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Tori performed in Manchester, U.K. on Monday, January 13, 2003 at Manchester Carling Apollo. The opening act was Howie Day.
Set List
Thanks to Alison Zemell for first sending me the set list!
Wampum Prayer
a sorta fairytale
Sugar
Sweet Sangria
Cornflake Girl
Horses
Amber Waves
Precious Things
Wednesday
Band leaves
Winter
Carbon
Crazy
Band returns
Crucify
Talula
Black-Dove (January)
Mary
Take To The Sky
I Can't See New York
Iieee
1st Encore
Space Dog
Tear In Your Hand
2nd Encore
Taxi Ride
Putting The Damage On
Reviews
The latest reviews are at the bottom of this page. For more reviews, please check out the Dent's Tour Reviews Forum. (I will eventually move the forum reviews to this web page as well.) Please post your own review if you were at this show!
From Alison Zemell:
I will send a review when I get back to cheaper London, but here is the setlist from Manchester
Wampum
A Sorta Fairytale
Sugar
Sweet Sangria
Cornflake Girl
Horses
Amber Waves
Precious Things
Wednesday
solo:
winter
improv about Manchester
Carbon
Crazy
Crucify
Talula
Black Dove January
Mary
Take To The Sky
I Can't See New York
iieee
Encore One:
Spacedog
Tear In Your Hand
Encore Two:
Taxi Ride
Putting The Damage On
By the way, she is doing meet & greets before shows.
From Mike Gray:
Back from the second European show now - here's the complete (100% checked) setlist
Wampum Prayer
A Sorta Fairytale
Sugar
Sweet Sangria
Cornflake Girl
Horses
Amber Waves
Precious Things
Wednesday
== Roadside Cafe ==
Improv (I wish I could put you in my pocket and take you to London)
Winter
Carbon
Crazy
== Roadside Cafe ==
Crucify
Talula
Black Dove
Mary
Take To The Sky
I Can't See New York
Iieee
== Encore Break ==
Space Dog
Tear In Your Hand
== Encore Break ==
Taxi Ride
Putting The Damage On
== Show End ==
Notes:
Better overall than the Glasgow show, no problems with the sound tonight, or indeed with the crow due to an active and present Joel. People stood for the encores but this was entirely expected, so no problems at all. A longer show tonight, at about 2:10, coming onstage at around 8:45, finishing about 10:55.
Off to Show #3, then...
From Jo and Barm:
Hello - Jo and Barm in Leeds, Just got back from the Manchester concert.
The show started with Wampum Prayer which Tori sang off stage. Tori came onstage, she was wearing a dress which looked olive green and brown patterned (It kinda looked like leaves) with long flowing sleeves, purple on the right, green on the left. Under the dress she wore three quarter length jeans which frayed at the bottom and long black high heel boots. She had her hair down with a purple hairclip with ribbon on it. She looked very pretty.
We won't cover the set list as it has already been sent in but we made some notes:
Firstly the lighting. It was stunning but we were sitting in the circle, and a lot of the time it was shining towards us, making Tori hard to see. One song where the lighting really stood out was "I can't see New York" As Tori sang "circling down through white cloud, falling out" the white lights slowly lowered. The green & orange/brown spotlights outlining the stage that first appeared at the chorus of Sugar was splendid, and during "Wednesday" vaguely flowerlike patterns were rotating on the backdrop, which appeared to be a silhouette of mountains with a road painted along it. Probably like all the other shows (?)
After "Sugar" she spoke to the crowd a bit. She said something similar "How's it going? Some of you know that two of my favourite people are up here on stage... John Evans on guitar and Matt Chamberlain on drums." Then she started talking about her daughter: "My daughter tonight is two years old." - this is the phrase she used, is it Natashya's birthday? Then something along the lines of "if you see (something) running around, it's her" - or similar. "Tashya said 'Mummy, wait.' She took my hands and we sang ring a ring'o'roses, a pocket full of posies,". Then something about the "tissues" bit, because it's England. "Then Tashya said 'now go rock!'"!
When the band left, the "Roadside Cafe" sign came down. She sang "here" for a bit, and it turned into Winter.
Then she did an improvisationy thing:
"How have things been with you
In Manchester I ask you
For me kind of strange
Lost a friend Kevin
My little girl
Says Arsenal"... instead of mommy? Something like that... "Fuck it though She's my baby
I wish I could take you
In my pocket
In my pocket to London".
