From: owner-precious-things-digest To: precious-things-digest@smoe.org Subject: precious-things-digest V1 #31 Reply-To: precious-things@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-precious-things-digest Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "precious-things-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. precious-things-digest Monday, 18 March 1996 Volume 01 : Number 031 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Beware the braindrain Re: receipt functions For TA and KB completists Re: For TA and KB completists what language? no, dutch! Re: For TA and KB completists Re: Talula's video Tori in George Two sad hours with Tori... (The Hague, NL) Dutch pilots in 'Not the Red Baron' Tori Live in The Netherlands, 15/16 March ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: carlgjf@mbox.vol.it Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 19:53:53 +0100 Subject: Beware the braindrain Hi my newfound friends, This is my first message here, so I wish you a time of wonder. Unfortunately I can send off something just once a week! So if you already made up your mind about something a few days ago... at times, truth echoes faintly in the deep wells of Faerie, and it fears the rising tide. 1) Musicianship I don't think I care the least if Tori is or isn't more gifted than Grieg or Rachmaninov, and I don't think _she_ cares a bit either. Personally if _I_ were to wonder, before doing a thing, whether my talent's up to it, I would have killed myself at an early age. What I mean is that, basically, anyone is the most gifted being at the most exhilarating job around: being oneself. What's special about Tori is just a matter of being herself. When I was small I could play Gershwin too, but I could never write a Torisong, and personally now I feel no need to: I can buy her records! Everyone of you guys could play Chopin blindfolded if you had ten hours a day to practice, but I hope you found something better to do. I love Tori for what she is and what she reminds me to be; I don't care about godly whims. 2) Torispeech Are Torilyrics weird??! Ever read Bradbury, or Shakespeare, or... Neil, maybe? There is not such thing as logic language. Language is not logic, it's the realm of Faerie. Saying a word means casting a spell. Hey, when cavemen invented the word 'ice', they brought fresh air to a hot African summer. And there's another thing. They didn't come up with music after bumping against a rock. They just listened to their own breath, cause breathing is all they needed: accent, rhythm, movement. When Tori talks or plays she is just breathing deep and feeling life. You may say she makes no sense; but she hasn't got to. Her music and her words are resounding inside her, and spreading out they become ripples in our souls. That's why I think wondering which of music and words comes first makes no sense. Before them both, it comes life; and it's the same that happens when _we all_ communicate, not just Tori! As a conclusion, the one of you guys who said that we should all be composing is a genius. See ya, a November twinkle ********************************************* "This ain't a .sig but I just can't shut up" ------------------------------ From: "Sister Ray" Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 19:14:59 CET Subject: Re: receipt functions ** On 15 Mar 96, Michael Curry wrote: > OK, the use of receipt functions (on for example Pegasus) is a >no-no for subscribers. No one wants to see receipt notices cloggin >up the list. So if you use a mail progam with a receipt function >either deactivate it or unsubscribe. ::: This was me. I'm sorry, but i accidentally put the 'confirm reading' button on. This wasn't done to annoy anyone, either to see whether all of you were reading my postings... sorry Mike! Sis. *********************************************************************** SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SCENE! - ----------------------------------------------------------------------- email: sisterra@pi.net Sister Ray Headqtrs. or email: sisterra@mediaport.org (<20kB) url homepage: http://mediaport.org/~sisterra - ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "Het is alleen maar een echte schrijver gegeven zijn verhalen niet schrijven maar te leven." - Ronald Giphart *********************************************************************** ------------------------------ From: Kerry White Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 17:33:32 -0600 (CST) Subject: For TA and KB completists Hello, Disclaimer: There are those that would be disturbed by this(nudity) but there are those that would want to know: A skin mag titled Celebrity Sleuth has the names Kate Bush and Tori Amos on the cover this month. KaTe is just a copy in B+W of the poster in the skin tight workout suit. Tori