In April 1979, just over a year after “Wuthering Heights” had made her a household name, Kate Bush embarked on her first concert tour. What followed was far removed from a conventional rock show. Combining live music with choreography, theatrical storytelling, costumes and visual effects, the Tour of Life transformed her songs into a succession of dramatic stage performances.
At just 20 years old, Bush had already established herself as one of Britain’s most distinctive new artists. Yet translating the imaginative worlds of her first two albums into a live production presented an entirely different challenge. The resulting show demanded months of preparation, a substantial creative team and an innovative approach to stage technology that allowed her to sing while performing complex dance routines.
The tour lasted approximately six weeks, taking Bush across Britain and continental Europe. It would become the only conventional concert tour of her career, acquiring an almost legendary reputation during the 35 years before her eventual return to the stage in 2014.
Behind that reputation lies a fascinating story of artistic ambition, painstaking preparation and unexpected tragedy. It is also the story of a young musician determined to redefine what her songs could become before a live audience.
The Making of the Tour of Life
Preparations for Bush’s first concert tour began in earnest towards the end of 1978, following a remarkable year in which she had released two successful albums, The Kick Inside and Lionheart. Rather than simply recreating their recordings on stage, Bush envisaged a production in which dance, mime and visual storytelling would be integral to the performances.
Early planning involved set designer David Jackson, while Bush took an active role in developing the costumes, choreography and overall presentation. Her previous training with dancer and mime artist Lindsay Kemp had introduced her to the expressive possibilities of physical performance, but translating those ideas into a touring production required an entirely different level of preparation.
Rehearsals and Choreography
Bush worked closely with choreographer Anthony Van Laast, who had previously appeared alongside her in the music video for “Hammer Horror”. Dancers Stewart Avon Arnold and Gary Hurst joined the production, helping to bring its increasingly complex routines to life.
Dance rehearsals took place at The Place in Euston, London, where the performers spent their mornings developing sequences for individual songs. Some demanded controlled gestures and carefully timed interactions; others required energetic movement, dramatic confrontations and rapid changes of character.
For Bush, the challenge was particularly demanding. The choreography needed to communicate each song’s narrative while allowing her to maintain her vocal performance. Singing and movement could not be treated as separate disciplines: they had to function together.
Afternoons were devoted to musical rehearsals at Wood Wharf Studios in Greenwich, where Bush joined the musicians responsible for translating her recordings into live arrangements.
The Musicians Behind the Production
Although the tour is frequently remembered for its visual spectacle, its success depended equally upon the musicians performing Bush’s material.
The touring band included bassist Del Palmer and guitarists Brian Bath and Alan Murphy, alongside Bush’s multi-instrumentalist brother Paddy Bush. Their work helped establish the musical foundation upon which the elaborate stage sequences could unfold.
The arrangements had to accommodate far more than conventional song introductions and endings. Instrumental passages, theatrical transitions and precisely timed choreography required close coordination between the band and the performers occupying the stage.
Bush was closely involved in developing these arrangements. The aim was not to reproduce every studio detail unchanged, but to create versions of the songs that could function within a continuous live production.
The contribution of the musicians was therefore essential. While the costumes and theatrical effects attracted much of the attention, the band provided the continuity that held the performance together.
Designing the Stage
David Jackson’s stage design was central to Bush’s vision.
A large, ribbed projection screen dominated the rear of the stage, its curved shape suggesting an egg or womb. A central ramp extended towards the audience, providing an additional performance space, while the musicians were positioned around the main theatrical action.
The production also incorporated a large, red-lined egg-shaped structure from which Bush could emerge during certain sequences. Slides, filmed projections, lighting effects and movable props allowed the stage to assume different identities throughout the evening.
These elements offered a practical solution to an ambitious artistic problem. Rather than constructing entirely separate sets for every song, the company could transform the atmosphere through changes in lighting, imagery and selected pieces of scenery.
The Wireless Microphone Breakthrough
One of the greatest technical challenges was finding a way for Bush to sing while dancing without holding a conventional microphone.
The solution involved adapting existing wireless microphone technology into a wearable headset. According to accounts of the tour’s preparations, an early prototype used a wire coat hanger to support a microphone close to Bush’s mouth, leaving her hands free.
