Update: Kate writes on her official site:
Hi there,
I hope you all enjoyed the remix of Running Up That Hill this evening at the Olympics Closing Ceremony. They certainly put on a brilliant show.
Kate
Kate’s 2012 remix of Running Up That Hill with a brand new vocal was featured in a crucial section of the closing ceremony of the London Olympic Games, after the entry of athletes, and whilst a pyramid was built in the centre of the Olympic Stadium from blocks representing each of the Olympic events, and prior to the presentation of the medals for the Marathon.
“As the insanity begins again, here come some white clad geezers playing tribal drums, and then some actor-model-dancer sorts in white body stockings come on and position cubes on the stage. 303 of them. In honour of the 303 events of the Games, as Huw Edwards tells us. Alright, smarty pants. A superb remix of the mighty Kate Bush: ‘Running Up The Hill’ plays.” Daily Telegraph live blog
“It’s Indian drummers. Sorry, but Stomp beat you to it, guys. Now they’re playing Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill. Does this mean she’s not actually playing it live? Do we even need Kate Bush when we have people assembling 31 giant white cubes? More importantly – will she jump out of one of these boxes?” Guardian live blog.
“Even Kate Bush made an appearance, albeit only over the speakers, which played out a remix of Running Up That Hill as performers pushed white boxes into a pyramid on to which highlights of the Olympics were projected.” Daily Telegraph review of the event.
“Kate Bush’s Running Up That Hill makes the point that men and women cannot trade places. It was fitting at a Games where women have made up a greater percentage of the athletes than ever before, and been allowed to box. To gold medal-winning effect for Britain.” BBC review of the event.
See a clip of the closing ceremony HERE
The closing ceremony has been met with “mixed” reviews after the huge success of the opening. The entire spectacle was broadcast live on the BBC, but only segments were relayed on NBC in the US and it appears that NBC excised the segment featured Running Up That Hill. This certainly infuriated Big Boi and many US fans.
The 2012 Remix of Running Up That Hill is available on itunes.
See the official announcement of the track and Kate’s comments on the official site about that and the closing ceremony, also reported by the NME.
The Guardian has run a story about Acts which were invited but did not appear at the closing ceremony including this: “Kate Bush was among those Gavin and Arnold hoped would appear, and there were rumours in the industry that she had agreed to perform. However, Bush too is reluctant to appear in public. Organisers agreed to play a remix of Running Up That Hill, and the singer released a statement on her website on Monday praising a “brilliant show”.”
This has been rereported second, third and fourth hand on various music news sites, each inevitably putting its own twist and spin on the story.
J.
translation :
Kate did not actually appear
🙁
giulio
They played this wonderful song and so many people had the
chance to get to hear how talented this Artist is.
The choreography worked so well with the music and the dancers
moved beautifully. It was a magical moment. Less circus and more
artistic.
I bet Kate Bush feels very very proud now 🙂
André Gabeh Carvalho
Lovely and accurate words
Mark
Everyone should be dissapointed.
Mats
She should have performed, this was the opportunity.
John
My heart really did skip a few beats when I heard the RUTH synthesiser drone, but the song and the new vocal rocks and worked very well with the presentation. Typing this at 22.30, so maybe there will be a musical ‘get-together’ later….
Decimus
Loved it..it was great.
I don’t really blame her for not doing something live.
I think that any talk of Kate performing live for whatever reason should be buried for good now.
Craig James Brown
How wrong you were. Legendary come back shows 2014
jo
Gutted Kate wasn’t there especially as it had been reported everywhere she had been rehearsing but you know what, it was so great to a, see Kate featured in the ceremony and the visual they did was great and b, we’ve got a great new vocal out of it to enjoy (it’s been on repeat all day here lol) so alls well that ends well!!
Radio orange
Love the new version- shame it was a no show tho.
