Kate Bush To Play Live Shows

alantig · 20 Sep 2006

From Keyboard Magazine...

http://www.keyboardmag.com/article/154279

Quote:

Kate Bush to play first live shows since 1979
By Stephen Fortner
Fri, 21 Mar 2014

Concept-rock legend Kate Bush has long been a keyboard hero of ours, having appeared on our cover in the 1980s with her Fairlight CMI. During most of her recording career, she joined the likes of Alan Parsons and Steely Dan in preferring not to perform live, and one of the only ways to see her do so was to rent the "Live at Hammersmith Odeon" video.

Fans who are in the U.K. or visiting there this summer are in luck, as she will be performing a series of concerts at London's Eventim Apollo that are, indeed, her first since then. Dates are below. We're thinking about hopping a plane to see this one ourselves!

AUGUST
Tuesday, 26th August
Wednesday, 27th August
Friday, 29th August
Saturday, 30th August

SEPTEMBER

Tuesday, 2nd September
Wednesday, 3rd September
Friday, 5th September
Saturday, 6th September
Tuesday, 9th September
Wednesday, 10th September
Friday, 12th September
Saturday, 13th September
Tuesday, 16th September
Wednesday, 17th September
Friday, 19th September

I doubt I'll be able to get them, but I think I might try to get a ticket or two for one of these shows. This would be like a holy grail experience for me.

Glenn S. · 30 Oct 2006

No way I can go see these but I hope there's a DVD.

alantig · 20 Sep 2006

Not likely I'll get there either - but the dream lives for another week.

I asked my wife if she wanted to spend her 50th birthday in London so I could go to this. To her credit, she didn't just dismiss it - she did say, "You kind of have to try for this." I work at home on Fridays, so I'll be up about the time the tix go on sale.

Wouldn't be the first concert ticket I bought and didn't get to - this year.

JohnG · 03 Aug 2006

A quick trip over the pond might be worth it. Do they still sell CDs in London?

alantig · 20 Sep 2006

I was there for my only visit in 2009. CDs were not easy to find, although if I go, I'm coming home with stacks of mags - the UK guitar mags are way cheap, and a couple "lads' mags" are never a bad thing! There was one CD store that seemed to be a chain (might have been an HMV - don't recall), but most of the ones I looked up were closed. There was one in Soho, I think, where I found a few good deals on CDs and books. Would love to hit that again. And I found a collection of Flight Of The Conchords radio shows in a WH Smith's.

I have to say, there are not many artists I would even consider this for, but I never thought Kate would do live shows again. I'm not sure there's another artist out there who I'd consider doing this for.

TSmithPage · **Joined:** 20 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 3671

I'm giving serious thought to traveling to the UK for this show. Kate is probably the only performer I'd travel a great distance to see. Does anyone know how large is the selected venue? I know total ticket sales are limited to 4 per person and she is planning to do 15 shows. I'm sure tix will sell quickly Friday morning but how many tix total are available?

JohnG · 03 Aug 2006

Do you guys have a link to the ticket site? I might be crazy enough to do a quick vacay to merry ole England!

alantig · 20 Sep 2006

The Keyboard article has links to the venues, but they're below. Tix run 45-135 pounds (roughly $70-200 or so, if I recall the exchange rate correctly). Flights are much more expensive. I'm giving thought to taking a couple extra days and seeing two shows. And going back to the Tower of London. I'm not sure if I should try for the Tuesday-Wednesday shows or the Friday-Saturday.

Abba is about the only other artist I can think of that I'd consider doing this for. I said to my wife at lunch that it's amazing to me sometimes how my perspective has changed - 25 years ago, if you'd have told me I'd consider flying to England to see Kate Bush and wouldn't consider driving half an hour to see Kiss, I'd have thought you were nuts. But here we are...

IMWAN gathering at Hammersmith?

TSmithPage · **Joined:** 20 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 3671

As I understand it, seating capacity is 3500-5000 per show. So we are looking at 50,000 or so seats for the whole run.

. Grat for those who get in but makes it tough to access. I predict the whole run will sell out in 15 minutes.

JohnG · 03 Aug 2006

I may try for the Friday or Saturday Sept 5-6th. Make a nice weekend in London with a concert one of those evenings. We have family there so we would also meet up with them one day.

