more on Hammersmith Show

[wiltel!dlocke@uunet.UU.NET]

I watched most of my videotape of Kate's Hammersmith show last night to
try to pay attention to whether Kate was singing or synching.  (Indeed,
I watched it with my 2 year old daughter who may be the world's youngest
KaTe fan at this time.  She dutifully clapped when the songs were done,
sat transfixed during them, and says "Kate Bush" quite clearly.  You
may need to have a child of your own to appreciate how cool that is!)  To
be perfectly clear, I'm watching a tape of a USA network "Night Flight"
program from the mid 80's that featured the Hammersmith show.

I noticed that on a number of songs there are clearly backing vocals
that are not being sung live.  These could have been added in the studio
after the fact, or they could have been played from a tape at the show.
I think the latter is more likely.  Some of the backing vocals are
quite definitely Kate's, too.

Kate uses two different kind of microphones, the fixed-to-her-head
kind and the big yellow hand-held kind.  There are times when she's
jumping around that the fixed mic is bouncing wildly while she's
singing.  I would expect some sort of Doppler effect to be audible
here, and there isn't.  Of course, this could have been cleaned up
in the studio.  [You must keep in mind that unless you're listening
to an audience tape of the show you don't know what it really sounded
like live.]

So, I really don't know what to think.  My current theory is that
the fixed-to-the-head stuff is probably taped (it could be taped
vocals that are different than what's on the albums), while the
hand-held stuff is probably live.  It is extremely difficult to
judge anything since the recording was almost certainly messed-with
significantly in the studio, and also since I'm listening to a
mono videotape recorded from the tube -- not exactly hi-fi.

I need to watch the SNL appearance again before I comment further
on it.

Oh, and one more thing that strikes me as odd:  I don't recall Kate
every saying anything to the audience, which would be clear evidence
that her mic was on!

-Dick