is a photo from the Oz tour: seated on the piano bench w/out underwear. Apparently mentioned in Aus. newsrags. She *had* to know this would happen,IMHO. Liz Phair, Melissa Etheridge,Courtney Love and others are also present. KrW "They said it couldn't be done but sometimes that doesn't work either" ------------------------------ From: MATH TRIED ERR Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 20:19:20 -0500 (EST) Subject: Re: For TA and KB completists Hi! While I'm not going to run out and buy this wonderful publication for myself, thanks to Kerry for posting the info. I'm sure some of us just have to have *everything* -- well, there you go. :} Is there any sort of an interview? +===========================================================================+ |Meredith Tarr meth@delphi.com| |Boonton, NJ USA http://remus.rutgers.edu/~woj/meth/| +===========================================================================+ |"I used to be hard as candy, but I've been sucked on too long" - The Nields| +===========================================================================+ ------------------------------ From: MATH TRIED ERR Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 20:23:32 -0500 (EST) Subject: what language? no, dutch! Hi! Richard Holmes inquired: >Does anyone find "Bells for Her" to be one of the most moving and sad >songs... hints of magic and its loss are the images which prance before my >ears when I hear this. And the threat of this as being inevitable. Does >anyone else feel this way about the song... Yes, and yes. It still has the power to bring tears to my eyes when I hear it. Maleen eludicated: >Blood Roses: >Someone mentioned the "Possessing the Secret of Joy" reference in this one >"chickens get a taste of your meat." For those who haven't read >the book, in the story, young girls meet with the fate of having their >genitals excised and fed to chickens. Yuck. "Blood Roses" was the first song written for the album, so it is certainly possible that she still had _Possessing The Secret of Joy_ on her mind with regard to her breakup when she wrote it. (I do think it's about her separa- tion from Eric, in the context of the Alice Walker imagery you describe.) >Some thoughts on the album, Please remember this was written before the >censorship ruling and I don't think it would retain it's integrity were I >to edit it... Well, the ruling has been put on hold thanks to an injunction. In any case, I don't think you should worry about it. I don't think the CIA has found out about this list yet, it's too new. >Tori always ends her albums with some self goal. Interesting observation -- hadn't thought of that before, but you're right! >Doughnut Song, Tori sings "Had me a trick and a kick and your message," >(We dated, you knocked me up, you dumped me.) Just for the sake of pedantic nitpickery, the line is "Hand me a trick..." >"two sons too many too many able fires" (clashing of the egos). It's "two SUNS", isn't it? That makes more sense in the context of finding another satellite, and the able fires. Pedantic nitpickery again, sorry! :) And even more solidly in the "be careful what you wish for" department, we have Don's wonderful dissection of CaLS. :) >[Into the valley of death (love? =Liebestod=?) rode Tori Amos...] >=I'm hiding it well Sister Ernestine= > >[trying to suppress her sexual urges as she was taught by her >religious upbringing? I'm not sure she's using "Sister" in that >sense here, though.] It's hard to tell -- Methodists don't have religious orders, but she's mentioned nuns before ("the nuns out in the yard"). This is definitely a stretch, but maybe her evil grandmother's name was Ernestine? She mentions her father by name later on ("Ed is watching my every sound"). kitty posted: >i HAD to see that woman's hands caressing those keys. i still get >teary when i hear solos like cornflake girl's, because any of who who play, >you KNOW how difficult and masterful her playing is. I love to watch her play as well. You can see the music flowing through her, the way she raps her knuckles on the piano above the keyboard for rhythm (as as aside, is the clacking noise we hear at the beginning of "Muhammad My Friend" over the opening notes the sound of her mood ring striking the body of the piano?) and moves with it. The video for "Cornflake Girl" is pretty fluffy in general, but the image during the solo of her spinning on the playground merry-go-round moving her hands up and down her body as though she were the keyboard is one of the most striking of any of her videos, and certainly one of the most moving I've ever seen. In those few frames we see her essence flying free. Sis inquired: >::: And i still have another question to which no one seems to know >the answer. Is there an instrumental version of 'Winter'? Not that I