Wireless microphones were not new in 1979, but using one in this way for an extended, physically demanding pop performance was unusual. The equipment also presented difficulties, including interference from external radio signals.
Nevertheless, the adapted headset gave Bush a freedom of movement that would have been impossible with a handheld microphone. She could dance, interact with other performers and participate in elaborate theatrical sequences while continuing to sing live.
The achievement was not the invention of wireless sound itself, but the imaginative application of that technology to a new style of concert performance.
Bringing the Production Together
By March 1979, the separate elements of the show were being assembled at Shepperton Studios, where musicians, dancers and technical crew could rehearse together.
The production subsequently moved to London’s Rainbow Theatre for full technical and dress rehearsals. Lighting cues, projections, scenery, costume changes and musical performances had to be coordinated with considerable precision.
Bush was preparing to perform for more than two hours each evening, with little opportunity to relax between the demanding sequences.
The preparations also demonstrated how much the project depended upon collaboration. Designers, technicians, musicians and dancers all contributed specialist skills, while Bush remained closely involved in shaping the overall experience.
By the beginning of April, the production was ready to face its greatest test: a live audience.
Inside the Show: Theatre, Dance and Spectacle
The Tour of Life unfolded as a series of theatrical scenes, with Bush assuming different characters and visual identities throughout the evening. Rather than relying upon extended conversations with the audience, the production used music, movement and carefully planned transitions to maintain its momentum.
The changing projections, costumes and lighting allowed individual songs to inhabit markedly different worlds. Some sequences were playful or surreal, while others drew upon historical imagery, gothic drama or intimate storytelling.
Songs Brought to Life
During “Egypt”, Bush appeared in a Cleopatra-inspired costume, surrounded by imagery evoking the ancient world. The staging incorporated a theatrical camel, bringing an unexpected touch of spectacle to a composition that had not yet appeared on one of her albums.
“Strange Phenomena” took a more playful approach. Bush appeared in a magician’s top hat and tails, accompanied by dancers dressed as spacemen. The sequence reflected the song’s fascination with mysterious events through exaggerated costumes and choreographed movement.
For “Hammer Horror”, Bush drew upon the imagery of the song’s music video, performing alongside a sinister masked dancer. Their confrontation used mime and physical expression to communicate a sense of theatrical menace.
“Violin” became an exuberantly surreal sequence, featuring dancers dressed as enormous violins. The exaggerated costumes and frantic movement transformed the performance into a piece of visual comedy.
These contrasting scenes demonstrated the range of Bush’s imagination. She was not attempting to impose a single visual style upon her songs; each performance developed its own atmosphere and dramatic language.
Magic, Mime and Poetry
The production extended beyond Bush’s own performances.
Magician Simon Drake appeared during the concerts, performing illusions that contributed to the theatrical atmosphere and helped bridge transitions between songs.
Bush’s brother, John Carder Bush, also contributed spoken poetry. His readings introduced moments of reflection amid the energetic performances, while allowing time for changes of costume and scenery.
These interludes served both artistic and practical purposes. They helped sustain the experience of a continuous production, even when Bush was temporarily absent from the stage.
From Intimacy to Dramatic Spectacle
Not every performance depended upon elaborate scenery.
“The Man with the Child in His Eyes” offered a quieter contrast, allowing Bush’s voice and presence to occupy the centre of attention. Such moments were important to the pacing of the concert, providing relief from its more elaborate sequences.
At the opposite extreme stood “James and the Cold Gun”, which developed into an extended Western-inspired confrontation. Bush adopted the role of a gunslinger, performing alongside dancers in a theatrical shoot-out. Red ribbons represented the consequences of gunfire, creating a vivid visual effect without relying upon realistic violence.
“Oh England My Lionheart” introduced a different atmosphere through wartime imagery. Bush appeared dressed as a Second World War pilot, wearing an aviation helmet and flying jacket.
The concert ultimately reached its conclusion with “Wuthering Heights”, returning to the breakthrough single that had introduced her to the wider public.