Gonna be tough to get a ticket though.

JohnG · 03 Aug 2006

So tickets go on sale 09:30 GMT and in the East Coast here at 5:30 AM (EST)???

alantig · 20 Sep 2006

That's how I have it figured.

And the 5th-6th would work great as a birthday trip for me!

Rick A · 23 Jul 2006

I wish you guys all the luck. Going to London and to see a show of hers will be a lifetime memory.

I happen to have a Christmas show on DVD she did with Peter Gabriel. That women is one extreme talent in all fronts.

Rick A.

alantig · 20 Sep 2006

Damn - just realized I forgot to post the links to the ticket agencies.

http://www.eventim.co.uk
http://www.gigsandtours.com
http://www.ticketmaster.co.uk

Sorry John!

TSmithPage · **Joined:** 20 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 3671

Anyone thought about strategy to grab a pair of these tix? Use or avoid Ticketmaster? Aim for one of the middle shows first?

alantig · 20 Sep 2006

I thought about midweek instead of weekend, and I'm not using ticketbastard. "Convenience" fees would probably be as much as a flight to London. Peanuts included.

alantig · 20 Sep 2006

A great philosopher once posed the question, "Are you a man or a mouse, Arthur Putie?"

When the time came, I was a mouse. I had a ticket for one of the shows - and a good one - but in the end, I kept thinking about what else I could spend about $2k on, and I couldn't convince myself to buy the ticket. Had I found a cheaper flight, it would have been easier to convince myself to go, or if I had been on the edge of a London trip anyway, but I wasn't. I'm going to hope that this residency model works for her and maybe she does one somewhere in the US in 2015. But for this, I just couldn't convince myself to pull the trigger.

Right now, I'm okay w/that decision.

I have a feeling I won't be in September.

JohnG · 03 Aug 2006

I came home late from a concert at 2AM and fell asleep.

TSmithPage · **Joined:** 20 Sep 2006 **Posts:** 3671

I got up at 5 and after several feverish desperate moments got my ticket to the 9/30 show, so it looks like I'm headed to London! I couldn't wrangle anyone to go with me so I'll be flying solo. I can't recall the last thing I was so exited about- probably was my last trip to London.

JohnG · 03 Aug 2006

That's great! I'd love to visit London but it's tough right now with all the family stuff. My wife would never let me fly solo. I'd get into a lot of trouble in swinging London.

Jimbo · 19 Jul 2006

Quote:

77,000 Kate Bush Tickets Sell Out in Minutes

By ALLAN KOZINN

Last week the reclusive singer-songwriter Kate Bush announced that she would play 15 shows in London between Aug. 26 and Sept. 19 – her first extended run of performances since her single tour of Britain in 1979, at the start of her career. Fascination with Ms. Bush, and the prospect of seeing her – the 1979 shows were lavishly staged and choreographed, and her music since then has retained its inventiveness and mystique – was sufficient to crash her website almost instantly. She quickly added another seven shows at the 3,500-seat Eventim Apollo, extending the run to Oct. 1.

Tickets, priced at £49 to £135 (about $81.50 to $225.50) – with hospitality packages that include premium seats and a picnic for £424.50 ($706) – went on sale on Friday at 9:30 a.m., London time, and within 15 minutes, the 77,000 seats for the 22 shows were sold out. A message was posted on Ms. Bush’s website fending off pleas: “We do not have any tickets in our possession at all and regret that we are unable to assist with requests for concessions in any circumstance,” it read.

A spokesman for Ticketmaster, one of a few sites authorized to sell the tickets, told the BBC that “at our peak, the Ticketmaster website had over 65,000 fans looking for tickets.” And despite efforts to thwart scalpers – buyers were limited to four tickets per order – within a few hours, eBay had several listings with offers of tickets at more than $2,000 apiece.

Even Ms. Bush appears to have been taken by surprise.

“I am completely overwhelmed and genuinely shocked by the incredibly positive response from everyone,” she said in a short message on her website.

Rick A · 23 Jul 2006

JohnG wrote:

That's great! I'd love to visit London but it's tough right now with all the family stuff. My wife would never let me fly solo. I'd get into a lot of trouble in swinging London.

That's so funny. I agree John, I may never come back. :oops:

Rick A.

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