know of, no. We've got all the singles except for maybe one or two, and I know what's on the ones we're missing, so I'd say it's safe to say no on that count. >::: Are you fanatic?! :) Why yes, yes I am. Thanks for noticing. :) :) :) >::: No matter what the genre? I think the genre _does_ matter. I >don't think Ms Amos will ever play or write something which isn't in >the line of what she plays now. I'm not so sure about that. I don't expect her to pull a Paul McCartney and suddenly start getting her work premiered by the London Symphony Orchestra, but I wouldn't be surprised to see more jazz or blues elements showing up in her music down the road. There are certainly some blues qualities to "Little Amsterdam" and "In The Springtime of His Voodoo". >She will never experiment with other >instruments, with other styles. Did she tell you this herself? >Oke, she plays on Boys For Pele on a >harpsichord, ... and a clavichord. >but i also recently saw an intervieuw in which she said >that no instrument is like an Bosendorfer (did i spell it correct?). >She saids it in very straight way, like she will never play on >something else. A Boesendorfer is a brand of piano. In Tori's opinion it's the best kind of piano, which is why she has an exclusive contract with the Boesendorfer factory to play only their pianos. But that only applies to *pianos*. We've already seen her branch out to other keyboard instruments. Who's to say that she won't branch out even farther in future? If she wants to open her next album with a 15-minute kazoo concerto, the Boesendorfer company won't care, just as long as the pianos she plays elsewhere on the album were made by their factory. That's what she means when she says she will never play on anything else. She's talking only about pianos. >And i don't think you're 'one of the most gifted >musicians' when you're confined to an instrument like her. Andres Segovia "confined" himself to the classical guitar, and I don't see anyone knocking him off the top of the list of the most gifted guitarists in history for it. That just doesn't make sense. >And i >don't think that either of someone who plays al the songs in the same >genre. First of all, do we even know what genre Tori falls into? "Alternative"? What the hell does that mean? Same with "Modern Rock", "Pop", etc. She's a musician. Secondly, I think the language barrier is giving you trouble here. I meant that no matter where you look, you're going to have to search long and hard to find a musician with raw talent that's comparable to Tori's. I'm not saying it can't be done, but it is going to be a challenge. Sorry if that was unclear. >::: No matter the period? I'm not quit sure, but i've heard >somewhere that those composers of classical pieces, those opera's, >symphonies etc (like Mahler, Bach, etc) wrote them, the _whole_ >pieces, every part, every singel violin, evry triangle without the >orchestra. Just by thinking what it would sound like when a full >orchestra would play it. A whole orchestra in your head, and >controling very part of it, knowing what every one's playing. Thta's >big, that's gifted. And i guess there are others who are as gifted >as Ms Amos is like you say it. Again, the language problem... sorry! :) By "Period." I meant "That's it. End of discussion. Basta." Though I do think that if Tori set out to write herself an opera she could probably do a pretty damn good job of it. :) >::: So what? I know a lot of ppl who can play the stars from the sky, >but it's not a reason to adore them! Most of the ppl who are >recognized early to be a gifted musician get arrogant when they grow >up. I don't like them, even when they play the best i've ever heard. >No offence - i'm not saying Ms Amos's arogant. Gifted are those who >are able to talk normally to other ppl, and when they can play piano >like i've never heard before it's nice, but it's not the main point. I'm not sure I understand what you're getting at here, but that's okay. It sounds negative, and I'm not in a very negative frame of mind right now, so let's just leave it at that and move on. :) >::: i already used my brains while listening to music, i did already >before i even heard a single thing of Ms Amos. I wasn't saying that *you* didn't, I was talking about "the masses". You know, the people who actually buy Mariah Carey albums and vote for the People's Choice Awards. >::: No, it's not great! I recently saw an interview on the dutch >television. Two of my friends, both love to hear Ms Amos playng too, >watched it too. One fell asleep after a while, That's a matter of taste, I guess. I love rambling, slightly surreal diatribes that actually make me go, "Wow, I never thought of it that way before". But I can certainly understand how that could turn one off. It also makes it harder to deal with if someone is