Apologies if that's not entirely accurate, notes are hard to make in the dark!
After Carbon she said "OK, I usually don't do this, but I had a wild hair in my butt." and played Crazy. Then more "here here here"s, which turned into Crucify. She had her arms crossed for part of this.
Then the Roadside Cafe sign went up and the band came on stage, while Tori nipped backstage. For a drink, I reckon.
The band played some music till she came back on, and then she sang Talula.
During Take To The Sky, she tapped/slapped the piano with her right hand while playing the bass left hand rhythm.
That's about it, apologies if it doesn't make sense, it's now nearly 1:30 am! I made some notes on which instrument she was playing during each song, but as I didn't know what they were I was referring to them as "bottom left keyboard", "keyboard on top of piano", etc. I can type these up if you want them! Setlist corresponds to my notes.
Cheers for the great site!
From Mark Ramsden:
Hi this was my sixth time that i have seen Tori and i have to say it was my favourite concert - she was just soooooooooooo good.
Had a very cool dress one which i want - a peacock feather bodice with one purple sleeve and one aqua/green sleeve and killer brown boots
Wampum Prayer
a sorta fairytale
-came out and this was gorge, really good sound. Nice to hear the complete version
Sugar
- nearly wet myself when she did this one, big fuck off sound, fantastic
Sweet Sangria
- one of my fav's of scarlets walk, was playing piano and keyboards on this - excellent
Cornflake Girl
- big cheer for this one, prefered it done like this. Lurved the purr in the this
Horses
- didn't know what this was at first - very similar to the way she was doing it on the Plugged tour - very slow
Amber Waves
- this was cool, played both keyboards and piano - very funky again
Precious Things
- this was amazing. Nearly died when i heard the intro - been far too long since i have seen her do this. The "girl" part was just tremendous. This kicked some serious ass
Wednesday
- This was really jaunty and brilliant. Chorus was fab and very bouncy
Band leaves
Winter
- a little improv beforehand and then into winter - just brilliant, really really brilliant
Carbon
- another improv. Carbon was just fantastic , very hairs standing up on back of neck - loved it
Crazy
- "Ok i dont usually do this, but i had a wild hair in my butt" Then Crazy solo, fabulous, best Scarlets Walk song all night i felt
Band returns
Crucify
- this is too cool , good to watch her do this live- the new version is astounding
Talula
- this again was a different version but better for it, looser and really upbeat
Black-Dove (January)
- excellent , the "have to get to Texas" had all the front rows bouncing
Mary
- this was my favourite part of the show. Have always wanted to hear Mary live and it was excellent, couldn't fault this at all and then it was
Take To The Sky
- which i have always wanted to hear. She was slapping the piano and it was funky, fabulous and so cool.
I Can't See New York
- very nice, brought the mood right down , very good song done perfectly, playing piano and keyboards
Iieee
- very loud - was playing th epiano and a little keyboard which was on top of the bosey. This had on , i think, backing vocals, good to see this girl again
1st Encore
Space Dog
- everyone was standing up now. Fabulous ,
Tear In Your Hand
- as good as ever.
2nd Encore
Taxi Ride
- well cool i love this, a looser feel live but in no way the worse for it
Putting the damage on
- Perfect end to end the show. Absolutely gorgeous, i had tears at the end.
As i said the best show i have seen her do.
From Tessa:
Well, it seems I've brought a bit of America to the UK. Too bad it was the bad bit. I'm speaking of the stage rushing I, and I'm sure many others, have reported happening during the last two shows in Glasgow & Manchester. Funny thing is that I'd heard that the europeans were cooler, more laid back, than us Americans - that they held on to some semblance of manners and didn't stand in others way. (Ask any Brit about queing - standing in line.With a smile they will state they do it betterthan anyone.)I'd reported my frustrations to the dent, precious things, etc. last tour regarding the stage rushing, it seemed to be getting worse and worse as the years went by, last tour being the worst. Now I'm living in the UK and was SO looking forward to seeing Tori without all that BS - NO such luck! I can report that the stage rushing IS as bad here as it is there. Only here people seem LESS used to it happening and so get MORE pissed off by it happening. I saw two fights due to the standing, one resulting in some pretty outta hand pushing. To me this is all very confusing. I'm sorry but didn't T state that people should be sitting during the show, saying there shouldonlybe stage rushing during the encores? And yet it seemed T was happy to have the crowd close by, at least at the Glasgow show. Joel has been spoken to about this. We'll see if its any better tonight in Wolverhampton and in London, thurs & fri. See if it continues across europe.
