The Live CD

[PMANCHESTER@ccmail.sunysb.edu]

               State University of New York at Stony Brook
                       Stony Brook, NY 11794-3725

                                            Peter  Manchester
                                            Religious Studies
                                            632-7312
                                            24-Oct-1989 11:13pm EDT
FROM:  PMANCHESTER

SUBJECT: The Live CD                                                  

	Deb Wentorf and Michael Hui both mentioned the live CD 
that seems to be in some kind of gray-zone circulation, Deb not 
ready to spring for $30, Michael wondering what it is.  I went 
$22 for mine, and I guess I'm glad.  Report:

	The only music on it I didn't already have is an absolute 
must:  a live performance of "Breathing" from the 1988 Secret 
Policeman's Masked Ball, from which also comes the live take of 
"Running up that Hill" with Dave Gilmour that has surfaced 
elsewhere on bootleg vinyl, also included here.  "Breathing" is 
just Kate and her piano, and is simply stunning.  Playing if for 
friends a couple of months ago, the room broke out into 
spontaneous applause at the end--including one woman whom Kate 
usually leaves cold.  Speaking about "The Dreaming" in her 
Totally Wired interview in 1986, Kate said that two songs that 
had been especially affecting for her to sing were "Houdini" and 
"Breathing," and her involvement in the latter is very evident 
here.  Especially welcome is her use of her warm, strong, woman- 
voice--which I think has intimidated her a little until lately. 

	The '88 cut of "Hill," to me, is expendable.  It sounds 
to me like the stage monitors were off and Kate can't quite hear 
herself; her usually flawless pitch slips a little here and 
there.

	The bulk of the CD is the now amply familiar sound track 
from the "Live at Hammersmith Odeon" video--but with one 
continuing puzzlement that maybe someone can explain to me.  This 
is a STEREO version, a new dub of a stereo cut that I have seen 
in bootleg for four years already.  But the official THORN EMI US 
release video (TVD 1952) is, disappointingly, edge-track mono 
only.  This stereo audio tracks the video exactly, could in fact 
be lip-synched by someone with the right equipment (it drifts 
slowly on home gear, but can be goosed back into synch between 
songs without too much distraction if you get good with your 
remote control).  And it is substantially better sound--though 
still stage sound, not studio.  None of the other bootlegs from 
the tour that I have heard are in the same world with it for 
musical audibility.

	Were the UK or other releases of that show in hi-fi 
stereo?  Are there NTSC VHS stereo releases?

	Certainly the Hammersmith performance is a must-have for 
everybody.  But if you have it, you have it (unless like me you 
are fanatic to peel off all the veils).

	The final cut is "This Woman's Work," and we have that 
now anyway.

	So get this for "Breathing," for the Hammersmith show if 
your video sound isn't enough, for "Hill" if you're a 
documentarian.  

	Front cover:  four color pix, including a second take 
from the pose used for the US cover of "The Kick Inside" and 
three others most likely from those sessions.  Inside face:  the 
famous EMI publicity photo for that album.  Cropped, some (ref. 
Vermorel p. 62).

	Cover Title:  Kate Bush Live.  Title on disk:  Kathy Live 
from Wuthering Heights (Neutral Zone [Korea] NZCD89010), AAD.

	Back photo, the still used for the "Hammersmith" video 
and the KTBand logo.  Correspondence address

		Neutral Zone Digital Recordings
		140 Rue de Rennes
		75006 Paris France

	Shouldn't be 30 bucks.    pmanchester@ccmail.sunysb.edu