European Plugged '98 Tour
Nottingham, UK
May 29, 1998
Updated July 8, 1998
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European Plugged '98 Tour
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Check Out The Reviews And Set Lists Page Tori performed in Nottingham, U.K. on May 29, 1998 at the Royal Centre during the European leg of her Plugged '98 tour.  Set ListMatt Presidente and Ian Chambers were the first to email me this set list. Black-Dove (January) 1st Encore: Cruel 2nd Encore: Cooling ReviewsFrom Andy Tebbutt + Emma TaylorJuly 8, 1998 - After travelling down to Nottingham by train, we arrived at the Royal Concert Hall at 11:25am. As usual, the crew were already there setting up, and no other fans were about yet. Time passed as we sat in the warm sun and at 12:55pm we met Colin Devlin - lead singer of The Devlins ! - on his way in to the venue. (He happily signed our promo CD's for us and chatted). After that, other fans turned up also hoping for the chance to meet Tori. Around 3pm, a couple of guys appeared and set up two barriers by the stage door, at the top of the steps. 4:20pm saw Tori's tour bus arrive, and reversed up to the barriers, along which about 15 fans were lined up. Joel came up to us all and said that Tori was going off to do yet another local radio interview and will sign for everyone when she gets back. She got off the other side of the bus out of sight of everyone, but came into view behind us all as she got into a waiting car. We saw Steve, Matt and Jon then leave the bus and go into the venue. Before we knew it, Tori re-appeared at 4:55pm at the top of the road (she must have parked at the other end this time !) and walked towards us all from the front of the bus with Joel. She started along the angled barrier 2 people to our left, and was engaged in deep conversation - which sounded very serious, but we didn't look or listen in as it was obviously a private matter. This set the scene for the next 10 minutes or so, as Tori was very quiet and so was the small crowd of waiting fans. It all seemed very muted and subdued compared to the hysteria of Manchester, but when Tori got to us, she remembered our names (as always!), chatted briefly to us and signed our stuff before moving on down the line. It felt wrong to take photo's in these strange circumstances, it's really hard to describe the atmosphere...Tori just didn't seem her usual self. Anyhow, Joel had already begun to glare at us, making us feel guilty for just being there. A venue security guy who'd been 'closely watching' all us fans throughout the afternoon decided to come and stand right in front of us, and we watched as Tori temporarily disappeared around the corner of the two angled barriers as she finished signing. She then turned around to say "bye" and looked down the line one last time before going in down the stage door steps at 5:10pm. Unusually, it didn't take long for all the fans to go, leaving us to sit and wonder just what was wrong. After a while, we got up and went too... Doors opened at 7:00pm and we got in shortly afterwards, heading for the merchandise - as we knew that the tour programmes were on sale for the first time - anyone who HASN'T got one should do, they really are worth the money. We took our front row centre seats, The Devlins came on 8 to 8:30pm, then the moment we were here for arrived! Tori came on at 9:10pm and started with BLACK DOVE - as always for the first two songs, there was a press photographer present, and Tori (as at the other shows) seemed to play up to the guy, giving him the photo's he wants ! Next up was PRECIOUS THINGS, followed by SHE'S YOUR COCAINE. Then, for the first time we'd heard it live, she played JACKIES STRENGTH - this was so beautiful and really moving to hear, you'd just sit there staring up at her totally transfixed by it all. Jon played double bass for this and it was all so beautifully performed. Then came CORNFLAKE GIRL which was well received as ever, then IIEEE - which we think is one of the best album tracks when played live, out of all the 'band/drumming' songs on the album this works best live... Next came HORSES which we now really like, complete with hypnotic glitterball effects. After this, the band left Tori solo and she said "A special night for me because my old sound engineer is here, from Earthquakes days, where it would just be me, Johnny and him, and we'd have to play any piano - well it's funny, life's been pretty good to me now, but somethings are always the same...", and starts to play a beautiful yet sad rendition of SILENT ALL THESE YEARS - nothing against the band here, but to sit and watch Tori play the piano again on her own is something so special, so emotionally charged. After that she said "When I first moved to London I knew nobody, and what do you do when you know no one? You talk to yourself ! And eat a lot of french fries, and get fat ! I sat at home playing the piano all day boring myself to death, and eating french fries, and this song showed up...", and began SISTER JANET. It meant so much to me to hear this as it really means so much to me, lot's of happy personal memories. NORTHERN LAD was next up and the band came back on stage joining in. (Wonder how Mark feels hearing this at the shows ?!). SPARK, then RASPBERRY SWIRL followed - where Matt leaves his drum kit and goes over to his metal drum behind Tori, and bashes the hell out of it ! Finally came THE WAITRESS, a really good extended version, Tori traded licks with Caton in the intro ! After THE WAITRESS, they all came to the front before going off on the left