Someone asked me why I thought this was happening here now. I do have a theory. The computer age. Many fans are online, read the dent, precious things, tori forums, etc. Certainly the european fans have read that stage rushing is an issue in the states. They must think: If they can do it, then why can't we? And so they do.
It just doesn't seem to pay off paying for front seats anymore as the cheap seats people just come and steal our view. Maybe a tazer is in order. (Half kidding/half serious, it's a struggle, which side will win?!?)
Can't see you posting this. Not really posting material, I'd prefer to write something after all the UK shows, maybe another after the europe shows. (Something more positive. There's so much good stuff to write about, she's doingreally well:-) But maybe you can reiterate the statement T released about people sitting during the show?
Note From Mikewhy: I thank you for you calm and well reasoned email and decided to post it in the reviews section. Tori did indeed state in a recent article that she would prefer people to sit during the main set and only stand during the encores. You can find that article, from the December 4, 2002 Rocky Mountain News, here.
From Stef in Blackpool:
First, the good news :-
Tori's in great form.
Winter, Carbon and Crazy made for a stunning solo selection. A great set selection with a good mix of old and new. Terrific light show that fitted the songs perfectly. Well-behaved audience.
Now, the bad news :-
Yep, it's the sound system again.
Sitting in the rear stalls (underneath the Circle), the bass was just overwhelming, especially during the first half of the show, drowning out a lot of Tori's vocals and keyboards.
From Beth Spiller:
Great concert.
Problems? The people around us not seeming to be able to calm down - swapping seats, moving around so just so you'd got so you could see you had to move again, walking out from the middle of the row during a song and coming back 10 seconds later - I mean, I'm not expecting people to still totally still, but please don't talk or move around so much during songs - wait til between songs and you'll be much more popular! And the lack of signposting to the Apollo didn't help either....
Tori however was great. It's nice to know that the excess of drums and bass in ASF wasn't just due to us sitting on the far left - it's a shame it was a problem but I'm just glad it was sorted so fast.
The story about Tash was sweet and having been there last year when her little story was interrupted by someone shouting it was nice that she got to finish this time - there weren't so many people shouting out random song names this time. Speaking of which - I'm not sure if she was thinking about that when deciding what to play as last time 'Space Dog' was dropped in favour of 'Here in my Head'. It was great to hear it!
Although she missed out the 'Deck the halls' bit and sang the 'so sure' bit again instead - not sure if she normally does this but someone shouted just before that bit started so maybe she was distracted?
The improv about Manchester was great - some man I think in the circle shouted 'run away with me Tori' between a couple of lines which got a laugh. He shouted a couple of other things which I missed but when noone reacted again I think he shut up.
During one song (I can't remember which - anyone?) she was making a gesture raising her hand off her leg which from our angle looked like she was, errrrm, doing something rather dodgy - someone called something and she looked and grinned and I got the feeling she was thinking 'yes, it does look like that!'
In Putting the Damage On Jon Evans played a double bass rather than bass guitar which was good.
She seemed really happy, far much more than last time and it was a great great concert to see. Not *overly* thrilled with everyone going to the front for the encores, but it wasn't a major disruption - could still see fine standing up from where we were, but we did feel bad for the rather short girls behind us.....
From Steven Mcilroy:
WOW! The concert was amazing. I don't want to write much as people have already written a lot about the show.
I was very impressed with 'iieee' and the lights were were spectacular. I thought that during the first 3/4 songs the bass and drums drowned out the piano:( But it all went swell after that.
I was very surprised to hear Carbon as I thought there was no-way I'd ever hear it live, but she did it and I screamed out "thank you Tori". I'm sure it'll be on a bootleg:>
I was one of the lucky ones to walk down to the stage and stand with my elbows leaning on the stage, taking photos, while Tori was performing. It was amazing, seeing Tori's hands/fingers move sooooo close up.
