The story of Kate Bush’s one and only tour back in 1979
When Kate Bush called her live show The Tour of Life, she really wasn’t wrong. It was an all or nothing affair, and indeed, a once in a lifetime event.
The concept of Bush performing live – let alone actually being out in the public eye for any given length of time – probably seems an abstract concept to the hoards of younger people that have become entranced by her witchy ways in the most recent decades. Let’s state the obvious here: a major part of that is because she is notably enigmatic.
Bush actually standing before your very eyes and singing is something that many can only dream about, and few can say they have witnessed. Yet when The Tour of Life kicked off in 1979, at a time when she only had two albums under her belt, its impact nevertheless changed this artist’s trajectory forever.
Of course, it probably goes without saying that these were no ordinary shows with a singer, a microphone, and very little else. In Bush’s typical fashion, the tour was an artistic reckoning to seemingly boundless limits, incorporating everything from song to dance, mime, magic, and costume changes in the process. It was a circus, and she was the ring master.
Her time on the road only lasted six weeks altogether, but that seemed to be more than enough time to change and solidify something concrete in Bush’s horizons. The fans may have loved the image of her, but she was not prepared to exploit that in the name of live performance. The Tour of Life became her one and only string of shows, despite everything that came next.
Even being a powerhouse of the 1980s could not sway the singer back to the stage for any great stint; she had sporadic performances throughout the decade, but nothing that constituted a tour. In some ways, it made her even more electric and desired – the fact that she was a true artist who would not be seen on stage. But eventually, something had to give.
Despite finding The Tour of Life exhilarating, exhausting, and everything in between, Bush knew deep in her heart that there was going to have to come a time in which the people’s yearning was too much, and she had to return to the stage. That was what gave rise to her 22 Before The Dawn shows in London in 2014, knowing in spite of how much she may have loathed the idea, that the fans needed to see her in the flesh.
Technically speaking, however, The Tour of Life remains to this day her one and only tour, as the Before the Dawn residency never left the Hammersmith Apollo. For those who managed to get their hands on one of those gold dust tickets, it was a memory that will never leave their psyche. For all the rest, it’s the object of envy.
The fact that Bush chooses to be so elusive is naturally a disappointment, but it is also integral to the kind of ethereal bubble she is encased in as an artist. If she was out making every appearance known to man, would she be half as popular or beguiling? Probably not. In that sense, despite the frustration of her only ever doing one tour, it simply proves her point.
