You can now see the set list and reviews for the Manchester, U.K. concert at Carling Apollo Manchester. Tori set list included Liquid Diamonds, Suede, Strange, Never Seen Blue and the covers Don't Look Back In Anger (Oasis) and My Favorite Things during Tori's Piano Bar segment of the show. If you were at this concert and want to send The Dent a review, please email Mikewhy at mikewhy@iglou.com with your review or comments. You can also post your review of the show on The Dent's Original Sinsuality Tour Forum. Thanks for sharing your reviews with The Dent.

More Details

Tori performed in Manchester, U.K. on Sunday, June 5, 2005 at Carling Apollo Manchester. Tori's special guest was Tom McRae and the show started at 7:30PM.

Set List

Special thanks to Matt Page and Richard G. for calling me with the set list after the show!

Original Sinsualtiy
Little Amsterdam
Leather
Beauty Queen
Horses
Liquid Diamonds
Suede
Strange

Don't Look Back In Anger (Oasis cover)
My Favorite Things (Rodgers & Hammerstein / Sound of Music cover)

Winter
Carbon
Ribbons Undone
Spring Haze
The Beekeeper

1st Encore

Not The Red Baron
Never Seen Blue

2nd Encore

Sweet The Sting

Reviews

The latest reviews are at the bottom of this page. If you were at this show and want to send The Dent a review, please email Mikewhy at mikewhy@iglou.com with your review or comments.

You can also go to the Original Sinsuality Concert Review Forum and post about your experiences as well, or read additional reviews.


From Matt Page and Richard G.:

Tori was supposed to play Jamaica Inn instead of Winter according to her official set list. Also the second encore was supposed to be Space Dog then Baker Baker, but she played Sweet the Sting instead. This could have been because her voice sounded a little weak toward the end of the show and the concert was about 25 minutes late because Tori was practicing the Oasis cover.

Tori talked about meeting the singer Morissey one time on a TV show where she told him that he played some good music during his performance. He not so kindly replied "what would you know about good music?"

The Oasis cover was extremely well done and was amazingly fantastic, one of Tori's best covers!

Toward the end Tori commented on her voice, saying that frog who has the number one song in the U.K. must have gone down her throat...

Richard added that the strongest songs of the set to him were Liquid Diamonds, the Oasis cover and Never Seen Blue.


From Mark:

A good but strange show tonight. After being told to take our seats, there was a huge delay

the sound was fantastic but there was no real flow to the songs, Suede, Winter, Spring Haze and Never seen blue were absolutely amazing thou'

The artist Tori talked about during the piano bar was Morrisey, a brilliant story very funny. The Oasis cover was fantastic, one of her best covers

Sweet the spring seemed a strange way to end and the concert seemed incomplete because of this, i prefer it when she ends with a slow sad song

Normally i am bouncing off the walls like a tigger after seing tori but tonight i felt quite subdued after the concert, not her best concert in Manchester and i've been to them all. It just felt different somehow.


From Yvonne:

Tori showed her musical skills to perfection. Gyrating to the audience whilst playing two keyboards at the same time. Have to say that I would have preferred the set list from the London gig to the one we got but...Don't Look Back in Anger was just sensational - The Tori Piano Bar sections from the tour would make a great DVD / CD. I thought Sweet The Sting was done brilliantly - hope a live solo version of this crops up somewhere. Guess we would all have different set lists if we were allowed to - but hey, 2 hours solo with the musical ability we were shown - no body could leave and feel that Tori is an amazing star.


From Dan Hetherington:

The show in Manchester was amazing, and well worth waiting for, despite any issues people had being forced to sit down. To be honest I'd be ok being tied down to get as great a set! I was surprised that people were turned away and prevented from standing for the encores, when Tori came on Scarlet's tour it was much more relaxed. I thought the sound was superb, sitting quite far back in the stalls the view wasn't the best but still nothing to complain about.

Original Sinsuality
A longer introduction than ones I have heard. I really like this song, it is one of the best on the Beekeeper, which I still haven't got into very well. I was expecting to have my mind changed like hearing Your Cloud live did before but secretly I'm pleased I didn't get the chance as Tori decided to impress us with her back catalogue. I thought the overall theme of the first half of the show at least flowed well in quite a dark, sinister tone.