hand side, but when they returned to the stage they confused everyone by coming back on the right hand side ! The encore started with CRUEL (which makes Tori drool every time she plays it !), and then played the wonderful HONEY, my all time favourite song, played beautifully with piano/acoustic guitar/bass etc, even the additional drumming didn't spoil it... After this, Tori came to the front of the stage, then the four of them all went off. She reappeared alone to finish a brilliant concert, she really seemed to have brightened up since this afternoon and was enjoying things. This had turned out to be such a perfect, emotional concert, and to finish the show, Tori said "Someone out there asked me to play this, so I will", and played the rare COOLING. When she'd finished playing, Tori came right to the very front edge of the stage, in front of us and started bowing looking very happy, as everyone was clapping and cheering her. Then something really special happened for me (Emma). Tori was stood right at the edge of the stage, she looked straight down at me (I'm sat in my seat clapping), and smiling broadly, she squats down and puts her hands out and beckons me forward ! I couldn't believe she meant me and as I look up at Tori, pointing at myself in disbelief, she nods and with a beautiful but wicked grin, really motions for me to come up to her. So I got half up (not wanting to look a fool as everyone else was still seated !) and reached out my hand to hers and she pulled me forwards, she was squatted right down on the edge of the stage now and gave me a big loving hug ! (It was as if this was in slow motion - I just couldn't believe this was really happening to me !). Everyone was still clapping, she pulled away, and I sat down with the biggest grin on my face in total disbelief and happiness as she left the stage at 10:40pm, and the lights went up. People on the front row were really staring at me, wondering why she'd done this just for me (including Andy and his brother !) - I don't really know why either ! Sorry if I've gone on too much but I just had to write this. (If anyone is interested, we got engaged at the Manchester Apollo show with eternal thanks to Tori herself, and she knows a lot of personal stuff about the two of us, so maybe that's why she did this tonight. It shows how much she really cares for her fans...) After this incredible high, we managed to run out of the venue around to the barriers by the stage door, there were only 3 people there at first, but it soon filled up. Emma was imaginably still on cloud nine and constantly smiling ! People we know asked if Emma had requested COOLING - but it wasn't her (people were linking the two things together). The band came out and got on the bus and Tori came out at 11:30pm. The same security guy from this afternoon had positioned himself near us yet again giving us the evil eye, but nothing could spoil this special night ! After happily signing and talking to other fans, she got to us and gave Emma another big hug, and said some nice personal stuff to us both, before grabbing the camera off Andy's neck and giving it to an unsuspecting fan, asking her "Would you mind taking a picture of the three of us? They're getting married - it only happened last week at the Manchester show ! They got engaged ! ", so we leant over the barrier for a photo with Tori. We were all so happy and couldn't believe she'd done this for us and was telling other Tori fans ! She then returned to signing stuff for other fans before getting on the tour bus and drove off at 11:38pm. Emma was understandably deliriously happy and Andy was too. What a night. It was the total opposite of the afternoons sombre events - it seemed whatever had troubled her had now passed, and she was back to her usual gorgeous, kind, happy Angelic self! We really do apologise for going on so much (it's becoming a habit we know !), it's just that on our previous 3 reviews/comments we never went through any of the songs, so thought it time we did some too ! It was just such a special night, one we'll never forget. Tori is the most wonderful human being in the world and we wish her as much joy and happiness as she's given us. From John (Torinews mailing list posting)June 2, 1998 - I've noticed reviews on the Dent mention the lack of a tour book - well there was a tour book at Nottingham - lots of nice piccies including a page of wedding pics :) and an extract from Neil Gaiman's Stardust. From JohnJune 2, 1998 - Tori and the band were well into the show last night in Nottingham - from what I've read of Manchester, I don't think it was quite up there, but it must have been close. The Devlins were good - their set wasn't as long as I expected, though I could have just been too busy waiting for Tori :) One difference, according other reviews I've read - there was a tour book on sale - full page pics of Tori and some sea pics, with small pics of rehearsals, shows, the studio in Cornwall (I think) and the wedding (preparations, having her hair and makeup done, pic with dad, pic with mom, group pics) - feels to me a bit like a photo album. The band came on stage and started into Black Dove (January), and Tori walked on to waves of applause. She looked fresh, relaxed and happy. This girl swept through an audience in rapture, and set the night off to a great start. Then she moved into Precious Things - man this is how this girl should be heard - loud and unrestrained. She's Your Cocaine came out to play next, and play she did, this girl really knows how to rock. After this I was lost in her playing (you know