With a remarkable resemblance to Kate Bush in vocal style and appearance, the extraordinary singer and performer Maaike Breijman brings the music of Kate Bush to live stages all over Europe.
This Friday, Maaike is performing her spectacular show, Dreaming of Kate, at The Elgiva theatre in Chesham. We caught up with her ahead of the show.
Q. What can the audience expect from Dreaming of Kate?
A. We bring a show with Kate Bush songs played by a full live band, with me in the role of (a younger) Kate, singing and dancing and changing costumes to match many of Kate’s looks. It is a full theatre show; it is directed and choreographed. We play Kate's biggest hits as well as some lesser known songs.
Q. What is it about Kate’s music that you like?
A. Both her compositions and her lyrics. Her songs are quite intricate and clever, which I like. And I am a huge fan of her lyrics. Every song has a very interesting story, and I love telling stories.
Q. How old were you when you first heard her music?
A. I think I was about eight years old, and I don't remember if I liked it or not, but it must have made a huge impression: when I was 16 I still vividly remembered it.
Q. How did you get into being a Kate Bush tribute act?
A. I was in a prog rock covers band back in Holland about eight years ago; I was hired to sing the lead vocals of the Yes songs they wanted to play as their male lead vocalist couldn't sing them. To give me some more lead vocals, we added a couple of Kate Bush songs, which turned out to be a huge success.
I liked singing those songs, so when someone in the audience in a show in Belgium suggested I should start a Kate Bush tribute band, we started toying with the idea. We went from just playing the songs to adding some dance routines to adding costume changes. Exactly a year later, I played the same venue with my first Kate Bush tribute band. The guy who suggested it was there by the way.
That was all quite a long time ago. By now, I have toured across and moved to the UK and I am now working with a Liverpool based band, and we have worked with a choreographer/director to turn it into a proper theatre show. My performance and the whole show are so much better and more professional than it was back then.
Q. Kate Bush has a very unique voice and mannerisms, did it take you a long time to perfect her persona?
A. I have never tried to copy her voice or her style of singing; her songs were always easy to sing for me. I have watched a lot of footage on YouTube to perfect my performance. We do however play a lot of songs that Kate has never performed live, so what I do is not just trying to copy what she did, it is my interpretation of her and the characters she portrayed, or of what she might have done with songs if she would have performed them on stage.
Q. Who do else you perform on stage with - Do you have a band?
A. I have a full live band: drums, bass, guitar, keyboard, backing vocals. They are all great musicians! Luckily we do get on well, including our sound engineer and light engineer; I guess we are almost boring!
Q. What is it that you think makes you a better, or different, Kate Bush tribute act than others?
A. We are the most complete Kate tribute: we have the live band, the singing, the costumes and the dancing, and we have designed the show as a theatre show.
Q. What is your favourite song to perform?
A. It can depend on my mood, but This Woman's Work is always one of my favourites to sing. From a performance point of view I would probably say Hammer Horror or Violin.
Q. Do you ever get nervous performing live?
A. No, not really. Unless it's like an audition or something like that. But not for the kind of shows that we currently play. I like the whole routine of arriving, setting up, warming up, sound checking, eating, and doing hair and makeup though, as it helps me focus on my performance.
Q. What do you like about performing on stage to live audiences?
A. I like enchanting the audience. I like drawing them into the little world I create on stage. I love it when I can touch/move people with my performance.
Q. To sum everything up, if there are people in South Bucks who are debating whether or not to buy tickets, what would you say to them to convince them they should?
A. If you like music: come! If you like the theatre: come! If you're a Kate Bush fan: you definitely need to come! But you don't have to be a Kate Bush fan to enjoy this show.
Dreaming of Kate comes to The Elgiva on Friday, October 30. Visit www.elgiva.com for more information or call the box office on 01494 582900 for tickets.
Comments: Our rules
We want our comments to be a lively and valuable part of our community - a place where readers can debate and engage with the most important local issues. The ability to comment on our stories is a privilege, not a right, however, and that privilege may be withdrawn if it is abused or misused.
Please report any comments that break our rules.
Read the rules here