Matt
Well, as we all are I’m disappointed that she wasn’t there. But to be honest I’m
Not suprised. Come on, AS IF Kate would perform live in front of the world! I’m just grateful she was featured and we got a new vocal for RUTH 🙂
Rod
Outstanding contribution. It was a real touch of class. One or two elements saved the night, and Running up that Hill 2012 was one of them. The consensus on twitter was that the closing ceremony was a bit of a car crash, but Kate’s song went down really, really, well – the Channel4 team even tweeted that they’d like a CD of Kate’s song for the Paralympics. It also shut the commentators up for the entire time it was on, which was another blessing. Easily took the Gold Medal IMHO.
Tel
Brilliant performance – vocal great – Kate didn’t need to be there to make an indelible impression….
Mark
Hopefully the single will be released in America in the next week.
Mark
NBC cut Kate! Today has been a bad day for American Kate fans!
Mark
Boycott NBC!
Mark
A symphony of British music has been released on the American I-tunes and it includes RUTH 2012 but as an album only track. You have to purchase the whole 19.99 package to get the one song!
nonen
When was it on in the Us? Can’t believe I missed it.
Brandon
Seriously, WHAT A MESS. The whole closing ceremonies was just so….blah! They couldn’t decide what they wanted, tacky costumes, horrible performances, and a cheap looking stage. I’ve never seen so much of NOTHING happening at once. England should be embarrassed after that train wreck.
And the sad part is, I made my whole family sit through over an hour waiting for Kate to perform, and all we got was some people pushing white cubes around. The announcers even made it sound like Kate herself would be there! all that build up, then nothing. I see no point in any of it really, if she wasn’t going to perform, why did they play her song?
Keith DeWeese
Didn’t hear it at all. Sat all evening waiting, but I heard nothing. Trust me: I know this song very well, and from theUS side of the pond, it was either muffled by other crap music or it was pre-empted by commercials. Either way, it was a disappointment. Kate can’t really be that fat or crazy that she’d be drowned out by spectacle, or is she?
julian moran
I liked the segment with R.U.T.H. The evening was fun, entertaining , but a bit naff.
neil
opening ceremony was so good this was never going to live up to it.Collective concerts always turn into competitions and nowt really captured the mood of the opening for me apart from the welsh voice choir and Eric idle putting eveything in perspective .Low point was the models appearing….added absolutely nothing . Not many shots of olympians havng a good time. Did they?
arosegrowingold
Even the arch-waffler Trevor Nelson shut up for this one – song of the night. I never believed it could sound more powerful than the original, but her voice is so so strong now
Note to Placebo, Bo Bruce, et al: Only Kate can do Kate
Jari
The new vocal on RUTH is simply amazing, gorgeous!!!! Fits perfectly.
But I was greatly saddened by the angry and almost hateful comments on Kate’s facebook site for not appearing at the ceremony. I was over the moon just to hear it there and in 7th heaven with the new version and reading those comments was a real crash landing… My perfect day was almost ruined. Some people were even claiming Kate just released RUTH to “cash in”, and “get the money and run”. Oh, come on – when has Kate done anything “for the money”!! I was so surprised at some people’s anger and hate and wished I hadn’t read those comments at all… But listening to RUTH with headphones afterwards cured my bad mood again. THANKS KATE for the brilliant, amazing new RUTH!!!
Christopher Rye
I thought the new version sounded fantastic in context. Bear in mind, Kate never said she would appear. The ‘playing live’ rumours were a brilliant example of an internet meme; how something like the brief appearance of the remix on Amazon a few days ago somehow morphed into Kate headlining the Olympics – with zero information added from Kate or anyone else to make that leap. The fact is that Kate fans all, deep down, *wanted* her to appear, and the fact that the rumour caught the wider world’s imagination is testament to the fact that many people outside this forum feel the same way. But you can’t blame Kate for not appearing, given that was clearly never her intention in the first place.