how it is), so I don't have the order from here on - apologies if things get confused The other choirgirls who came out were Spark, Raspberry Swirl - and I didn't notice any problems with the synth this time - iieee - oh, I love this girl - Jackie's Strength and Northern Lad and they were joined, in their new party frocks, by Horses - wow, I didn't recognise this 'till I heard her sing 'demons' this is really different, she had the glitterball on for this :):) - Cornflake Girl, The Waitress - gorgeous. These girls were having such fun, partying together :) In the secret time she said her first sound man was there, and how things after LE were really good, going round playing whatever piano places had available, and that in a way they'd never got better - and she played Silent All These Years. Then she talked about being in London for the first time, not knowing anyone, eating french fries and getting fat, and writing a song and she played Sister Janet - it think the audience melted during these two :) She had a standing ovation at the end of the main set - Matt was walking off stage and she called the band together at the front for the applause - she got standing ovations after each encore. First encore - Cruel - didn't see some of the manic faces she showed on Jools Holland, but it was excellent, this is prolly my fave on FtCH now (keeps changing though - prolly be different next week :) ) and Honey. Second encore - she said someone asked her to play this - Cooling This was an excellent night, loved the light show, loved the glitterball and I was close enough to see Matt playing his black oil drum in back of the Bosey. From Ian ChambersJune 2, 1998 - After patiently sitting through the Devlins set (all due credit - they weren't bad at all) and then several interminable songs coming out of the PA, the band, minus Tori took to the stage and set the rhythm for "Black Dove" going. Then she made her grand entrance to rapturous applause and a heavily sarcastic comment from my friend, and non-fan, that it was nice to see she'd made an effort to get dressed up (she was wearing a tight blue top and blue jeans, hair tied back). I had time to shoot him a filthy look before she hit the intro and things were underway. my opinion, and to my chagrin, she peaked with the very next song. "Precious Things" was something else. I cannot describe how incredibly powerful and disturbing (moreso) that song is with the addition of a rhythm section - and a pretty heavy one at that. It was so LOUD! Outstanding. Thankfully, she gave us "She's You Cocaine" which I had noticed had been absent recently from some shows. Where in God's name the reviewer for Q magazine got the idea that that song was "wretched" is beyond me. But no "Liquid Diamonds" :o( Anyways, spot-on versions of "Jackie's Strength," "Cornflake Girl," and "iieee," followed and then she proceeded to play "Horses." Yes, I know anyone who has already seen a show is gonna know what I'm about to say but......WHAT HAS SHE DONE TO IT! Maybe that's a bit harsh because it was such a departure from the original and impossible to follow. This version would not have sounded out of place with the more rocking moments on the new album. Of slight compensation were the lights during this song. It was like sitting in the middle of a blizzard. Giant snowflakes swirling around every available bit of wall. Really beautiful. But the lighting for the entire show was brilliant - "iieee" was also amazing. Well, the blizzard subsided into darkness and Tori reappeared sans band. For the first time that night she addressed the audience. She told us that there was a very special person here tonight - her very first soundman from the "Earthquakes" days. Apparently she, Johnny(?) and this soundman had toured together, way back when, and would show up at a club and play whatever piano they could give her. Then she added cryptically (and I have to paraphrase): "It's strange, since then, things have gotten so much better.....(long pause)......but in some ways, they're exactly the same....." She eased slowly into "Silent All These Years" and the place went nuts. Can you blame us? After finishing, she turned to the audience again and regaled us with the origin of the next song she was going to play. It was written on her first(?) visit to London, when she knew no one at all and would sit by the piano for hours on end, bored rigid with only french fries to keep her alive, which served only to make her fat! I have to confess, I got it wrong. I was under the belief that she was playing "Honey" for the first minute! It took her to actually get to the words "Sister Janet" before the penny dropped.........Strange choice I thought.... The band rejoined her and played "Northern Lad" and "Spark" quite close to the album versions. "Raspberry Swirl" however was even more demented and frantic than ever. "The Waitress" was similarly steroid-enhanced and toward the end, featured a new grafted-on section like "Cruel" had on Jools Hollands show. And with that, she and the band took their bows and left. Natch, she came back, and ripped through "Cruel", during which Steve Caton's playing was noticeably less fiercesome than it had been on the Jools show, and "Honey." Her final encore was, at someone's request, "Cooling." Maybe then this is my one criticism of the night - none of the encores were songs I was especially fond of. That aside, this show just blew me away. No shortage of energy on her part and a band were awesome. Suffice it to say, I was not disappointed. |
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