Kate Bush returns to centre stage

Kate Bush made a sensational return to the concert stage on Tuesday night — 35 years after her last, and only, tour.

At 56, she was no longer able to hit the high notes of her teenage years and she cut back on the dancing, but she still had the trademark long dark hair, and she still knew how to put on a show.

Bush — whose late mother, Hannah Daly, came from Dungarvan, Co Waterford— was kicking off her Before The Dawn ‘tour’. This series of 22 shows takes place at the Hammersmith Apollo in west London, the venue where she retired from live performances, after six weeks on the road in 1979.

More than 80,000 tickets for her comeback gigs sold out in less than 15 minutes, after they were announced in March, and there was huge excitement among fans in the run-up to the first night, which had been described as ‘the musical event of the decade’. Tickets had been advertised for up to £1,000.

There was a massive roar from the crowd as Bush walked on stage, dressed in black and leading a procession of backing singers. She opened with ‘Lily’, then ‘Hounds Of Love’, as she appeared to be putting on a conventional gig, singing in front of her seven-strong band.

But after she had sung her hit, ‘Running Up That Hill’, from her 1985 Hounds Of Love album, a dancer came on stage, cannons fired smoke and confetti into the crowd, and she moved into a dramatised version of the ‘Ninth Wave’ suite of songs from the same album.

Actors dressed as fish, a helicopter with searchlights on the audience, and a domestic scene involving ‘toad in the hole’ followed in a typically Kate Bush spectacle. The second half continued in a similar vein, as Bush performed the ‘Sky Of Honey’ suite of songs from 2005 album, Aerial. The audience, reportedly including Madonna, David Bowie and Pink Floyd guitarist, David Gilmour, the man who spotted Bush’s talent as a teenager, loved every minute.

Bush still knows how to surprise and her encore consisted of a solo song at the grand piano, ‘Among Angels,’ from her 2011 album, 50 Words For Snow, followed by crowd-pleaser, ‘Cloudbusting’. So there was nothing from her early albums in this first gig — not even ‘Wuthering Heights’ but, presumably, they’ll feature in later concerts.

Bush had asked fans not to take photos or film during the shows — and, unusually, for a modern concert, they respected her wishes.

She had said: “We have purposefully chosen an intimate theatre setting rather than a large venue or stadium. It would mean a great deal to me if you would please refrain from taking photos or filming during the shows.

“I very much want to have contact with you as an audience, not with iPhones, iPads or cameras. I know it’s a lot to ask, but it would allow us to all share in the experience together.”

Bush, a doctor’s daughter from Kent, was just 20 when she completed The Tour Of Life, with three dates at what was then called the Hammersmith Odeon.

She had topped the charts with ‘Wuthering Heights’ the previous year, becoming the first woman to go to number one singing one of her own songs.

Several of her old records have again hit the charts as a result of the live shows.