During Precious Things a girl walked down to the front adn stood in the middle, took 2 photos and walked back. No-one really cared! When another girl walked down to the front and stood in the middle of the stage, Joel quickly moved her along, and not in a nice way either, he gave her a right shove and good on him!
The meet and greet was VERY late and we were waiting for hours, but she eventually came out and it was the best meet and greet I had ever been too. I got a photo with her and took many more and she signed my All These Years book so I'm thrilled.
I was sooooooooo happy to see my Tori friends: Lucy, Gemma etc! And to meet new ones: NIC (finally we meet), Alison, Colette. That's another things that's soooooooo great about Tori concerts, meeting new people.
From ScaryDan:
the concert last night was great! i got to meet tori before-hand and got to speak to her briefly (just a hi and stuff) which was great. as much as she seems really wacky in interviews, she was just like a normal person there, talking to everyone, and telling us all about her daughter and stuff, it was nice. everyone that i spoke to in the crowd there were nice. it was great, everyone was nice, which was good because i'd heard horror stories about meet and greets, so i'm glad it was good. tori was late (she had to go in and do "mum stuff" - she told us tash was a bit stroppy about being woken up at 3:30am to leave glasgow to come to manchester), but everyone (about 35-40 people) waited and chatted and it was great.
the hall was really nice. i was in row J, but right on the edge. the only thing we couldn't see was matt - tori and jon we could see perfectly. this was a slight bummer, because i love watching the drummer go! the sound was really good where i was sitting and the light show was amazing! tori had the most amazing dress on too, all looking like peacock feathers. she played a great mix of songs, none of them disappointing at all, and a few surprises in there. I won't print the setlist, as you've already got it up.
it was just too good - "mary" was a surprise, as was "crazy" played solo on the piano, and my personal highlights were "horses", "crazy", "putting the damage on", "take to the sky" and "sweet sangria". but it was all BRILLIANT! i can't say how amazing it was :) it was the best kind of setlist - about half what you really really wanted to hear, the other half totally surprising or stuff you didn't even consider, and great. and i was pleased that nobody clapped along with "take to the sky" - that really bugs me for some reason. dunno why it just does!
i took some photos at the meet and greet, some turned out okay, most didn't, i was too far back. i didn't take photos at the show and, until the encores, security were telling people not to take photos. i was really pleased with the security, they appeared to do a good job, and everyone behaved really well, it was a great crowd from my point of view, respectful of each other and really excited and energetic at the same time. apart from a few odd people who were asked to sit down by security, nobody stood up until the encores. this may differ from wherever you're sitting, but i thought it was great.
well, for a first time tori concert-goer (i flew over to the UK from australia for the concerts) i really couldn't think of how to make it a better gig - here's to more in the future!
From B:
Manchester was my favorite so far of the three UK shows. There was an extra "feeling" about it, and the setlist was my personal favorite so far. Tori was in a particularly great mood it seemed. Plus I had a fantastic seat!
Highlights for me:
Sugar. ALWAYS good. It's hard not to like this song in any form, at least for me. It was very powerful, dark. And - on the "you're just a pussy" part, "pussy" ECHOED, which was just so very cool. The extra emphasis on it was great hee hee
Carbon. Wow. This was just.... breathtaking. It's one of my favorites off Scarlet, and her voice was so clear, rich, beautiful, so feeling. I had chills the whole time. It almost totally overwhelmed me, actually. Really really amazing.
Crazy. I'm not a big fan of this song on the album, but live solo, it was beautiful. It made me see it in a whole new light.
IIEEE!!!!! Ok, this song was great in Glasgow, but Manchester's seemed particularly spectacular. I don't know why. But I think they smoothed out anything they might not have liked from Glasgows show in Manchester's, because this simply blew my mind. Oh my. The lights and the power in it - especially the "just say yes" part. WOW. WOW WOW WOW. Talk about a great way to end the main set. I had full body chills. Superb!!!
Space Dog. I've never heard this live with the band before, and it was great. It's a personal favorite of mine, so I really loved hearing it. I missed the "Navy girls" bit she has done in tours past, but it was still wonderful.
Putting the Damage On. My first time ever hearing this one live! I've managed to miss it up until then every show. Beautiful, of course. SO glad I finally heard it :)
Definitely a great show. My favorite of the three so far. I hope London's are as powerful. That Iieee..... yowza.
