Ahead of the release of her live album ‘Before the Dawn’, Kate Bush has revealed in a rare interview that she was terrified about performing live for the first time in 35 years, 2 years ago. Despite the fact that the 22 Hammersmith Apollo shows became a critical and commericial success, it wasn’t an easy feat to begin with.
Kate Bush says ‘Before The Dawn’ shows left her ‘terrified’
Taking to the stage for the first time since you started out in music cannot be one of the easiest experiences to go through, but Kate Bush sure pulled it together with her 3-part extravaganza ‘Before the Dawn’ in 2014. It’s just as well too, because a hell of a lot of work went into the whole thing.
‘I was terrified’, she confessed in an interview with BBC 6 Music. ‘The idea of putting a show together was something that I found really interesting and really exciting to be able to put a visual theatrical piece together. But to actually step into it was something that I had to really work hard on. Because I was terrified of doing live work as a performer again.’
More: Kate Bush to release live album ‘Before The Dawn’
As for what made her most scared about performing on stage, she reveals that a lot of it was down to worries that she would forget where she was. ‘I was really nervous every night as a performer, but had complete faith in everybody on the stage’, she continued. ;The most difficult thing for me was to be continually in the now because I naturally tend to race ahead in my mind.
‘But I was so terrified that if my mind wandered off that when I came back I wouldn’t remember where I was. So I had to really fix myself, so that I would remember where I was in the song.’
The full interview will air on 6 Music on November 20th 2016, ahead of the ‘Before the Dawn’ live album which will be released on November 25th.