Happy New Year and welcome to 2020!
I had hope to get further with this series before the decade ended, but the pressures of Christmas and some ill health over the festive break caused me to stall halfway through 2014.
I have decided to continue this project through to its conclusion as I have written and planned the remaining entries, and have some interesting music and personal experiences left to share. I may even continue it beyond 2020, maybe adding to it yearly as an ongoing record.
For now, I am pleased to share my Music and Memory blog for 2014 – this could only be one thing, Kate Bush’s wonderful return to live performance with ‘Before the Dawn’. I was lucky enough to secure tickets for the opening night of the 22 date run for my wife’s 30th birthday present, so we had the pleasure of seeing the show before anyone had any idea what to expect.
It remains the most theatrical and ambitious live show I have ever seen, and it was incredible to see it unfold in front of you in a small venue such as the Hammersmith Apollo. In 2016 it was released as a live album, which I listened to as I sketched out the story for this comic. It may lack the visual impact of the full show, but it is a wonderful reminder, and a testament to how well rehearsed and accomplished the band were in bringing the songs to life.
This was probably the last ‘care free’ year of our youth (if you can ever call it that), as the second half of the decade brought some life changing events, and all of the accompanying challenges. I will get to that soon, in the meantime please enjoy my recounting of an evening in August, in the middle of the last decade.