From Suzanne, Doncaster:
Well what can I say - EXCELLENT!
The first Tori concert I've managed to get to (helps to have a car! and check places for tickets I guess!). Everyones pretty much said about the great set list, lighting etc etc, so I'll just say how great it was to see Tori play live after all these years! Stayed over in Manchester afterwards (that damn M60 - lack of sign posting methinks after ending up in Terminal 2 of the airport!!) which was great. Just wished I'd known about the 'meet and greet' afterwards. I saw the crowds hanging around but thought it would be an invasion of Tori's (and of course her family's) privacy to stick around. Gutted now though! Have to make a complaint about the people with ants in their pants though!! Sit down and enjoy!! Overall excellent concert though! Will definitely keep a close eye on the tour dates in the future though!!! Thanks for the great site too!
From Lauren:
This was the first time I've seen Tori live and i have to say, I was absolutely blown away. The sound quality, the lighting, her talent...ALL brilliant! My favourite song of the whole night has to be 'Winter', it made my eyes fill up...i just love that song and it sounded really beautiful live.
I was up in the circle, which was a bit far away but i still had a really decent view so i didn't care...the ppl around me weren't even tapping their feet or anything.......didn't stop me from tapping the piano melody out and bobbing my head around!
can i just mention the support guy...Howie Day....no one seems to have mentioned any support in the reviews i've read so b4 i went i was beginning to wonder if there was any but i'm gald there was...he was brilliant aswell...just a guy with a guitar you might think...but no...he just sampled and looped and did all sorts of effects right infront of us making his own backing track right there and then...excellent! my boyfriend bought his cd after, he was in the foyer talkign to ppl at the end aswell.
anyway, ,back to Tori...I was sooo satisfied with the whole set....i was really hoping she'd play 'precious things' ,'crucify' , 'space dog,' amber waves', 'winter' and she did all of them....it couldn't have been much better. I loved the lead up to 'precious things', it was quite disguised to begin with but i turned to my boyfriend and said, ' is it precious things?!' and then it was and it was fantastic!
i really like how dynamic and flexible her voice is...one second it's perfectly clear, the next it has a crack in it, one minute she's practically screaming lyrics out the next shes quitely breathing! she is such an inspiration for my music.
with the lighting there were loads of quirky little bits...i liked this one bit with like a green turning light projected onto the stage, just on its own...it looked really interesting....and there was this purple and yellow light which came up twice during the show, once at the back over the map and once literally on the walls and over our heads which i just really liked!!
The bit about Natashya was really good, i saw Tori on 'V Graham Norton' last night and she happened to mention she is 2 years and 3 months so it can't have been her birthday on Monday.
overall, the whole thing was excellent, i couldn't fault it...i really really enjoyed myself and considering the tickets were an 18th birthday present that just made it better i certainly won't forget it! I'd definitly see her again, can't wait to see wat she's got up her sleeve next!
From The Guardian newspaper:
From Manchester News:
From the Manchester Evening News & Manchester Metro News:
From Lee:
Having read the Manchester Metro review of Tori&Mac226;s Carling Apollo concert on The Dent I felt compelled to defend her honour, and have been exchanging stroppy e-mails with the editor ever since. Am sending you a copy of the e-mails, which are not always pleasant! As the editor writes him/herself they only went because they were given free tickets - which says it all really. Gave up when I realised the editor seemed to be suffering some sort of hideous nervous breakdown. For any future correspondence the e-mail address is editormanmetro@journalist.com
Lee
----------letters below ------
Dear Manchester Metro,
Am writing in response to Simon Spence's review of the Tori Amos concert at the Carling Apollo on January 17th. I realise nobody pays attention to reviews because by they are by nature smug and objective but my God, were you at the concert? It wasn't even the scathing critique of La Amos that offended me so much as your lazy, badly researched tabloid journalism. Crap cliches aside, you review songs she didn't do (Leather, Mrs Jesus) and describe how she 'rounded off' with Cornflake Girl, which is what 'everyone had been waiting for all along' apparently. It was the fifth song she performed that night, and as somebody who's loved everything she's done since 1992, I think it's safe to say nobody goes to a Tori concert for Cornflake Girl. I appreciate we do not live under fascist rule and that you are entitled to dismiss folk as 'mad' and 'self-obsessed' if you wish, but your review was horribly written and I don't know why you bothered. Still, at least it was so vague that all you need to do is change the date and you can reprint it next time she tours.