rambling about in a foreign language, using phrases that aren't going to come through very well in translation. I've been there, and I understand. Chris Boek chimed in: >I'm sure Meredith will correct me if I've strayed from her point >:) No, you got it pretty much right, Chris. :) >Subtitles :). Speaking of Nederlands, has anybody worked out the Dutch >words that are being spoken during "Not the Red Baron" ? I picked up >a word or two, and am curious to try and find our what's being said. >If I pick up anything coherent, I'll let yuz all know ... Funny... earlier this week I was sent on a business trip, and brought a CD Walkman and BfP with me. Late at night in the hotel I listened to the album through headphones for the first time. I'm sorry to say that I was totally wiped out from traveling and thus drifted in and out of sleep through most of it (*strange* dreams, though - yipe!), but at the beginning of "Not The Red Baron" when Tori says, "What language?" I almost jumped out of my skin and was wide awake for the rest of the album. :) Looking forward to future musical-related posts from Chris... +===========================================================================+ |Meredith Tarr meth@delphi.com| |Boonton, NJ USA http://remus.rutgers.edu/~woj/meth/| +===========================================================================+ | "nothing's gonna stop me from floating" - Tori Amos | +===========================================================================+ ------------------------------ From: Kerry White Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 19:48:17 -0600 (CST) Subject: Re: For TA and KB completists Hello, On Sun, 17 Mar 1996, MATH TRIED ERR wrote: > Hi! > > While I'm not going to run out and buy this wonderful publication for myself, > thanks to Kerry for posting the info. I'm sure some of us just have to have > *everything* -- well, there you go. :} > > Is there any sort of an interview? > Darn it!!!!! Yes!! I forgot!! Some of Tori's earthier comments have been collected. Reactions to German audiences yelling for her to strip. Why she really wanted to stop doing "lounge" act: (paraphrase as I don't have mag withme to quote): 'It got to the point that it was no different from giving a (term for oral sex) to the president of Merril-Lynch.' I cannot be held for any lies in quotation marks in the mag. KrW "Pastor Flash..are you all right?" "I'm ok, Bob, just a little argument with my co-pilot!" ------------------------------ From: HppyPhntom@aol.com Date: Sun, 17 Mar 1996 21:05:19 -0500 Subject: Re: Talula's video In a message dated 96-03-16 10:18:45 EST, nick@thisbe.demon.co.uk (Nicholas) writes: >Has anyone seen the full version MTV of Talula?? Is it out on the Europe >MTV? Well, i've just seen about half of the video (cut in the beginning >and at the end). > > for some strange reason....i never catch any of tori's video's on mtv....maybe they dont like me...my friend tells me that he's seen them a million times... ------------------------------ From: "Lucy M Carey" Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 00:25:50 -0500 (EST) Subject: Tori in George Tori is in the new issue of George magazine, with Howard Stern on the cover. There is about a two page interview. Haven't read it yet, or seen it, I heard about it from someone else! Something to look into! Lucy ------------------------------ From: Marion Kippers Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 10:42:28 +0100 Subject: Two sad hours with Tori... (The Hague, NL) Hi all, So, last Friday I saw Tori Amos in concert in The Hague, The Netherlands. Sorry this is a bit long... and there could be spoilers if you don't want to read anything about her concerts before you go see her yourself. :-) And of course these are all just my own personal impressions. The concert took place in the Prins Willem Alexander hall of the Dutch Congress building, a hall that holds about well, 2000 people? Something like that. Big, but we had 8th row seats (right of center) which was close enough. I won't say all that much about the support act Willie Porter - - it's not my kind of music, and he didn't impress me very much though he can play his acoustic guitar very well and fast. You had to smile at his version of the Jackson 5's 'I want you back', but I thought his set was rather uninspired. Then, after nearly 45 minutes of Led Zeppelin, we finally heard Dusty Springfield's 'Son of a preacher man' and Tori walked on stage. And she looked so small as she stood for a moment between her two big keyboards, the Bosendorfer on the right side of the stage and the harpsichord on the left... She opened with a very fragile version of 'Beauty Queen' - her voice sounded as if it would break any moment, and she seemed to have difficulty to continue. I couldn't see her face quite well as she had her hair in front of it, but she didn't look happy at all. 