What emerges from these performances is an artist interested in the possibilities of character and narrative. The stage offered Bush a means of exploring her songs through physical expression, allowing audiences to encounter familiar compositions in unfamiliar forms.
The Concert Programme and Setlist
The Tour of Life drew primarily upon Bush’s first two albums, The Kick Inside and Lionheart, both released in 1978.
The programme also included two unreleased songs, “Egypt” and “Violin”, which would eventually appear on Never for Ever in September 1980. Their inclusion offered audiences an early glimpse of the direction Bush’s songwriting was taking.
The running order varied during the tour, particularly around the special benefit performance in May. The following representative programme is based on the documented Manchester Apollo concert of 11 April 1979, organised into three sections for readability.
Opening Section
Moving
The Saxophone Song
Room for the Life
Them Heavy People
The Man with the Child in His Eyes
Egypt
L’Amour Looks Something Like You
Violin
Middle Section
In the Warm Room
Fullhouse
Strange Phenomena
Hammer Horror
Kashka from Baghdad
Don’t Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake
Final Section
Wow
Coffee Homeground
In Search of Peter Pan
Symphony in Blue
Feel It
Kite
James and the Cold Gun
Oh England My Lionheart
Encore
Wuthering Heights
The programme also incorporated spoken poetry, recorded introductions and theatrical interludes that do not appear as individual songs in the list.
Some performances featured alterations to the running order, and the 12 May memorial benefit included a substantially modified programme with guest appearances. The setlist is therefore best understood as a record of a representative concert rather than an unchanging sequence performed at every venue.
The 1979 Tour: Dates, Venues and Tragedy
After months of preparation, the Tour of Life reached the stage in April 1979. Over the following weeks, Bush and her touring company travelled through Britain and continental Europe, performing in theatres and concert halls suited to the production’s detailed staging.
Yet the opening was overshadowed by an accident that would leave a lasting mark upon everyone involved.
The Opening Concerts and the Death of Bill Duffield
The tour began with a warm-up performance at Poole Arts Centre in Dorset on 2 April 1979. The concert provided an opportunity to present the production before a paying audience following the intensive rehearsal period.
Tragically, lighting engineer Bill Duffield suffered fatal injuries after falling at the venue following the performance.
Duffield had been closely involved in the technical work required to bring the show to the stage. His death was a devastating loss for a company whose members had spent months preparing together.
Despite the shock, the tour continued, with the first officially scheduled concert taking place at Liverpool Empire Theatre on 3 April.
The circumstances surrounding Duffield’s death would later become an important part of the tour’s history. However, they should not be treated as a complete explanation for Bush’s subsequent withdrawal from conventional touring.
Across Britain: April 1979
Following Liverpool, the production travelled through a series of major British theatres, including Birmingham Hippodrome, Oxford’s New Theatre, Southampton’s Gaumont Theatre and Bristol Hippodrome.
Further performances followed at Manchester Apollo, Sunderland Empire and Edinburgh’s Usher Hall before Bush arrived in London for five consecutive concerts at the Palladium between 16 and 20 April.
The choice of venues suited the character of the production. Rather than relying upon the scale of large arenas, the show was presented in established theatres where audiences could follow the choreography, costume details and changing visual scenes.
The schedule nevertheless presented considerable logistical challenges. Equipment, scenery and costumes had to be transported and reassembled between performances, while the company maintained the precise timing required by the production.
The European Concerts
Following the British dates, the tour moved to continental Europe, beginning with a performance at Stockholm’s Konserthuset on 24 April.
Concerts followed in Copenhagen, Hamburg and Amsterdam before the production continued through West Germany and France. Among the venues were Munich’s Circus Krone, Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Élysées and Frankfurt’s Jahrhunderthalle.
These performances introduced Bush’s theatrical approach to audiences beyond Britain at a time when her early recordings were attracting growing international attention.
The European schedule also exposed the demands of maintaining such an intensive production. Accounts of the tour describe problems with Bush’s throat and adjustments to some performances, illustrating the difficulty of combining sustained vocal work with physically demanding choreography.
The Bill Duffield Memorial Concert
The tour returned to London in May for its final performances at Hammersmith Odeon.
