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Kate Bush at the Hammersmith Apollo


rodney72a
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[quote name='flyfisher' timestamp='1409609688' post='2541589']...the best price we could get was less than the original ticket price.
[/quote]

That's always the way when one is selling..! It's buying that takes the price through the roof..! :lol:[size=4] [/size]

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Well, I have to say that I was blown away by the gig last night.

OK, so there was a bit of a delay (err did I say bit? - it was 40 mins delay) just at the start of the first major set piece down to "technical problems".

However, once this was resolved the full show went ahead.

Just stunning.

I don't care about what was left out; what was included was choreographed into the most technically challenging show I have ever seen. And when I say show, I mean that it was more like a west end production than a normal gig.

Oh, and I have to say that the band were as tight as anything, but not over rehearsed.


Cannot wait for the CD/DVD (they are going to be recording 3 nights of the residency - that's my crimbo pressie to myself sorted!!)

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[quote name='wmsheep' timestamp='1409845959' post='2543908']...
Cannot wait for the CD/DVD (they are going to be recording 3 nights of the residency - that's my crimbo pressie to myself sorted!!)
[/quote]

I must admit to being intrigued enough by the tiny glimpses to consider buying a DVD of this show. No, I'm not an 'unconditional' (the 'hits' are all I know...), but it could be something to blow the cobwebs away.

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I saw the show on Friday night, flew in from abroad. Giblin was playing playing fretless electric/acoustic, an upright, and what looked to me (I'm half blind) like a MM 5 string at times. I found the band quite unimpressive for the best part...at times, things lost all momentum, why exactly it was was hard to tell, but it seemed as if they couldn't quite grasp some of the tunes. The drummer, while very good, was a bit bombastic, I didn't find that Giblin particularly gelled with him. During the show I had no idea who she had on bass and assumed this was an old band member who had to dust it off after some years - was surprised to learn of his calibre afterwards. All that said - thought the proggy upright playing over her vampy tunes was great.

Edited by schmig
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I've managed to steer clear of this thread, and indeed all reviews and setlists, ahead of seeing the gig last night. Time to join in!

It was an amazing gig! Although "gig" is underselling it, maybe "multimedia musical theatre operatic dance spectacle" might work as well. The opening six songs were overwhelming and various gig pals including me reported welling up at various places - for me Lily and Top Of The City, another's was Hounds Of Love.

The two concept pieces/song cycles/whatever The Ninth Wave and Aerial were incredibly ambitious, very high production value and a lot to take in, and I felt they both were too long - some editing could have seen another 3 songs creep in maybe. Bertie's bit was rather cringe. I didn't miss "the old stuff", I'm not so keen on that material anyway apart from the obvious hits. It would've been nice to hear something off The Sensual World.

John Giblin was brilliant, as were all the musicians. Tough to call all his gear as sometimes the band were in the shadows a bit (and 15 rows back my eyesight's not what it was). On top of at least two electrics there was an electric upright - Ampeg Baby Bass shape, but might not have been that, plus a gorgeous hollow-body fretless that looked a lot like an Ibanez Artcore. Happy to be corrected on either of these though.

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My take on her not doing the old hits is that she probably can't sing Wuthering heights anymore and also some
of that stuff is so old that she probably doesn't feel like she's the same person now as the girl who recorded it.
Plus, the complexity of repoducing some of her old stuff recorded using a Fairlight probably made it a non-starter,

I too await a DVD.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Well,went to last night's gig. If I'm honest, I had actually decided not to enjoy this due to the 1 hour 30 minute delay in starting due to technical problems with a "power supply"

I know these things happen but according to reviews, this is the third time so someone needs a kick up the backside. In fairness, they offered a ticket refund which only a few did take up and had I been on my own, would have too.

Musically, very interesting and strangely magnetic to someone who is not a die-hard fan.
I felt, visually, it was a little "theatre for theatre's sake" in places.

Re the band performance, front of house mix was terrible for the first 30 mins but can only assume that it was good in the monitors. They were superbly tight but I felt that the bass was really unbalanced in the mix. The eq didn't work out front. Huge B and E strings but anything above the 5th fret on the A,D and G strings was non existent. At times it felt like the bass and drums were on different stages and badly mixed afterwards. Very tight but somehow disjointed.

Pros, aurally and visually exciting gig from a truely original artist and probably the last opportunity to see her
Cons, it's a very middle class gig and therefore attracts those who want to cheer and whoop at every twitch of Kate's little finger and personally, I thought at least she'd want to finish with Mustang Sally for the encore but sadly, no.

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  • 1 month later...

I was at two of the Kate Bush shows. John Giblin had two new Lakland 55-AJ basses, one fretted with maple fingerboard and the other fretless (with ebony or rosewood fingerboard). The second night I saw him there might have been a third 55-AJ in his rack, I couldn't quite see. He had a five string Ampeg Baby Bass mounted in a stand so that he could just walk up to it and play without holding it up and he also used a Takamine TB10, wearing it with a guitar strap instead of using its endpin to stand upright. His effects rack had a number of Avalon preamps.

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[quote name='bcaldwell' timestamp='1414515593' post='2590125']
he also used a Takamine TB10, wearing it with a guitar strap instead of using its endpin to stand upright.
[/quote]

Thanks! This is the one I've been trying to identify since several hundred posts ago. No amount of googling "john giblin" "kate bush" "acoustic bass" etc helped. Oh look, the Takamine website is listing Wunjo as a stockist.....

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  • 3 weeks later...

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