Before the Dawn: a theatre run and a filmed sea

Explore the places

Markers identify buildings or documented location references. They do not mark an exact recording room, stage position or camera angle.

1. Hammersmith Apollo — Map source
2. Pinewood Studios — Position not yet established

1 place remains listed without a pin.

Returning to Hammersmith

Bush’s original announcement named the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith and invited listeners to a new run of shows. Its published schedule begins on 26 August 2014 and ends on 1 October. Those dates make the project a residency in one venue. The theatre supplied a continuing physical base for the production, with audiences arriving on successive evenings to encounter the same musical world. The announcement is a historical record, not a current ticket offer. [2]

A production that expanded

The later album announcement describes the original plan for fifteen shows growing to twenty-two. The extra dates enlarged the run without creating another venue. That distinction matters in a location-led account: the project’s scale came from repeated performances and a larger audience over time, rather than a map of different cities. Hammersmith remains the single documented theatre setting. [1] [2]

The theatre becomes a record

The 2016 announcement identifies the live album as recorded during the Hammersmith shows, with Bush as producer. It describes The Ninth Wave and A Sky of Honey as the conceptual centre of the production. The record therefore preserves the work of a stage run while giving it another listening format. The 2014 performance dates and the November 2016 release are different events, even though the later record carries the production’s title. [1]

A sea made at Pinewood

The artist’s single announcement identifies Pinewood Studios as the place where Bush performed the lead vocal live while filming in a water tank. The character in And Dream of Sheep is lost at sea; the performer was working in a studio. The distinction makes the image more revealing: a constructed production environment could support a convincing imagined landscape and a real vocal performance at the same time. No coastal location is inferred from the scene. [3]

A studio performance above the live stage

Bush’s separate account of the film explains how the Pinewood work entered the theatre: the completed film was projected onto a large oval screen suspended above the stage during the live show. The production therefore brought two performance settings together in one audience experience. A vocal performed during filming could appear within a live theatre event without having been sung on that stage. The film’s public release in November 2016 gave that production element a further life beyond the residency. [4]

The story in real places

Reading the place today

Hammersmith remains a performance-venue reference; consult its current operator for events and access. Pinewood is a working production facility, and the source establishes neither a publicly accessible tank nor a current visitor route to the filming position. No production photograph or album artwork has been cleared for this edition.

Sources

1. Before the Dawn — original album announcement — Kate Bush. Checked 2026-10-17.
2. Before the Dawn — original residency announcement and dates — Kate Bush. Checked 2026-10-17.
3. And Dream of Sheep — original single and film announcement — Kate Bush. Checked 2026-10-17.
4. And Dream of Sheep — original film and stage-projection account — Kate Bush. Checked 2026-10-17.

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