On 12 May, a special benefit concert was held in memory of Bill Duffield, raising money for his family. The evening featured appearances by Peter Gabriel and Steve Harley, both of whom had previously worked with Duffield.
Unlike a regular Tour of Life performance, the benefit incorporated material from the guest artists, including songs associated with Gabriel and Harley. The evening also featured a collaborative performance of the Beatles’ “Let It Be”.
Their participation reflected the relationships Duffield had developed within the music industry and the respect he had earned among fellow performers and technical crews.
For Bush and her colleagues, the concert provided an opportunity to honour someone whose work had been integral to the creation of the tour.
The Final Nights at Hammersmith
Following the benefit, Bush completed the remaining Hammersmith Odeon performances on 13 and 14 May 1979.
The final concerts brought an extraordinary six-week undertaking to a close. What had begun as an ambitious attempt to bring her recordings to the stage had become a demanding international production, shaped by artistic achievement, logistical challenges and personal loss.
For those involved, the experience demonstrated both the possibilities and the considerable demands of creating a concert that operated on the scale of a theatrical show.
Audience Reception and Contemporary Reviews
When Kate Bush’s Tour of Life opened in April 1979, expectations were considerable. Her breakthrough with “Wuthering Heights” had established her as one of Britain’s most distinctive new performers, while the success of The Kick Inside and Lionheart had brought her considerable attention. Yet despite her growing reputation, she remained relatively inexperienced as a concert performer.
The tour offered audiences their first opportunity to experience Bush’s music within a sustained live production. For critics, it presented an equally intriguing question: could the expressive movement, unusual characters and imaginative imagery of her television appearances be translated into a full-length stage show?
The response revealed both admiration for her ambition and uncertainty about how to judge a performance that departed so dramatically from established concert conventions.
Critical Reception: Ambition and Experimentation
Contemporary reviewers recognised the considerable preparation behind the Tour of Life. Its integration of choreography, stage design, lighting and live music represented an unusually elaborate undertaking for an artist embarking upon her first major tour.
Bush’s ability to sing while performing demanding dance routines attracted particular attention. The adapted wireless microphone allowed her to maintain an extraordinary degree of physical freedom, while the carefully rehearsed staging gave individual songs distinct theatrical identities.
However, the production also divided opinion. Some critics felt that the succession of costumes, dramatic scenes and visual effects occasionally overwhelmed the music. Others questioned whether the lengthy programme maintained a consistent sense of direction, particularly as its atmosphere shifted between comedy, fantasy, intimate performance and theatrical drama.
These reservations did not necessarily diminish recognition of Bush’s abilities. Rather, they reflected the difficulty of assessing a production that operated somewhere between a rock concert, a dance performance and a theatrical revue.
Challenging the Conventions of Live Music
The critical response also needs to be understood within the musical climate of the late 1970s.
Punk and post-punk had challenged many of the conventions of established rock music, encouraging a renewed emphasis on directness, spontaneity and stripped-down performance. Elaborate stage productions could consequently attract suspicion from critics who associated theatrical spectacle with the excesses of the preceding decade.
Bush’s approach was markedly different. Her concerts depended upon careful rehearsal, intricate choreography and precisely coordinated technical effects. Rather than presenting the songs as spontaneous performances, she treated them as the foundations for individual theatrical scenes.
Yet the Tour of Life was not simply a return to the extravagant rock spectacles of the early 1970s. Bush drew upon dance, mime, literature and dramatic storytelling, creating a performance shaped as much by her theatrical training as by the conventions of popular music.
This made the production difficult to categorise. Its originality was one of its greatest strengths, but it also challenged expectations about what audiences and critics should demand from a live concert.
The Audience Experience
For concertgoers, the scale and variety of the production offered a considerably different experience from Bush’s television appearances.
Although her music videos had already demonstrated her interest in choreography and characterisation, the Tour of Life expanded those ideas into an evening of changing settings, elaborate costumes and carefully staged dramatic sequences.
Audience recollections published in subsequent decades frequently emphasise the surprise of encountering such an ambitious production. Some remember the extraordinary precision of the performances, with the choreography and theatrical transitions unfolding almost identically from one concert to another.
