 September 2014
17 September 2014
19 September 2014
20 September 2014
23 September 2014
24 September 2014
26 September 2014
27 September 2014
30 September 2014
1 October 2014