• On a related topic, I think Del Palmer deserves an apology. Some people have been very unkind about him on the forum, basically because he was slagging off the cost of the Olympics (a fair point: even the BBC commentator of the highlights films they showed before the ceremony began yesterday said, of the Olympics, “Could we afford it? Probably not.”) The fact that DP had not spoken to Kate for two months was suggested as being evidence of some kind of misanthropy or bitterness towards her on his part. OK, so put yourself in his shoes: all the newspapers in the UK are suggesting that Kate is appearing live… something that Kate has neglected to tell him! In his shoes, I’d be a little miffed about that. Plus he and Kate have not been an item now for many years and, aside from their professional relationship, there’s no reason why she and he would be in regular contact. When was the last time you spoke to an ex you split up with many years ago – even if you are an speaking terms??
Decimus
I have to agree with your comments on Del. When I read what a few people wrote I was really jarred, and quite frankly embarrassed.
Barbara
Shouldn’t NBC have had Jane Krakowski (the stroppy diva in 30 Rock) do a cover version of RUTH for them?
Idiots!
giulio
If Kate someday decided to perform live, I presume she would carefully
choose the right place and the right time. Yesterday night everything was fine,
but it was a circus. What a shambles 😉
Kate Bush Music deserves attention . . .
Yesterday she would have found herself in the middle of a battlefield.
The tribute, I think, was beautiful.
And the new version is stellar 🙂
PS: the tv presenters talked too much, though . . .
Brandon
hmm, well said. I suppose you are right, better that she wasn’t a part of that “battlefield” of musicians all competing for attention. Just way too much happening.
Rod
NBC cut the brilliant opening ceremony to shreds, so it was on the cards they would cut the closing ceremony, I suppose, but they cut out one of the few redeeming features of the entire ghastly show. I hear Canada and most other sensible countries saw and heard the Kate Bush segment, but lord knows what the US made of the scraps of songs, and the terrible cobbled-together tribute bands that were left in. Gawker’s Rich Juzwiak has written a nice short piece and posted a video of the Kate Bush segment: http://gawker.com/5934102/heres-the-kate-bush-song-that-was-cut-from-the-us-broadcast-of-the-london-olympics-closing-ceremony
André Gabeh Carvalho
Here in BRAZIL we have her music . And aour tv guests said her name lot of times. BLESSED DAY HERE FOR A KB FAN
Rob Brown
Apart from RUTH2012,Elbow and the Spice Girl’s legs, i thought the rest of the ceremony was totally naff. Thank gawd i’ll be long gone before we have to go through all this again.
Edwardo
Well here in the UK for me RUTH was the highlight of the evening. RUTH is in my Public Dropbox if anyone missed it. The presenter Huw Edwards does jabber on a little at the beginning but mercifully soon shuts up.
It’s 212 MB
https://www.dropbox.com/s/91slvbyix6it9ij/Kate%20Bush_%20RUTH%20London%20Olympics%202012.mp4
Keith DeWeese
Thanks a lot, Edwardo. Great!
Rod
Thank you Edwardo. Is it okay to link some people to it?
Edwardo
Yes. It’s a Public folder so anyone can access it.
Rod
Oh great, I’ll link them up. I was worried it might be a bandwidth problem. If you’re a New Yorker Magazine fan you’ll be pleased to know you’re doing one of their contributor’s a big favour. He is livid at having been denied it:)
Damien Ruud
Thank you so much for a copy of the clip!
Nanette
I quite liked the way the projected pictures were synched up with the song–only the announcers on CTV nattered through most of it. It was the Olympics, and RUTH was a great tribute to the athletes. I even liked the show–it was live, with only one afternoon’s performance, it wasn’t going to be tight as a drum, like a Christmas special, or something.
Kate hasn’t performed live since she was on stage with David Gilmour, IIRC (contrary to what some people have said, going up and accepting an award is not performance. A lot of people–including actors–flub acceptance speeches when they don’t have a persona to hide behind). I wouldn’t expect her to be centre stage in a huge arena for a first time appearance.
