Newsgroups: rec.music.tori-amos Date: Wed, 6 Mar 1996 00:21:56 +0000 (GMT) From: Grendel The Unprepared Cc: Precious Things Subject: Tori, Newcastle City Hall, 5/3/1996. Oh God. This is a seriously widely-distributed message, but I just have to tell everyone about the best night of my life - tonight. The support, Willy Porter, I was sceptical of, because from what I'd heard he wasn't too hot, but by the middle of his first song I'd been converted. He's not a great singer, being in the Joe Cocker/Micheal Bolton growl group, but what a guitarist! He made his single acoustic sound like about twelve different guitars. His little band of bass/drums then came on, and he treated us to a few finely crafted pop songs of Crowded House proportions. The funniest bit was when he played a version of the Jackson Five's "I want you back", alone on acoustic and in a hilarious falsetto, dedicating it to Mikey's past glories in the wake of Jarvis Cocker's Brit Award exploits. Lastly he performed an instrumental version of Dire Strait's Why Worry, being in Newcastle and all that. Then, about 20 minutes of Led Zeppelin later, on came Tori to a rapturous applause. She looked gorgeous in a pink/purple paisley top (I think) and a darker pair of the trousers she wears on the cover of Caught A Lite Sneeze. She was obviously nervous as she started to play "Beauty Queen/Horses", with her breathy vocals showing the signs of stress, but as Horses began, you could just tell the beauty was coming through in waves. The exact order of the songs has left me somewhere in the madness of tonight, but I'm sure Helen may be able to supply more exact information (Helen?). After the second song, she began her convo with the audience, saying how great it was to come to Newcastle because we're not English, we're not Scottish ('any dumb fuck knows that'), we're Geordies(!), to which the American got a suprised round of applause (I suppose her Northern boyfriend has been teaching her the regional differences in England!). Her set included beautiful versions of Bells For Her, Little Amsterdam, Not The Red Baron, Precious Things (with a spectacular primal scream when she sang "Tucked inside the heart of every nice gi-rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrl" which lasted for minutes it seemed), and some numbers featured Steve Caton on guitar, doing lots of etherial stuff, and introducing "Cornflake Girl" on the acoustic, towards the end of which a string broke and he had to give up, prompting Tori to improvise "Rabbit, where'd you put the strains, girl?"! Icicle took it's usual pace, without the long introduction this time, and I SWEAR BLIND that as she was singing it (and I was mouthing the words by reflex), she stared straight at me for a minute or so. It felt right somehow! The final song in the main set was a beautiful and (naturally) haunting a cappella Me And A Gun, back on she bounced with my favourite, favourite Tori song of all, Silent All These Years. I've heard it so many times before but tonight a lump appeared in my throat and everything became unimportant except this girl on stage singing the most beautiful song ever written to me and me alone. If that sounds melodramatic, that's what I went for. "Hey Jupiter", the very last song, was played on the harmonium (summoned by Tori with 'can you bring on another of my friends?'), which really grabbed my throat until the second verse where she kindly forgot the words.. she's only human, after all. ;) Well, that's all I've the energy to say right now. Thanks for listening. You yanks are in for something else in the spring. :) Paul :) ============================================================================ "The panic seeps through bloodstained floors as Grendel stalks the night" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- St Aidan's College, University Of Durham. http://www.dur.ac.uk/~d550du ============================================================================