Category: Other

Where: Studio 1, Northcote Town Hall, 189 High Street, Northcote, Mebourne, Australia  (Tram #86, Stop 31)

When: Saturday 22nd September at 8.30pm

What: As part of the Darebin Music Feast, Benn Bennett and friends will bring together a selection of their finest local musical and cabaret performers to reinterpret and pay tribute to the songs of British artist Kate Bush. A wonderful night full of Kate’s classics including Running Up that Hill, Babooshka, The Man with the Child in His Eyes, and the perennial favourite: Wuthering Heights. One night only! Featuring: Rebecca Barnard, Tina del Twist, Wes Snelling, Yana Alana, Benn Bennett and more!

Tickets for this event are sold through Northcote Town Hall. For bookings visit their website or call (03) 9481 9500.

The Darebin Music Feast began in 1996 and in recent years has evolved to become a high profile and well respected Victorian community music festival, while still retaining its grass roots music ethos. The festival is dedicated to song-writing and celebrating the diversity of one of Melbourne’s most thriving musical communities.

Melbourne Fringe is the leading organisation for the independent arts in Victoria.  It facilitates the presentation of contemporary work across all artforms. Its artistic program gives both emerging and established artists opportunities to gain diverse professional skills and present new work. The culmination of independent arts activity throughout the year, the Melbourne Fringe Festival presents the work of thousands of artists to a large and committed audience.

Another entrant in the current crop of talent shows reaches for the Kate Bush Songbook:

Whilst we’re on the subject of talent shows, New Zealander Laura passed her “blind audition” on Oz Nine Network’s ‘The Voice’ with a rendition of Wuthering Heights which went down very well.

“Close your eyes and open your ears, The Voice Australia is set to be the musical and social media phenomenon of 2012. On The Voice the four superstar musician coaches begin to select teams of twelve based solely on an artist’s voice. Seal, Joel Madden, Delta Goodrem and Keith Urban, are competing as coaches – each one hoping to discover, and nurture Australia’s next great voice. During the blind auditions, if a coach is impressed, they push a button to select the artist for their team of competitors, (they’ll need to select 12 acts in total). At this point, the coach’s chair will swivel so that they can face the artists they have selected. If more than one coach selects the artist, the power shifts to the artist who may choose which coach they want to work with throughout the competition. An artist is eliminated when they have not been chosen by one of our coaches who are superstar music talents themselves… ”

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AS35_sUUtg0[/youtube]

Laura is now part of coach Joel Madden’s team.

Somewhere the shade of Hughie Green must be very pleased that anyone should think Kate was the product of his ‘Opportunity Knocks’ …

Although she appeared to believe that the song was by Maxwell, and no-one on the judging panel corrected her, Essex girl Hope seriously impressed the panel with her rendition of Kate’s This Woman’s Work. 

Hope had started with Jessie J’s Mamma Knows Best, but Simon Cowell complained: “I’ve heard that song so many times, “I want to hear something different to whatever anyone else is singing.” so Hope turned to Kate and won a standing ovation from the audience, and pass marks from the panel into the next part of the competition.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kpeaYFmMCik[/youtube]

Later:  As a consequence of this it appears This Woman’s Work (both versions) has reappeared in the i-tunes Top 20.

Later Still: This from the Radio Times:

“Hope Murphy was from Upminster and was not ashamed to be an Essex girl. She was 16 but already had the flinty, aged look the county specialises in, with solid blonde hair and Barry M cladding. You could imagine her quite comfortably running a large pub/carvery. But her singing voice! Perfect clarity and hints of a freakish range achieved without effort.

She sang This Woman’s Work “by Maxwell” (it’s by Kate Bush!), a canny leftfield song choice arrived at after Simon, looking down at his producer’s notes to see the words “TELL HER TO CHANGE HER SONG”, told her to change her song. Shameless, but who cares any more?”

The New York Times remembers Theo Bleckman’s January live show, reviews his album of Kate covers, and interviews the man:

“I fell in love with her music in high school,” said Mr. Bleckmann, who said he listened to Ms. Bush’s recordings incessantly until his interests shifted toward jazz in his late teens. After hearing her 2005 record, “Aerial,” he revisited her old albums. “I thought, oh my God, this is still incredible: it’s actually better now,” he said. So Mr. Bleckmann decided to make a project out of it “because no one had ever treated her as a composer in that way,” he said. “There are a few cover versions out there, but that’s it. The songs are hard to do. Some are very rangy, and weird intervallic stuff is going on; there’s a lot of meter changes and uneven bars. There’s so much weirdness about it, which, of course, I love and is exactly the reason I wanted to do it …”

NPR previews and reviews Theo’s version of Love and Anger:

“Theo Bleckmann gives an enthralling reading of her classic “Love and Anger” … Bleckmann’s band loosens the rhythmic feel of “Love and Anger,” making it more suitable for jazz interpretation without sacrificing its surging momentum and bucolic sensibility. His limpid baritone soars amid the sumptuous rearrangement, as he conveys the song’s themes of unspeakable hurt, disappointment and the thorny process of forgiveness and liberation. Bleckmann articulates this jumble of mixed emotions with sonic and sentimental clarity … Grasping and then expressing the meaning of Bush’s words takes both a sharp mind and a soulful heart. Bleckmann brings both to the fore with idiosyncratic ingenuity.”

The Satelite reports: TO celebrate the 25th anniversary of the classic album The Hounds Of Love, a selection of Brisbane’s most unique cabaret performers will perform their favourite Kate Bush songs live on stage. With a DJ, film clips and rare footage, the Kate Bush tribute will be held this Sunday, November 7, at the StageDoor Dinner Theatre. It will start at 5pm and tickets cost $15 per person. There will be a fully licensed bar at the event with hot food available. For bookings phone 3216 1115.