People are so terribly negative. Just be glad you aren’t living in the US. RUTH was possibly cut in anticipation of religious protests–even though the protesters would be vastly outnumbered by the people who either appreciate the song or don’t care one way or the other.
Shattered Glass
It was just wishful thinking I know, but I waiting for Kate to leap out of the pyramid and perhaps do a full on Babooshka routine. Damn my hopes and dreams.
none
I am curious about specifics of when it actually aired. So I know how I missed it. As in, right before, right after something, etc.
Nanette
Huh. My apologies. NBC wasn’t trying to placate an apparent protest after all–it was just network stupidity
http://edition.cnn.com/2012/08/13/sport/olympics-nbc-fail/index.html
Richard
Like many people, I would have loved to have seen Kate and especially for her to have received the recognition that a performance would have brought. For a younger generation simply putting a face to a song could draw them into finding out more about the artist. However, what has always been important to her is writing and producing music. For many years she has not wished to have the focus on her own physical presence but rather the sound and imagery she creates through her art (recent visual pieces to accompany her work are also testimony to this.) What we got was a fantastic, updated version of a well loved song, enabling a creative piece to be performed around it. To me, this is entirely consistent with her approach to her work of late. None of us really knows if she was even asked to be present so I think it’s pointless to make assumptions or blame her in some way. Yes, I was somewhat disappointed for selfish reasons, but do I really need to see Kate perform after all these years when it’s the listening experience that is most important?
Nigel Morgan
I too was extremely disappointed but somehow not surprised. Obviously we don’t know the circumstances but i would not be surprised if the remix recording was Kate’s idea after having been approached to perform live.
One of the previous posts mentions that she does not need to perform in public as the recordings are the key thing. Well, I’m afraid that nothing beats the immediacy and energy of live performance. It is sad that Kate feels unable to do this. Apart from in the early days, when she has made rare live appearances she has looked quite uncomfortable so I can completely understand why she doesn’t wish to step out of her comfort zone. She is simply not made for live performance. As she matured, she could no longer rely on the dance and wacky theatricals to get her through.
That’s a real shame for us but I’m afraid we must accept it.
arosegrowingold
The Guardian is running the story that David Bowie, the Sex Pistols, The Rolling Stones and Kate all turned down invitations to perform: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/aug/13/david-bowie-olympics-closing-ceremony
If only Bowie could have been persuaded – I bet Kate would have been prepared to do a duet on Heroes with him!
It would have taken a much more respected man than Kim ‘musical theatre and Take That’ Gavin to have got both of them.
Danny Boyle – why didn’t you ask them????!!!
Barbara
That ‘Fashion’ sequence with the models was so NAFF! ‘Heroes’ would have been a better choice for the ceremony.
Gabriella
i liked it ,.. i thought the dancers wear wearing the costumes, sort like suspended in gaffa ,…??
i thought RUTH worked very well with building of the white blocks,.. however kind wished Kate in the end would pop out of the boxes on top wear long black sparkle cape like dress..
even without our Kate ,..she has that magic voice we all love !!!!
peace love Gabi:)****
Gail
I thought the presentation of RUTH was entirely appropriate, and one of the few redeeming moments of the ceremony. Where would she have stood, on top of the pyramid? That would just have been absurd.
She was generous enough to record a powerful new version of the song, and then step gracefully back and let the images speak for themselves because it was about the Olympians, not her. It was wise to keep a little distance from the carnival atmosphere anyway. Her first live performance in years would have been lost in the shuffle (and a rather silly shuffle at that).
I am curious as to how much input she had on the staging and choreography and the use of the dhols.
neil
has anyone seen Johnny Robinsons cover of RUTH?