Little Amsterdam
The first of many highlights - she played this one really fiercely one hand on each keyboard for a lot of the time. The part that goes 'round and around and around I go' was repeated I guess about a dozen times which was quite menacing. I like!

Leather
Which apparently always comes out in Manchester. We all love it really, even if it comes out everywhere else too!

Beauty Queen - Horses
My all time favourite, I was really pleased to hear this pair togetheragain.

Liquid Diamonds
Brilliantly sequenced, I always think this one fits the BFP 'going deep into the underworld' theme. I thought at first it was Concertina with the new improv.

Suede
The debut, on the hammond this is great! The last 3 seemed to me to fit together so well.

Strange
She sneaked over to the rhodes to do this pretty one. Nice to hear, it is one of the best on Scarlet's Walk

Piano Bar

Nothing short of hilarious. To be fair to Tori, she wasn't really having that much of a go at Morrissey, just one rude encounter that probably happens quite a lot in the nonsense that is TV promotion. Calling him a 'motherf**ker' just proves Tori is still a just a big Yank despite her little English rose of a daughter. Here he'd be called a 'rude c**t'!

Oasis were always on the cards (well if not the Smiths it wasn't going to be New Order!). I had wondered about Don't Look Back in Anger. I think it worked well, and the crowd loved it.

Sound of Music blah, really don't like it but after the cursing and then covering theangry Mancs, it all seemed a bit of a laugh.

Winter
Apparently this should have been Jamaica Inn. I did think it was going to be at the very beginning - perhaps she changed her mind at the very last minute.

Carbon
Another good one from Scarlet - this seemed quite sad as it followed Winter - which is something I'd not heard in it before

Ribbons Undone
Fair play, Tori is a mother and this is a cute song. The extended ending made it really pretty. Still don't think I'll ever be much of a fan of it tho.

Spring Haze
Again this had a tinge of sadness in it - well until the growl at the end, which surprised quite a few early clappers!

The Beekeeper
Remarkably like the record, and long although it didn't seem it. I didn't notice anyone getting restless like others have said. Still I was pretty engrossed!

Encores

Not the Red Baron
This is one that has grown on me. I hardly noticed it when Pele came out. I really like the way the Bose sounds on this tour. I love all of Pele and this is a recent favourite. Nice to see the peculiar songs come out.

Never Seen Blue
First time I have heard this live - longer, even without the frog comment. That made us all laugh, especially anyone who had seen Jonathan Ross on his Friday night TV show. Coldplay were performing and, in a fair world they should be No 1 at the moment. Chris Martin gave us a bit of his own version during their performance. This Crazy Frog Ringtone to the Axel F theme has taken the nation by storm. And Tori's throat too!

This would have been a perfect place for some Frog on my Toe silliness, but clock watching I didn't think there would be a second encore. So huge respect to Tori for coming out with Sweet the Sting - a good choice for the single. I imagine there was a fair bit of pressure from the Apollo staff to get her off - they are therude c**ts in the end. And of course her throat must be strained - that's 4 shows on the trot.

I would say this is the best of the shows I've seen. I loved the old songs, didn't miss the new ones that didn't turn up - but if they come to Nottingham I won't mind - I was blown away in Manchester!


From Jen:

I agree with previous speakers that there was no real flow to the show, I personally didn't mind as I am always mesmerized in the company of her and totally engrossed in the music, but I could feel "lesser" fans start to squirm in their seats a bit. Some of the songs were very drawn out, again I don't mind, but maybe it bored others. Maybe it's the wrong conclusion but I felt that the fact that she cut the second encore short was partly due to the "f**king frog" in her throat, but also because of the curfew of the venue (she did come on late). But I got the impression that she tried to make up for this by making "Never seen blue" a bit longer.

A strong start to the show, slow mid-section, except for "Don't look back in anger"which was magic, and she seemed very lively during the little talk before playing it andeven had a spat witha member of the audience (he was very rude).

I thought it was very nice that she played so much from Pele. Maybe I am just not hardcore enough but I felt that she took out a few songs that havenot featured live that much before. Maybe that's just the theme of the tour. Wish I could follow her and hear more.

Over all, good crowd, happy Tori and favourite songs all round!!!


