Well, fuck. How do we go about explaining to you non-Bushites what you've missed? This was a Duckie event par-excellence.
We got there not long after 8 and, having expected it to be quiet so early, we were surprised to see a sizeable crowd milling around up front. A few impressively Bushed drag queens but mostly Kate-casual (we were wearing kilts and t-shirts; I was Babooshka, Xoc was the Man With The Child In His Eyes). A sextet of 'Sat In Your Lap'-inspired individuals had constructed tall conical white 'D' dunce-hats (which looked worrying Ku Klux Klan).
Met a work colleague whose boyfriend had wandered off to the 'dress as Kate' stand and got togged up in chainmail bikini, wig and sword. We all managed to resist the Bush Beauty Parlour, which administered blue eye make-up and pubic clippings.
Topiary of a more classical variety was on hand in the main auditorium: Oscar, an appealingly Scudderesque (uphill) gardener/topiarist spent the evening shearing/shaping a conifer bush into Kate (clunky concept, but it worked).
Amy Lame, resplendent in red-ribboned shoes, crimped hair, leotard and mini-cape, introduced a bevy of superlative Kate-related performance acts. Nathan Evans (billed as The Kate Bush Experience - La Bush as puppetry); Fake Bush twice (chillingly note-perfect impersonator, doing 'Breathing' and 'Wuthering Heights'), Kiki and Herb (doing all manner of stuff incredibly well) and Wee Lee (suspended in gaffa, with a hairy-face mask). And that's without the wonderful Kate Quiz, the Poetry Wall (we stole the words 'Wow' and 'bending') and the dress-as-Kate-and-be-filmed podium.
We had our photos taken twice, and were complimented many times on our kiltiness and Katessence. I had a long chat with the Duckie doormen, and have pretty much promised I'll be there tomorrow night. Which is no hardship at alllll.
Last three songs of the night: 'Wow', 'Wuthering Heights', 'Hammer Horror'. It was sublime. |
