Why did Kate Bush stop performing?
It is very rare for an artist to just disappear. More commonly, we see them hanging on, realistically, well beyond when they should. We watch their decline live on stage, hear their vocals begin to fault, and see them struggle until, eventually, they retire or sometimes even work until they sadly die. But not Kate Bush. No, Kate Bush burned bright and then vanished, came back, burned bright briefly again and then vanished again—but why?
The stage was set for Kate Bush when she first emerged in the mid-1970s. Long before her debut album came out—skyrocketing her to notoriety—she’d already more than cut her teeth as a live performer. It’s not that she always had an aversion to it like some do, being plagued by stage fright or feeling like their music can’t quite translate to a live setting. Bush didn’t have that problem having grown up playing pubs and clubs with her band, testing the tracks that would later find a place on her albums in front of unassuming crowds who really had no idea what they were witnessing.
More than that, Bush was a truly thrilling performer, even back then. With a voice like that, she was always bound to be; even the most uninterested audience member would likely spark up. Then, when she got her first label advance, it was clear that performance was crucial to her as she spent a good amount of it on dance classes with Lindsay Kemp, the man who helped David Bowie become Ziggy Stardust, helping to herald Bowie’s own era of thrilling live performances.
Sure, part of these lessons went into music videos, as dance and movement feel as essential to Bush’s legacy as her music does. While it was also clear that she had every intention of being a live performer, the reality was very different.
After the release of her first two albums, she did what all musicians generally do—went on a big tour. The Tour of Life, as it became known, started in April 1979 and lasted just over six weeks. By the end of it, she’d decided she didn’t want to tour again.
It was a huge production involving dancers, lighting, 17 costume changes per show, magic, burlesque, and all the glam. It even made history as she became the first artist to use a headset mic so she could dance. She’d put every corner and vision of her artistry up on that stage, but, in return, it completely exhausted her. Bob Mercer, who signed her to EMI said, “I could see at the end of the show that she was completely wiped out.”
But mostly, her enjoyment of performing was stolen by trauma. On April 2nd, 1979, the tour’s lighting engineer, Bill Duffield, was killed after falling from a stage off a seating structure. Obviously, this was a devastating and harrowing thing to experience on her first-ever tour. The loss stayed with her, and many believe that’s why she never toured again.
Why did Kate Bush stop making music?
While Bush’s touring ended in the 1970s, she kept putting music out for decades later. However, she was no stranger to a hiatus. After 1993’s The Red Shoes, she didn’t release anything until Aerial in 2005, taking time away to raise her young son. Again, there would be another gap as her next album didn’t come until 2011. Since then, nothing.
There are many theories and suggestions speculating why. Some simply say that she was just ready to stop, eager to be there for her family and enjoy a more peaceful, private life after such a long career. She was tired of the conveyor belt and simply no longer wanted to be on it or no longer wanted to force herself to create if she wasn’t feeling it.
The other suggestion is that she could no longer reach the register she once could, as evidenced in her compilation, The Whole Story, where some of her old tracks are redone. Perhaps as she heard her voice begin to weaken, she decided to quit while she was ahead. Maybe she wanted her legacy to be that and not her now older voice trying to make those songs work.
However, Bush did make a brief and acclaimed return to the stage and singing. In 2012, she did a 22-night residency at Hammersmith Apollo, celebrating her career with a huge theatrical production that was more of a stage show than any typical gig. But, once that run was over, she disappeared once more.
