The Tour of Life

**The Tour of Life** (or **Kate Bush Tour**) was the only concert tour by English singer Kate Bush. The tour was made for her first two albums, _The Kick Inside_ and _Lionheart_. It happened in April and May 1979. It was the first concert ever to use a wireless headset microphone. The device was invented by Gordon Paterson so Bush could dance on stage. The tour's lighting worker, Bill Duffield, died after the first concert because he fell from a stage and seating structure.

## Set list

1. "Moving"
1. "The Saxophone Song"
1. "Room for the Life"
1. "Them Heavy People"
1. "The Man with the Child in His Eyes"
1. "Egypt"
1. "L'Amour Looks Something Like You"
1. "Violin"
1. "The Kick Inside"
- Interlude: John Carder Bush poetry reading
1. <li value="10">"In the Warm Room"
1. "Fullhouse" <small>(not sang during the concerts at Hammersmith Odeon)</small>
1. "Strange Phenomena"
1. "Hammer Horror" <small>(not live)</small>
1. "Kashka From Baghdad"
- Interlude: Chanting
1. <li value="15">"Don't Push Your Foot on the Heartbrake"
1. "Wow"
1. "Coffee Homeground" <small>(with extended instrumental introduction)</small>
1. "In Search of Peter Pan"
- Interlude: John Carder Bush poetry reading
1. <li value="19">"Symphony in Blue" <small>(including "Gymnopédie 1" by Erik Satie)</small>
1. "Feel It" <small>(with instrumental introduction)</small>
1. "Kite"
1. <li value="22">"James and the Cold Gun"
- Encore 1
1. <li value="23">"Oh England My Lionheart"
- Encore 2
1. <li value="24">"Wuthering Heights"

## Credits

These are the people listed in the Kate Bush Tour programme sold at the concerts.

**Performers**

- Ben Barson – synthesizer, acoustic guitar
- Brian Bath – electric guitar, acoustic mandolin, background vocals
- Kate Bush – vocals, piano, keyboards
- Paddy Bush – mandolin, background vocals, various instruments
- Simon Drake – magician
- Glenys Groves – background vocals
- Preston Heyman – Drums/Percussion
- Kevin McAlea – piano, keyboards, saxophone, 12-string guitar
- Alan Murphy – electric guitar, whistles
- Del Palmer – bass guitar
- Liz Pearson – background vocals

**Production**

- Conception, producer, director – Kate Bush
- Production design, stage direction – Dave Jackson
- Stage management – Nick Levitt
- Stage crew – Cliff Carter, Martin Prior, Gerry Raymond Barker, Andrew Bryant
- Costuming – Lisa Hayes
- Costuming assistance – Hermione Brakspear
- Choreography – Anthony Van Laast

**Audiovisuals**

- Sound engineering – Gordon Patterson
- Projections – Ken Sutherland
- Lighting consulting – James Dann
- Spoken word and poetry – John Carder Bush
- Photography – Gered Mankowitz, Terry Walker, Hirchono

**Tour management**

- Promotion – Lindsay Brown
- Tour management – Richard Ames
- Programmes – Kate Bush, Nicholas Wade, Nick Price
- Tour graphics and merchandise – Paul Maxwell Ltd.
- Tour co-ordination – Hilary Walker, John Carder Bush

## Shows

|scope="col" style="width:12em;"|Date (1979)****|scope="col" style="width:10em;"|City|scope="col" style="width:10em;"|Country|scope="col" style="width:16em;"|Venue|
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|2 April|Poole|rowspan="10"||Poole Arts Centre||||
|3 April|Liverpool|Liverpool Empire Theatre||||||
|4 April|rowspan="2"|Birmingham|rowspan="2"|Birmingham Hippodrome||||
|5 April||||||||
|6 April|Oxford|New Theatre Oxford||||||
|7 April|Southampton|Gaumont Theatre||||||
|9 April|Bristol|Bristol Hippodrome||||||
|10 April|rowspan="2"|Manchester|rowspan="2"|Manchester Apollo||||
|11 April||||||||
|12 April|Sunderland|Sunderland Empire Theatre||||||
|13 April|Edinburgh||Usher Hall|||||
|16 April|rowspan="5"|London|rowspan="5"||rowspan="5"|Palladium||
|17 April||||||||
|18 April||||||||
|19 April||||||||
|20 April||||||||
|24 April|Stockholm||Stockholm Konserthuset|||||
|26 April|Copenhagen||Falkoner Theatre|||||
|28 April|Hamburg||Congress Center Hamburg|||||
|29 April|Amsterdam||Carré Theatre|||||
|2 May|Stuttgart|rowspan="3"||Kongresszentrum Liederhalle||||
|3 May|Munich|Circus Krone||||||
|4 May|Cologne|Köln Gürzenich||||||
|6 May|Paris||Théâtre des Champs-Élysées|||||
|8 May|Mannheim|rowspan="2"||Mannheimer Rosengarten||||
|10 May|Frankfurt|Jahrhunderthalle||||||
|12 May|rowspan="3"|London|rowspan="3"||rowspan="3"|Hammersmith Odeon||
|13 May||||||||
|14 May||||||||

## Infobox (concert)

- **concert tour name**: The Tour of Life
- **artist**: Kate Bush
- **location**: Europe
- **album**: _The Kick Inside_ and _Lionheart (Kate Bush album), Lionheart_
- **start date**: 2 April 1979 <small>(warm up concert)</small>
- **end date**: 13 May 1979
- **number of shows**: 28
- **this tour**: **The Tour of Life**
(1979)
- **next tour**: Before the Dawn (Kate Bush concert residency), Before the Dawn
(2014)