From John Everett:

Manchester again. Why is the Apollo in the middle of nowhere?! This concert started slowly, but then got better and better as it went on. Original Sinsuality isn't a great song to open with but to follow it with a "downbeat" version of Suede probably wasn't the best for newcomers. But having said that, then there was a lot of Little Earthquakes.

Matt and Richard have "cleaned up" the Morrissey story a bit! There was quite a lot of use of the "f" word, somewhat prompted by an overenthusiastic audience member. It was fun anyway and she also slipped his name into Don't Look back in Anger - "You ain't ever gonna burn my heart out, MORRISSEY". The audience loved it :-)

Although the second encore was only one song, it was still over 1h45 and she commented that her throat was hurting a little. Look after it Tori! I have two thoughts about this tour generally, I wonder what other people think:

- is it just me, or is Tori deliberately picking longer songs to play (so you get the same length concert, but fewer individual songs)?

- and overall, I think it is a fairly 'hardcore' tour - one for the fans, and not necessarily so good for those unfamiliar

with the back catalogue?

Well, I just can't make it to Glasgow this year, so Newcastle and Nottingham to go. She's still more than worth the six hour round trips :)


From Cecilia Thorn:

I'd never had the chance to see Tori live before, so it was a very exciting event for me, especially as it was on my birthday. I felt that for those who weren't familiar with her songs, like my boyfriend, it must have seemed like a two hour long song. I could see that some people were starting to get bored, I can only attribute this to the fact there were no backing singers or additional musicians, but I think it was a perfect display of Tori's talents.

I am very pleased she swapped Jamaica Inn for Winter as it is one of my favourite songs (probably Tori's best one yet) and the audience seemed very pleased to hear it... or maybe surprised' The songs that touched me the most, besides Winter, were Strange and Ribbons Undone.

Don't Look Back In Anger was a great choice for a cover and Tori did it justice. I wasn't particularly keen on the other one though, but it's probably because I've never been a great fan of The Sound of Music.

I was pleased to hear Sweet The Sting at the end, but felt the song sounded somehow empty as it lacked more instruments.

Overall it was a great night which left me longing for more. I felt relaxed and enjoyed every second of it.

Read a review of this show from the Manchester Evening News

Read another article about this show from the Manchester Evening News


From Jo Potts:

Tori Amos has always been a treasured live act for me: amazed by someone who actually sounds better live than on recordings, I am also stuck by the way she can make me fall in love with a song not previously a favourite through her live interpretation. Tonight this was 'Sweet the Sting' - a revelation in performance - the improv moments and the power and intensity its unaccompanied piano version lent it made this a favourite for me tonight and has sent me back to 'The Beekeeper' with my ears well and truly opened waiting in anticipation for this track. Another example of how Tori can do this was 'Spring Haze' - another songnot a favourite from mine and taken from the album I probably play least - I now wantto rediscover not just 'Spring Haze' but 'To Venus and Back'

Also good tonight wasTori bringing on some of my favourite girls from 'Boys for Pele' 'Little Amsterdam'was mesmerising with the slow sinister build up of its drama, the timing and shifts in tempo never faltered and of course Tori made sure wedidn't miss the grande finale ''Got a room and a place for two,you want my fifth avenue' and in playful mode adding 'I am your fifth avenue/you want my fifth avenue'Judging by the response of the crowd itdelighted everyone else too.

And on to Tori's Piano Bar - what can I say? I had been really excited by this in the run up to the concert especially when I saw some of the covers she was doing. Whilst 'Look Back in Anger' and 'Favourite Things' would in no way have been my own requests, I have to see that 'Look Back in Anger' was amazing; the Manchester connection was a nice move and the story about Morrissey earned Tori some cheers (once she was actually allowed to tell it after dealing with the annoying bloke who kept interrupting her.) The performance of this song just illustrated why Tori is held in such affection and awe by her fans - she turned anthemicrock bluster into a moving ballad without losing any of the power of the original; 'Favourite Things' was pared down with just the piano rather than the full orchestra and as a result lost the sickly sweet sentiment with which most of us will be familiar.

The only slight disappointment was that the girls from 'The Beekeeper' didn't get much of an outing tonight - what she diddo from the album didn't disappointthough 'The Beekeeper' itself faltered a little - not sure I can put my finger on why exactly - not sure if the organ wasn't too loud. 'Original Sinsuality' provided a stunning opening and I loved 'Ribbons Undone' - to all those who moan about Tori writing a song about her daughter I say hey, she can if she wants, it's her right and she does it a whole lot better than most! Now, I can't wait for the Newcastle concert and for Tori to bring to life some different girls from her repertoire.


