With her wails and whimpers, muscular piano playing, and far-out imagery, Amos has always painted vivid worlds in her songs. The full band she's now recording with gives new depth and color to her work. The use of drums, guitar, bass, and the metallic clang and hiss of electronic instrumentation both propel her songs and ground her melodramatics. The music now bends and curves with her swooping voice and hammering piano, but it's still Amos' sheer emotional power and anguish that holds it all together. Since her 1991 debut, she's been consistently challenging voice in pop music, laying the groundwork for the many women muscians who have taken over the charts. Could it be her turn now? - R.R

Read the Politiken article.

Hard to avoid . . .
Tori Amos

Why spend hours reading all the celebrity interviews when the most interesting elements boil down to a few key quotes ? This week : Tori Amos, promoting her album From The Choirgirl Hotel just about everywhere.

To Steven Daly in Rolling Stone, on people who laugh at her for believing in fairies.
"You'll get some reporter from Vogue who doesn't know what she's talking about, who paints me as some insipid Tinker Bell character - well, Tinker Bell ain't up my Strasse, baby. I'm not some shivering waif in the forest. Sometimes I want to grab these bitches by the hair and take them to the world of faerie and say, 'Would you repeat that?'"

To Adam Mattera in Attitude, on her dreams and nightmares.
"Someone asked a friend of mine, 'Hey, do you and Tori wanna go see Scream2 ?,' and she said, 'fuck that, Tori lives this every night - she is Scream 2 . . .' I do have a very violent dreamworld. It's not always fun- sometimes I don't make it out of there, you know ? Like I wake up and . . . they got me !!"

To Nigel Williamson in Uncut, on growing up a strict Christian in Baltimore, the daughter of a "controlling" Methodist minister.
"It's made me really take issue with people telling other people what to do .. . Chrissie Hynde is a good friend but if she pushed her militant vegetarianism on me, I swear I'd eat my own arm. You don't convert people by shaming them, like the church."

To Nigel Williamson (again) in the Sunday Times, on being raped at gun point when she was 21, a trauma she sang about in her 1991 album, Little Earthquakes.
"After I moved to LA, I was raped. I wrote the song Me And A Gun about that, but I haven't talked to my mother or anyone about it . . .I have a shrink and I deal with it through that."

To James Bennett in the Times, on her recent marriage to her English sound engineer, Mark Hawley, in West Wycombe.
"I wanted the wedding to be real private, just our friends. But family is tricky. It's like the f**king Waltons, my family - they'll show up like critters crawling out from under the Appalachian mountains and be at your door with a banjo."

To John Dingwall in the Daily Record, on her recent miscarriage, the inspiration behind her new album.
"I got angry with the spirit of the baby for not wanting to be born and kept asking myself why it had happened . . . I was going through the anger and the sorrow when the songs started to come, without me really being aware, until they were coming to me in droves."

Read the Maxim reviews and article.

Read the concert review and see the photos.

Entertainment Weekly Magazine had a double issue (#438/439 - June 26/July 3, 1998) that contained a feature called "The IT list: The 100 Most Creative People in Entertainment." (This issue has Cameron Diaz on the cover.) On page 65 there was a nice photo of Tori and a small article about her that you can read below. (The quotes are pure Tori!) I would like to thank Danica for being the first to send this to me and for the photo. I also thank Matt Page, Joe, Lisa, Justin and Chris Whitney for informing me as well.

Tori Amos
"The Siren"

Age: 34

Why her?: Despite - or because of - her penchant for dense, piano-based songscapes and all-but-ineffable lyrics, this Gen-Next Joni Mitchell has a cult whose members live to ponder "What makes Tori tick?" Her latest, from the choirgirl hotel, may be her most challenging yet.

Work habits: " You know how in that Warner Bros. skunk cartoon where that girl skunk comes and the boy skunk smells her scent and he's just off? That's what happens: This girl skunk comes, and whether she's a song, a rhythm, or whatever, I'm just following her."

Recurring dream: "I'm always dreaming that these bulls are chasing me. Half the time I don't get away - I almost get over the fence, and then they gore me."

Next?: She's touring through Novenmber, backed for the first time by a hard-rock band. "Girls are pressed up to the front of the stage and ready to take their shirts off. I'm like, 'That's okay girls. I'm not Axl Rose.' "

You can also read this article and see a photo from it online at the People Web Site. (Thanks Jonni.)

Tori Amos & Mark Hawley
February 22, 1998

The arduous climb to St. Lawrence's, a 13th-century Norman church atop a massive hill in the tiny English village of West Wycombe, didn't deter the locals when North Carolina-born Tori Amos, 34, wed British sound engineer Mark Hawley, 34. "No one really knew who she was, because it's more of an older population here," says villager Michelle Holborne. "But as soon as they heard she was famous, the said, 'Oh, well, we'll just go up and have a nose around.'" What they found was a scene ripped from the pages of a medieval fantasy. The singer wore a floor-length silver cape over her ice-blue gown to march to the church, chere clusters of candles burned in every window and uilleann pipes played an Irish folk song. "I believe in the elementals," Amos explained to Q magazine. "I figured if I had [the wedding] where there were trees and water, then maybe the fairies would show up." After the Church of England service, torchbearers costued as monks led the 150 guests outside for a toast. While no fairies were sighted, Amos did connect with a local 8-year-old, Elizabeth Cameron. "She asked me and my friend if we were going to get married one day," recalls Cameron. "I said I didn't know, and she said, 'Well, make it a special day.'" Indeed.

Toriphile Hendrik Jan van Elmpt translated and send me a short article that appeared in the June 1998 issue of the Dutch train-only-magazine 'Rail'.

Read the article and see 2 good photos from the magazine.

Read the article and see the drawing.

It should have happened a long time ago, but Rolling Stone magazine finally placed Tori on their cover in the June 25, 1998 issue. I would like to thank Toriphile melissa/madsag for first sending me pics of the cover, and to Erin Dolll who also sent me some pics from this issue. I don't have the entire article online yet, but you can see more photos and read some details about this issue.

A small Tori blurb and photo appears in the Random Notes section of the June 11, 1998 issue of Rolling Stone magazine on page 24. (This issue had Johnny Depp on the cover.) I would like to thank David, Eddie, John Tyler, JiLL Thomson, Little Jupiter, Andrew and dink for telling me about this. Photos were sent to me by David, Little Jupiter, and John Tyler, and one more anonymous source. The article talks about the sneak preview club tour that Tori did in North America in Spring 1998. They incorrectly stated the number of club shows..there were only twelve.

The small article says:

"I really got nervous & I lost my voice, so i'm taking steroids," TORI AMOS told a sold-out audience at New Yorks's Irving Plaza. "I don't know how weight lifters do it, because I'm craving things right now!" She did not attempt to bench-press her piano. On her brief sixteen-city club tour, Amos previewed her adventurous new album, FROM THE CHOIRGIRL HOTEL. But No worries - she promises plenty of beefed-up favorites when she plays arenas this summer.

Photo Caption: "Amos tickles the ivories for your listening pleasure. Tips accepted."

Read the Album Review and see the photo.

Read the article and album review.

The June 1998 issue of Alternative Press includes a small blurb on Tori and the photo you see to the right. David Kauffman reports that this issue includes a story/review of this summer's tours and gives a brief mention of Tori's tour. The Tori blurb says, "Tori Amos follows up her "Sneak Preview '98 Plugged Tour" of smaller clubs with a larger tour following the release of her new album from the choirgirl hotel in May. As with the club tour, Amos will perform with a full band this time out."