Thank you for your recent email which has been passed to me for comment. We believe the review adequately reflects the content and style of the concert based on our attendance at the concert and from discussions with others. It is clear from your comments that you are a serious fan of Torry Ammos so it is possible that our brief yet pertinent review ws not objectively by you? As my staff say to me..."you should get out more". Perhaps your view of the concert was clouded by sentimental issues? To be frank we are a free paper and do not have the resources of the paid papers; we do though commit more space and comment for artists of a greater stature. For example, we would use a specialist to review concerts at the MEN Arena where the larger artists perform. I hope that you otherwise enjoy your free copy of the Metro
Dear Editor,
Thank you for your thoughtful response to my recent e-mail regarding your review of Tori Amos (or Torry Ammos, in Manchester Metro speak) at the Apollo. As thanks for taking the time to get back to me might I offer a piece of constructive criticism from which I feel you might benefit? For sarcasm to be truly effective one must be sure to spell those o so witty comments correctly and not rely on phrases like 'you should get out more' - though I'm sure it was really quite amusing and scathing in its day. As I said in my original e-mail what I objected to was the amount of errors in the review itself. If you're going to feign a superiority complex you should at least do a good job of it. Free paper or not it was a flowery, cliched, crap review. But other than that I really enjoy my free copy of the Manchester Metro - keep up the good work!
Lee
I am pleased that you do enjoy the paper. However I resent the tone of your reply. You people get on my tits - ok, you're obsessed with some AM rock star who only plays the smaller venues in town. why do you think everyone else is remotely bothered in what happened? Jesus, we only do reviews becasue we get free tickets. Its hardly leading edge journalsim is it? Why dont you concentrate on your life rather than taking the piss out of us? We do a great job and dont need anoraks like you getting anal. Go watch some other "stars" and your musical apprecaition will broaden, perhaps then you may be competent to do a review for us. I have to go to enjoy fine food and wine. So do me a favour and stick your Torry albums up your arse.
Dear Editor,
My God! Thanks for sharing that with me. It was like The Office meets The Shining, or something. I appreciate The Metro is a free paper and am sure you're doing your job admirably. But as you said yourself you only went because you got free tickets, and I felt this was apparent in the dismissive tone of your review. Hence my original e-mail. After receiving two highly persona, highly unprofessional replies from yourself this is where I would ordinarily point out you're hardly editor of The Times, and not exactly qualified to comment on the competence of my own writing. But I realise you're just doing your job and have found your e-mails entertaining, if nothing else. I could be cattier (a quality at which you excel incidentally) but am sure you're a lovely person when you're not editing reviews of Tori concerts and advocating stadium rock. If I seem like a boy bitch I apologise, but... I'm bored of all this now. Don't take my criticism to heart because it's just my point of view... and I really, really don't need a reply. Am off for a cup of sugary tea and some sedatives.
From the London newspaper Independent On Sunday
From Alison Zemell:
I know it has been a while, so I won't bother to write a full review or a review for the 2 London shows (although the 2nd London show was the best of the UK tour, and not just because of my front row seats). But I just wanted to write a little about Manchester meet & greet. And also to say how great this tour has been. I know most people like Tori when it is just her and the piano, but personally I love the plugged tours. The passion and intesity that made us all fall in love with Tori really comes across.
I was the 2nd person to arrive at the Manchester m & g. We waited in the windy cold for hours. Everyone was so so nice. At one point they started setting up a barrier far from where we were, so we all rushed over. But then they changed it again. Each time I was able to get right to the front. Tori arrived, but went inside to do "mommy stuff." She didn't come out again until 5:00. But it was great. She was really relaxed, and so we stayed for a long time. There were about 50 people by this point, and she did manage to talk to many of them. She mentioned to someone how there was a nice pink scarf inside, and maybe she would do a "Winona." When she got to me, I was able to get a picture with her. I also requested a different song from YKTR, but she laughed, before she said "we will see", so it doesn't look hopeful.
The show was incredible of course. I just wanted to thank everyone I met. British ears with feet are incredible. They really made the 4 shows I saw the best part of my trip so far in the UK.
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