From Pete Lambert:

Ok, where *IS* the woman?

This must be the longest build up since we all sat on pews at the Union Chapel in 2001 and listened to Massive Attack's Blue Lines all the way through twice. Not that we really mind of course. But couldn't someone pass a note to the PA people? "Tori says you DO all have time to go to the toilet".

I got caught with my trousers down during Wampum Prayer here last time, and that's really not something you want have happen twice.

She's on!

1 - O.S. - a little longer, a little stronger every night

2 - little amsterdam - when pele came out, this was one of my least favourite tracks, because it sounded like the kind of music my parents would like. Tori has since then made a point of playing it to me as often as possible. And it's really working for me now, and evidently for her too. A sultry shimmy and all that.

3 - leather - tori mentioned that she always wants to play this song here. It could be entirely my prejudice but I always feel a stronger than usual gender-exploring vibe at her Manc shows (I think she opened with Real Men last time she was here solo),and hoorah for that.

I have now given up on the singing audience members and am learning to love them. I would prefer to not be listening to a duet, but I am, so I open myself to their take on it. At least these ones are getting the words right.

I think the octagon displays above the piano would make a lovely screen saver. Is that damning with faint praise? I cant decide.

4 - beauty queen / horses - oh wow, my biggest off-the-scale spine tingler of the night and probably my favourite song of the show too. flashback to listening to it for the first time, january 1996 in the bath at my parents house, thinking "this one's a bit weird to open the new album, but I'm sure the next track will be more conventional" Ha!

5 - long long long slow sultry intro to Liquid Diamonds, Andy (who I'm there with) realises what it is first. Not that I'd view it as a competition of course (must practice listening to intros before we do the Nottingham show). Funny we were both here in 2001 but didnt know each other. Pity the guy who sat next to me at that show, his mobile went off LOUDLY during Me And A Gun. His reaction was akin to the Wicked Witch of the West in a car wash. Sorry I'm reviewing the wrong concert where was I...

So I loved liquid diamonds, not heard it solo before, works really well.

6 - Jamaica Inn! I beat Andy to naming this one. Except suddenly she changes keyboard and its not Jamaica Inn, it's Suede. Never my favourite track on TVAB but still really good, the subtlety of its darkness is accentuated by being solo, I feel quite wonderfully pretentious to say. Jamaica Inn would have been nice though. Was I imagining it?

7 - Strange - Andy is singing now. It's lucky Jemma is sitting between us ;-)

8 - As the piano bar sign lit up, Tori said "because i'm in manchester..." and a loud mancunian yelled "play morrisey!" which evoked the most words from tori for many a year, though it was mostly a four-lettered lucidity (not at the person who shouted, but about morrisey. although the person who shouted then kept interrupting her again and again and the audience grew restless so he got told to "shut the fk up", which got a cheer. you dont get this level of entertainment at a sarah mclaughlan show).

Apparently in Tori's very very early days she was on a TV show that Morrisey was also on (probably BBC2s Later with Jools?) and she passed him in the corridor and said something like "your set was really good" to which he replied something like "and who the fck do you think you are judging ME?". Quite how it is possible to fit such a thorough critique of a man's parentage, endowment, stature, ego, talent, and precise level of intimacy with his mother in to such a well contained epicentre of anglo saxon bellowing, which must have stripped the wallpaper from the venue of the original exchange, is something that I can only marvel at.

I suspect Natashya wasn't backstage tonight.

Then she apologised for being late on stage (lots of people didnt make it to the end without a toilet break, things were on the verge of giving out for me too) however she said it was because she was practising this song back stage, which she's never played before, and couldnt get it right. When she then launched in to an initially slightly hesitant (in a charming "argh, got to slow this line down, I havent read ahead to see what the next chord is" way) version of Oasis's Dont Look Back In Anger, the house was brought down, and she was soaring by the second verse. I caught myself singing along and so am thoroughly hoist by my own petard.

9 - And then "My Favourite things" ("when the bee stings" - do you see?) with a "prrrrr!" that Eartha Kitt would be proud of after "whiskers on kittens".

