Kate Bush - The Dreaming (1982) A gallery

Back here again for which I make absolutely no apologies as the pretty pictures more than justify another look

These are a set of publicity images of Kate Bush and her dancers in the costumes they wore for The Dreaming video back in 1982.  You can follow the Ventilation Suit label below to get a pretty good history of where else these "Fairy Suits" have appeared and also their origins in the real world of aviation.

These are perhaps some of the best views of the suit's detailing that I've managed to find but really its OK if you just want to ignore all of that and spend your time admiring the goddess inside them... just so long as you absolve your sinful thoughts by going and listening to some of her beautiful back catalogue of music - you wont be sorry.

Steve

David B Mattingly - Gallery

1979

1982

 

1982

 

????

 

Steve

Doctor Who - Earthshock (1982)

I know that they're Cybermen not a spacemen but on this occasion there's a link.  Bear with..

Now I've spent far longer than I thought I would have to researching what these suits are and it keeps coming back to them being known as G-Suits. I was looking for something more specific than that as 'G-suits' is a bit of general term covering a number of different types and styles.  Rather than delay publishing any longer we'll adopt the general term for now and I promise to come back and revise the post if anyone offers me names, codes, dates etc.  For now I'll share this with you from the doctorwhoconcordance.wikia.com

 

"The new Cybermen costumes for this story were created by Richard Gregory of Imagineering, in collaboration with costume designer Dinah Collin.  Nine Cyberman costumes were made in total - eight full costumes plus the Cyberman seen fused to the door in Part Three. Previous Cyberman costumes had been designed around rubber diving suits, but Richard Gregory suggested basing the new design around G-suits. G-suits were designed for aircraft fighter pilots to help ease the rigours of flying at high speeds and encountering G-force. The suits had a network of connected pipes and tubes that could be supplied with pumped water to keep a pilot's body temperature steady and to press the skin inwards to retain the body's shape during periods of low gravity. More importantly, Gregory knew that his local army surplus store in Oxford sold G-suits. Another factor in the use of G-suits was that they looked slightly sophisticated and futuristic to begin with due to the in-built network of pipes and tubes and only needed spraying silver to complete the look."

 

I'm led to believe these suits are near impossible to get now and certainly not from the high-street.  It's possible that the materials have perished over time or simply that hundreds of Doctor Who fans all wanted to make their own costumes.

 

 

Steve

The Dreaming - video Kate Bush (1982)

We already had a quick sneaky-peaky at an image from The Dreaming video the other weekend but here are some more snaps of the divine Kate Bush and more importantly, for the purposes of this blog, that suit.

Is it a spacesuit?  Well in this particular case that would depend on understanding the meaning of the video and the song and we probably shouldn't try to pin either down too specifically because the real answers probably lies somewhere between the artist's intent and our own interpretation.  Suffice to say that the suit has at times been a space suit, or a spacesuit's undergarments, or a cybernetic skin, or served other equally none specific but suggestive roles.  Follow the G-Suit link for what those are but until then ponder upon this.....

Steve

Something for the Weekend #19

Kate Bush is a creature of such rare beauty and talent that were I to have dedicated this entire blog to her instead of spacesuits, even after all these years, we would still not have done justice to her artistry and originality...

This is an image of Kate from her 1982 video for The Dreaming, the title track from her 4th studio album.  I present it here as something of a teaser for what's to come.  Yes that may well mean more pictures of Kate Bush.  But it will also include David Bowie, Moon Zero Two, Alien and even a Cyberman or two. Who would have thunk it?

Goodnight Kate.


Steve

The Best Of Omni Science Fiction No:3 (1982)

From the pages of The Best Of Omni Science Fiction No:3, a lovely piece of art by Don Maitz.

This was used to illustrate The Test by Stanislaw Lem

Steve

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)

And then for no good reason I can ever work out, an Apollo astronaut turns up at the door to capture ET.

Steve

Radio WM (1982)

Chris Phipps as a Radio WM DJ in 1982, wearing a spacesuit from the Sean Connery film Outland.
.....I'm not quite sure why but its a nice picture

Star Fleet (1982)

Star Fleet is the UK name for the English dubbed version of Japan's X-Bomber.  It was a sort of Manga, Star Wars, Gerry Anderson type of puppet show.  There were 25 episodes and it was all rather entertaining and just about as sci-fi as you can get.

Thanks to blog follower Tim for the thought and the picture link. 

 

Steve

Laverne & Shirley - Lost in Spacesuits (1982)

From season 8 (blimey) of the long running American comedy series; Laverne &Shirley.  This episode sees Laverne at the mercy of an anti-gravity (space) suit.

Farley certain that is the same space helmet as worn by Star Wars IV's Dans Borin in 1977, having started life in Men into Space 1959, The Phantom Planet 1961. 

 

 

Steve

Doctor Who Four to Doomsday (1982)

I watched this recently and whilst it wasn’t as bad as I remember, it wasn’t exactly great either.

Now I do like Peter Davison’s version of The Doctor I just don’t know if I like the early 80’s production values of his tenure all that much. 

The show was a little too style over content back then and certainly a bit of flash and sparkle would take priority over the logic's of the plot.

Which is why we have the Doctor floating around in space in just a space helmet and no suit.

And we’ve also got Adric knocking about in a space suit but never actually leaving the ship. 

There’s also some random space helmet wearing by the remaining crew of the Tardis but for reasons far too spurious to explain

Normally at this point I might recommend purchasing the DVD if you want to know more but there are other Doctor Who stories far more worthy of your time and money than this one.

Thats The Doctor trying to pretend he's in Battlestar Galactica!

Steve



Unexpected #219 and #221 (1982)

And here's the February 219 issue of DC Comics' Unexpected with a cover by the mighty Joe Kubert featuring tiny little spacemen...or a giant little girl?

And two months later here's another Kubert rendered spaceman from Unexpected's penultimate issue; number 221.

Steve