Harry Horton
Ouch! Kate Bush’s R.U.T.H (and also the London olympic closing ceremony in full) was not broadcast in America. The olympics were the most watched TV event in American history. 219.4 million people watched the London sporting events according to Nielsen ratings. A recent superbowl with its international audience only garnered 100 million viewers. The following article on the internet: “London olympics: NBC coverage most- watched TV event in U.S. history.” THis article conveys more specifics on the event—from L.A. Times I think. I guess over 200 million American viewers did not get a chance to acquaint themselves with Kate Bush since NBC cut away to go to one of their other programs in place of the closing ceremonies. The staging was highly visually alluring to go along with the catchiness of the song, and this facet would have made it great to introduce Kate Bush to a giant wider U.S. audience.
Gail
Yeah, Harry. Can you believe it? I live in the U.S. and I was incredibly p*** ed off. I had to search all over the Web to find downloads of RUTH and also “Waterloo Sunset” and The Who (which some agency kept removing).
NBC is absolutely CLUELESS and insulted the intelligence of viewers by doing that and also cutting near the end to one of their own programs instead of letting us see the Who. I’m contemplating sending a letter of complaint (the kind you send via snail mail–they get more attention than emails).
And Nigel, you may be right…but I live in hope. She can be very surprising, no?
Harry Horton
The London closing ceremony cancellation by NBC was a sizeable promotional miss for Kate Bush’s music exposure to maybe over 200 million U.S. people that would probably not even given a thought to Kate Bush before. Today there are DVD players that record TV shows. Possibly, tens of millions of DVD recorded R.U.T.H. versions from the olympic closing ceremonies that would be played twenty of thirty times over the future six months in American households with multiple members, particularly teenagers, never actualized. For only about five minutes of Kate Bush out of hundreds of hours of olympic coverage, it was an advertising bargain sorely missed. Since literally millions of hours of Kate bush being played in US households in the upcoming year via this simple olympic sports venue
never will take place. A comparison made from the following web site: “the Beatles/Ed Sullivan show”. A quote: “The record setting 73 million people tuned in that evening making it one of the seminal moments in television history. Even that TV moment relating the Beatles US arrival in 1964 on the Ed Sullivan show would be dwarfed by the exposure Kate Bush would have collected with the above conditions from the Olympics closing ceremony if it were aired in the U.S.
Gail
You’re right. It was more than a slight…it was a disastrous oversight. And it can’t be undone. Nevertheless, I shall complain.
At least they’ve released the single in the U.S. now. I was d***ed if I was going to buy the Olympic compilation to get the new RUTH.
Harry Horton
The funny thing about the Olympic closing ceremonies, is when one of these 219 million viewers record the ceremonies he or she as the recorders is doing it primarily for the sporting events. Yet Kate Bush RUTH winds up on the recordings in an indirect way. On the other end of the issue, Kate Bush and the Record companies would not look at the olympic venue as a major promotional avenue but rather as a once in a lifetime quirk of fortunate opportunity to further advertise Kate. The result is Kate Bush’s RUTH would be on millions of recordings in American households, where more opportunity for the non sport fanatics of the household that is others such as , housewives, teens children and their friends would be acquainted with her music from the closing ceremony recordings by viewing the closing ceremonies. It would have been a weird short boon of fortunate circumstance for Kate Bush promotion along these lines. In anycase on the internet the following article illustrates the nature of the artists that were the beneficiaries of the olympic closing ceremony surge. That is how their rocketing up into the music charts this past week were dependent on their exposure as being participants as closing ceremony performers. The article: “Kate Bush Returns to the top ten Olympic surge continues….” CLASH – Robin Murray 20/08/2012-
Vera
I would like to see that highlights video they had on tha stadium with the song. I can’t find it anywhere.
Edwardo
@Vera
Hi Vera, please look further up the comments for my post and you will find the link to the video I posted in Dropbox.
Vera
Unfortunately this not what I am asking for. This is the video with the dancers mainly, and the video with highlights is only put there in some cuts, but is not complete. It is probably not possible to find the video ONLY with the highlights from the events.