10 - Winter - Odd, I've no idea why, a memory leaps up while she's playing this of myself aged 18, in my dad's car, lost in the country somewhere, and he's gone in to a pub to ask for directions, and Simon Mayo on Radio 1 gets to number 20-something and its another song by that woman who did the "me and a gun e.p." that I loved. I'd presumed she'd been dumped by her record label when it didnt chart. And so I've uncovered my memory of hearing Winter for the first time! Ah she still knows how to get my waterworks on it seems.

She sang a very clear "be proud of me" in Wolverhampton, but it's back to the usual "be proud'a me" tonight. I expect things like that have Big Reasons.

11 - Carbon - the "orange blobs" projected on to the ceiling during Carbon combine with the performance and it all gets very hypnotic "dont l@@k away!".

12 - Ribbons Undone. Makes me feel warm and happy for Tori, but still without really *liking* the song that much. God I feel guilty even for typing that! But "From school she comes home..." just rankles, those words just dont want to be in that order in my head. But then I used to be funny about "sleeping beauty trips me with a frown" (not that I'm saying dont be abstract, I love the abstract, just once in a while it'll hit my metalwork rather than my bullseye) so dont listen to me.

13 - Spring Haze - oh I love this song live. From a similar corner of her ouvre as Carbon and Liquid Diamonds in a way, a nebulous-travelling-disconserted-is everything oK? kind of corner. she holds a "draaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawn" for ages with no keyboards at one point, and it's like we're all sitting in a giant bell that's just been rung, its amazing the way she can play with every aspect of the sound of one syllable

14 - The beekeeper - my third time live in a week and i couldnt be less bored, its just beautiful

1st encore

15 - Not The Red Baron - again with the nebulous, and maybe sexuality issues again too (red ribbons+WW1 as AIDS metaphor?). I can still picture the footage of biplanes that was the overhead projection for this on the DDI tour (or have I invented that?). Beautiful and enchanting though i think some were hoping for something more "up". The set list is very mellow tonight, isn't it?

16 - Never Seen Blue - we're really on "shuffle play" aren't we? Not that anything's random of course but you know what I mean. After a couple of minutes tori apologises for having "that fcking crazy frog that's at number1" in her throat ['crazy frog' being a mobile phone ringtone that is now number one in the UK singles chart, yes really, croaking Axel F. It has swept europe like nothing since the Black Death, without the redeeming features].
So then she resumes NSB, which is lovely although gets played one-and-a-half-times so is flagging a little by the end.

2nd encore

"oh she always does two more", I authoritatively tell Andy and Jemma, as Tori practically dashes back out, seconds after leaving the stage.

17 - sweet the sting - after hearing it with the choir in london it's hard for anything else to compare, and while this is groovy there's a certain shrillness to her voice for some reason (the fcking frog i expect) that stops it from clicking for me.

And she's gone! At 11pm on the dot. It being a Sunday I presume there's a curfew in operation?

In many ways an odd show in that it certainly soared in places but still had a general tone of not-quite-getting-there in others. It's usually nice when Tori's more chatty, but its by no means essential. However, tonight I did I really, really wish she'd talked more. Just a little. It was so hot in there and we'd all waited so long and we all needed the toilet. The whole atmosphere is just lifted and prepared to plunge back in to the next song more clearly when we've had a touch-base with "tori the human". Perhaps the solo shows benefit from this more than the band ones because, musically, we're so much more intimate with her.

Still a fantastic night of course, well worth the 200mile round trip! Looking forward to Nottingham more than ever now...


From Edwin:

I have been a huge fan of Tori for a long time now, this was the first time I have ever seen here. I have heard so much about the incredible shows she puts on and recently stumbled upon her concert for rainn on the performance channel. It was so electric, she looked possessed, I was blown away. So this was a big one for me and I had high hoped, but she didn't quite live up. I think the set list was dull, although don't look back in anger and winter were amazing. Her piano playing and voice were stunning, crazy frog in the throat of not. Few performers could have come close to what she did, but the tori amos I know could have. Maybe being a 40 year old mum (ribbons undone) and not a crazy chick (precious things) means she has lost that raw edge that makes little earthquakes so spine tingling. But an experience none the less, a monumental talent, and Morrissey bater. She actually sells records in America so f**k him.