Post Description

KATE BUSH - TV SPECIAL 1979 - Superkwaliteit (pre broadcast master Copy!!)



This is basically the holy grail for Kate Bush fans. For years I've had ropey old copies of this, timecoded or fuzzy oojimaflip-generation VHS's. The provenance of this cannot be any better, from the pre broadcast master through to pristine remastered audio and picture in full DVD quality, this for me has been the find of the year. Hope you think so too.


Kate Bush - with special guest Peter Gabriel
BBC TV Christmas Special broadcast on 28th December 1979
Recorded in October 1979 at the BBC Studios in Birmingham, England

Director: Roy Norton
Dancers: Gary Hurst, Stewart Avon-Arnold
Choreographer: Anthony van Laast

Tracks:
01. Violin
02. Symphony In Blue
03. Them Heavy People
04. Here Comes The Flood*
05. Ran Tan Waltz
06. December Will Be Magic Again
07. The Wedding List
08. Another Day*
09. Egypt
10. The Man With The Child In His Eyes
11. Don't Push Your Foot On The Heartbrake

* with Peter Gabriel

Pre-broadcast master D3 tape > DV tape > iMac (via Sony DV cam) > DVD

Credits:

Source: ? (wished to remain anonymous)
DVD authoring: Willem Beens
Audio restoration, mastering and cover design: TM Productions

Notes on the audio remastering by Tom Morgenstern:
First of all, I had to realise that the video soundtrack was actually a mono recording, so I dropped one channel for the further processing. Then I treated it with the Cedar Cambridge suite (mainly NR4 noise reduction and de-buzzing - there was a slight hum audible at low volumes). Then I borrowed the first three Kate Bush Studio CDs and compared it to the video soundtrack. I found out that the recordings were sometimes almost identical, obviously remixes, some other were completely re-recorded or had new vocal parts at least. For instance I wondered why there were no violins to hear during "Violin" - the studio version had it, why not the BBC version which was otherwise a remix of the CD version? - I couldn't imagine a reason until I saw the video... so I used the CDs only as the sound reference for the EQing stage.

There were many small bumps and microphone pops here and there, mainly on the re-recorded vocal tracks. Obviously the Beeb engineers didn't care about it - I found it too annoying, so I removed it. At the last stage I added a sort of fake stereo effect, I had to use it carefully not to change the sound balance.

Tom.