Love-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (10/25/89)
Really-From: PMANCHESTER@ccmail.sunysb.edu
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY 11794-3725
Peter Manchester
Religious Studies
632-7312
24-Oct-1989 11:13pm EDT
FROM: PMANCHESTER
TO: Love-Hounds Central ( _IN%love-hounds@gaffa.mit.edu )
SUBJECT: The Live CD
Deb Wentorf and Michael Hui both mentioned the live CD
that seems to be in some kind of gray-zone circulation, Deb not
ready to spring for $30, Michael wondering what it is. I went
$22 for mine, and I guess I'm glad. Report:
The only music on it I didn't already have is an absolute
must: a live performance of "Breathing" from the 1988 Secret
Policeman's Masked Ball, from which also comes the live take of
"Running up that Hill" with Dave Gilmour that has surfaced
elsewhere on bootleg vinyl, also included here. "Breathing" is
just Kate and her piano, and is simply stunning. Playing if for
friends a couple of months ago, the room broke out into
spontaneous applause at the end--including one woman whom Kate
usually leaves cold. Speaking about "The Dreaming" in her
Totally Wired interview in 1986, Kate said that two songs that
had been especially affecting for her to sing were "Houdini" and
"Breathing," and her involvement in the latter is very evident
here. Especially welcome is her use of her warm, strong, woman-
voice--which I think has intimidated her a little until lately.
The '88 cut of "Hill," to me, is expendable. It sounds
to me like the stage monitors were off and Kate can't quite hear
herself; her usually flawless pitch slips a little here and
there.
The bulk of the CD is the now amply familiar sound track
from the "Live at Hammersmith Odeon" video--but with one
continuing puzzlement that maybe someone can explain to me. This
is a STEREO version, a new dub of a stereo cut that I have seen
in bootleg for four years already. But the official THORN EMI US
release video (TVD 1952) is, disappointingly, edge-track mono
only. This stereo audio tracks the video exactly, could in fact
be lip-synched by someone with the right equipment (it drifts
slowly on home gear, but can be goosed back into synch between
songs without too much distraction if you get good with your
remote control). And it is substantially better sound--though
still stage sound, not studio. None of the other bootlegs from
the tour that I have heard are in the same world with it for
musical audibility.
Were the UK or other releases of that show in hi-fi
stereo? Are there NTSC VHS stereo releases?
Certainly the Hammersmith performance is a must-have for
everybody. But if you have it, you have it (unless like me you
are fanatic to peel off all the veils).
The final cut is "This Woman's Work," and we have that
now anyway.
So get this for "Breathing," for the Hammersmith show if
your video sound isn't enough, for "Hill" if you're a
documentarian.
Front cover: four color pix, including a second take
from the pose used for the US cover of "The Kick Inside" and
three others most likely from those sessions. Inside face: the
famous EMI publicity photo for that album. Cropped, some (ref.
Vermorel p. 62).
Cover Title: Kate Bush Live. Title on disk: Kathy Live
from Wuthering Heights (Neutral Zone [Korea] NZCD89010), AAD.
Back photo, the still used for the "Hammersmith" video
and the KTBand logo. Correspondence address
Neutral Zone Digital Recordings
140 Rue de Rennes
75006 Paris France
Shouldn't be 30 bucks. pmanchester@ccmail.sunysb.eduLove-Hounds-request@GAFFA.MIT.EDU (10/26/89)
Really-From: cwebster@rodan.acs.syr.edu (Chris Webster) This isn't about rec.music.gaffa... Seeing that you're from a SUNY campus, you wouldn't have any idea what the Email address for SUNY/Utica-Marcy is would you? (I thought not... :-)