Set one: Wow, Moving, L’ Amour Looks Something Like You, Sunset, The Man With The Child In His Eyes, Army Dreamers, Breathing, Don’t Give Up, Hammer Horror, James And The Cold Gun.
Set two: Rubberband Girl, Them Heavy People, The Sensual World, Lily, Sat In Your Lap, Hounds Of Love, Babooshka, This Woman’s Work, Wuthering Heights.
Encore: Running Up That Hill, Cloudbusting
The Lancaster Grand is a stunning old theatre (third oldest in the country) and a great setting for Cloudbusting who were appearing there for the first time. The band are steadily building a bigger and bigger reputation as a must-see act for Kate Bush fans. Because Kate’s live work has been minimal given the length of her career there is plenty of scope for them to play (and us to hear) songs which she has never performed live. That being said the setlist is heavy on tracks released as singles. This proved to be a wise decision because the show- of-hands vocalist Mandy Watson asked for as to who had not see the band before was a lot. They are still picking up new fans and this set will have been what they wanted, and they are all great songs.
It’s Mandy of course who is the focal point and it is staggering how good she is. She’s not a Kate clone but her voice and personality is the right match. Everything is respectfully and excellently performed. Then there’s the band, who are immense. Their performances nail every one of the songs, and that includes all the sound effects too. Bass player Dave Roberts told me they had spent ages building all the effects from scratch including hours of listening to and picking the right whale songs for Moving.
Dave also got two vocal cameos – harmony vocals on Army Dreamers and more notably he performed Peter Gabriel’s lead vocal on Don’t Give Up – and did it extremely well. He’s an excellent bass player too and I particularly enjoyed his fretless bass on Sunset which was a real highlight of the set. The rest of the band were equally strong and most notable would be guitarist Chris Voysey though I felt he could have done with being mixed higher.
As you will see the set was split into two. With no support it made for a nice immersive evening with a welcome intermission – very civilised. Each set worked well in its own right. A peak of the first half, apart from Sunset, was Breathing which Kate I think only performed once live for Comic Relief. It was a compelling performance which I won’t forget. The second half opened with Rubberband Girl which is the only song I would have dropped. They did it credit but it isn’t one of Kate’s best. Otherwise it was all fine and big plaudits for the storming Sat In Your Lap which I think many wouldn’t have expected.
The encore was a euphoric celebration in its own right. Dave and Chris stage-front alone riffing the intro to Running Up That Hill was a great sight. And then Mandy back to hammer home what has become a bigger song than ever thanks to Stranger Things. I guess they always finish with Cloudbusting and it was a big audience participation ending. Just the perfect goodbye and lots of happy memories for the audience of a truly superb set and performance.
I am back to see them in 2027 for the Classical Kate run of shows with an orchestra. That will be an interesting show for sure. I can see them keeping going for years and they are a hard working touring band. Maybe some whole album sets for anniversaries ahead, that would be nice.