That consistency reflected the months of preparation behind the show. Bush had approached the tour with the discipline of a theatrical production, ensuring that its complex elements could be reproduced across different venues.
Reactions were not universally enthusiastic. Some attendees found the elaborate presentation excessive, while others were captivated by the unusual combination of music and theatre. These differing perspectives provide a useful reminder that the tour’s later reputation was not necessarily shared by everyone who witnessed it in 1979.
Establishing Bush as a Live Performer
Whatever the reservations expressed by individual critics, the Tour of Life demonstrated that Bush’s artistic identity could extend beyond the recording studio.
At just 20 years old, she had undertaken a technically demanding production involving a substantial creative team, complex choreography and an unusually ambitious approach to visual presentation.
The concerts also revealed her willingness to take creative risks. Rather than adopting an established performance format, Bush attempted to develop one that reflected her own interests, even when those decisions challenged conventional expectations.
The tour did not establish a regular pattern of live performance. Instead, it became an exceptional event within a career increasingly devoted to recording and visual experimentation.
Nevertheless, its reception marked an important moment in Bush’s development. She had demonstrated that the imaginative worlds of her songs could exist beyond their recordings, not simply as music accompanied by theatrical effects, but as complete performances in their own right.
Why Kate Bush Never Toured Again
When the Tour of Life concluded in May 1979, few could have anticipated that Bush would not undertake another conventional concert tour.
Her lengthy absence subsequently generated numerous explanations, ranging from the physical demands of the production to the death of Bill Duffield and her reported dislike of flying.
Yet Bush’s own accounts suggest that the reality was less dramatic and more closely connected to the gradual evolution of her career.
The Physical and Emotional Demands
The Tour of Life had required months of intensive preparation, followed by six weeks of performances involving singing, dancing and frequent costume changes.
The demands were substantial, even for a young performer with extensive dance training. Former EMI executive Bob Mercer later recalled how exhausted Bush appeared after the concerts, suggesting that the effort involved in sustaining the production was considerable.
Duffield’s death had also cast a shadow over the tour’s opening. However, while the tragedy has frequently been linked to Bush’s decision not to tour again, she has never identified it as the sole reason for her subsequent absence.
The difficulties of touring undoubtedly formed part of the experience, but they do not fully explain the direction her career would take.
A Growing Commitment to the Recording Studio
A particularly revealing explanation came from Bush herself in a 2016 interview with The Independent.
She explained that her absence from touring had not originally been planned. After completing the Tour of Life, she intended to record approximately two more albums before developing another stage production.
However, the creation of The Dreaming in 1982 marked an important change in her working methods. Bush became increasingly involved in producing her own music, discovering new possibilities within the recording studio.
Each album was also followed by visual projects that demanded considerable time and attention. Music videos and short films offered opportunities to develop character, movement and narrative without the logistical requirements of touring.
Gradually, her priorities shifted away from live performance and towards recording and filmmaking.
This was not a definitive retirement from the stage. It was the consequence of other creative interests becoming increasingly absorbing.
Creative Independence and Personal Priorities
Bush’s growing commitment to studio work also reflected her desire to exercise greater control over her career.
Rather than following a conventional cycle of recording, promotion and touring, she increasingly worked according to the demands of individual projects.
Family life subsequently became another important consideration. Following the birth of her son in 1998, Bush adapted her working methods to accommodate the responsibilities of parenthood.
These developments help explain why another major tour never materialised. Her artistic ambitions had not diminished; they had found different outlets.
The Return: Before the Dawn in 2014
After 35 years without a full concert production, Bush returned to the stage in August 2014 with Before the Dawn, a residency at London’s Hammersmith Apollo.
The venue carried particular significance. Formerly known as Hammersmith Odeon, it had hosted the final performances of the Tour of Life in May 1979.
Rather than embarking upon another international tour, Bush presented 22 performances in a single location. This allowed her to develop an elaborate production without repeatedly transporting its scenery, equipment and performers between venues.
The new show also reflected the evolution of her theatrical interests.
Where the Tour of Life had presented individual songs through a succession of contrasting scenes, Before the Dawn devoted substantial portions of its programme to extended narrative works: The Ninth Wave from Hounds of Love and A Sky of Honey from Aerial.
These sequences incorporated projected film, puppetry, elaborate scenery and dramatic storytelling, drawing upon the creative experience Bush had accumulated over the intervening decades.
Her return therefore represented a continuation of the ideas first explored in 1979, realised through a different format and at a different stage of her life.
A Different Direction, Not a Rejection of the Stage
The long interval between the Tour of Life and Before the Dawn has encouraged the belief that Bush abandoned live performance because her first tour had been an overwhelmingly negative experience.
Her own recollections contradict that interpretation. She enjoyed the concerts and initially imagined returning to the stage, but her increasingly ambitious recording and visual projects gradually took precedence.
Seen in that context, Before the Dawn was not the reversal of a decision made in 1979. It was the eventual realisation of a creative possibility that had remained open throughout her career.
The Legacy of the Tour of Life
The Tour of Life occupies a singular position in Kate Bush’s career. It captures an artist at the beginning of her development, already demonstrating an unusually ambitious approach to performance, yet with much of her most celebrated work still to come.
Its lasting importance rests not only upon its rarity but also upon the recordings, footage and first-hand accounts that preserve the experience.
Preserving the Tour: Recordings and Film
In August 1979, EMI released On Stage, a four-track live EP featuring “Them Heavy People”, “Don’t Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake”, “James and the Cold Gun” and “L’Amour Looks Something Like You”.
The EP reached number ten on the UK Singles Chart, giving Bush another commercial success while preserving some of the arrangements developed for the concerts.
A more substantial record followed in 1981 with Live at Hammersmith Odeon, a concert film directed by Keith McMillan.
Filmed during the performance on 13 May 1979, it presented twelve songs from the larger programme, capturing the choreography, costumes and theatrical staging that had distinguished the tour.
Although the film documents only part of the concert, it remains one of the most valuable surviving records of Bush’s early live performances. In 1994, it was reissued in a box set accompanied by an audio CD.
The tour was also documented for television. The BBC’s Kate Bush: On Tour, broadcast in August 1979, offered a behind-the-scenes account of the rehearsals and preparations.
Together, these recordings provide an opportunity to examine the production beyond its later reputation, revealing both the performances themselves and the practical work required to create them.
An Influence Beyond the Concert Stage
The tour’s direct influence on other artists is difficult to measure. Theatrical concerts were already well established within rock and popular music, and Bush was not alone in exploring the possibilities of elaborate staging.
Her approach was nevertheless distinctive in the central role it gave to dance, mime and characterisation, particularly through the use of technology that allowed her to sing while moving freely.
Its clearest legacy can be traced through Bush’s subsequent work.
The cinematic ambition of “Cloudbusting”, the elaborate characterisation of her music videos and the musical filmmaking of The Line, the Cross & the Curve all demonstrate her continuing interest in presenting songs through visual narrative.
When she returned with Before the Dawn, that interest had developed into a production built around extended theatrical works.
The connection between the two shows is therefore artistic rather than merely historical. Both reveal Bush’s desire to create performances in which the visual presentation emerges from the music itself.
A Singular Chapter in Kate Bush’s Career
Bush was only 20 when the Tour of Life began, with two studio albums behind her and the experimental achievements of The Dreaming, Hounds of Love and her later recordings still ahead.
The concerts offer a remarkable glimpse of her artistic instincts at that early stage. Her fascination with character, theatrical narrative and unusual creative techniques was already evident, as was her determination to take an active role in shaping how her work was presented.
Yet the production was never simply the achievement of one performer. Its success depended upon the musicians, dancers, designers, technicians and other collaborators who helped turn Bush’s ideas into a functioning live show.
The Tour of Life remains extraordinary not simply because Bush never repeated it as a conventional tour, but because of what she accomplished on her first attempt.
In the spring of 1979, she brought an imaginative musical world onto the concert stage, creating a production whose ambition would remain recognisable throughout the decades that followed.
For an artist who would spend much of her career away from the concert stage, those six weeks remain an enduring record of what happened when Kate Bush brought her extraordinary musical world to life before an audience.