'Horses' and 'Crucify' also both sounded a bit strained, and then she played 'Smells like teen spirit'. And that was so intense - when she sang "I feel stupid, and contagious / Here we are now, Entertain us, yeah!" it almost sounded like a cry for help. And it seemed like she felt an explanation was needed for that, to release the tension and to reassure the stunned audience, so after it she started to talk, while she played along on her Bosendorfer. "This is a weird night for me", she said, and she paused, and she told how two days ago she was still in the UK when those kids were murdered. [A madman shot sixteen schoolkids and a teacher and then himself in Scotland.] "I don't know what it was like over here, but when you're in the country when it happens..." She talked with long pauses, and as the whole audience held their breath to hear what she wanted to tell us, she shrugged and said "I don't talk very well. [pause] I invited them to come and dance with us here tonight, because I think people who are murdered need a place to dance..." And she continued with 'Marianne'. I guess I was in a sensitive mood, but that little talk almost brought me to tears. After 'Marianne' someone from the audience shouted "Thank you!", and as she turned from the piano to the harpsichord she waved at him. She had her hair loose with a little ponytail, and it would fall in her face frequently. Apparently this didn't bother her while playing the piano, but for the harpsichord she tied her hair back with a plastic hair band, saying "This is my space outfit!" She did 'Bells for her' on the harpsichord, a sped up version that still was beautiful, but it lost some of the magic for me. For the next four songs Steve Caton joined her, she introduced him as "Caton", and told that he played on 'Little Earthquakes' and on the next two albums, and that he was with her in "a band called 'Y Kant Tori Read' - anyway, I guess that says enough." I'm not sure if I would have missed him if he hadn't been with her... But 'Cornflake girl' was nice, I preferred this to the tape backing she had on the previous tour. He also accompanied her on 'Doughnut song', which she did indeed start with the backing vocal bits. She sticked mostly to the piano, 'Blood roses' was the only other song on the harpsichord. After 'Me and a gun' she left the stage while the lights were still down, without saying anything. She did come back twice, the first encore was 'Twinkle' and 'Hey Jupiter' (on which Steve joined her again, but there was no harmonium). She lost the words, beginning with the 'thought...' verse too early and changing the words to something like "thought - I forgot the words to this one, let's start it over again" and then restarting from the right verse. The second time she came back she did 'Amazing grace' (sorry Meth... ;-) ). I think she played it for the Scottish kids. And then after 1 hour and 45 minutes it was over. I was moved and impressed, this concert was everything I had expected and hoped it would be like, and the tension was so heavy. A very special concert, though I guess you had to be in the mood for it (I was). I loved the background with all those stars (but it disappeared much too soon), and I liked the slides, and the bits of film for 'Not the Red Baron', and especially those circling yellow roses behind 'Smells like teen spirit', but I didn't like the lighting. She had those spotlights from behind her shining into the audience and I was looking straight into them, making it difficult for me at times to see anything at all - blinded by the light indeed. :-( The audience did behave very well, everybody was very quiet and I didn't see a single flashlight (probably due to the strict guards). After the concert we waited backstage by the bus, in line with about 30 other people. Of course I had thought of all those intelligent things to say to her, and I had my camera in my hand and everything, but when Tori came to me I just took her hand and all I could say was "Thank you". She smiled and pulled me to her for a kiss and a hug, and then she went on to the next in line. Oh well, I guess 'thank you' just sums up everything I would have wanted to say to her anyway. :-) And I guess this sort of sums up what I wanted to tell about the concert as well. It's long enough I guess. Best wishes, Marion ______________________________________________________________ Marion Kippers Wolters Kluwer Academic Publishers Automation Department Dordrecht, The Netherlands Marion.Kippers@wkap.nl "She's a Beauty Queen..." (Tori) ______________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ From: Marion Kippers Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 11:18:44 +0100 Subject: Dutch pilots in 'Not the Red Baron' Hi all, After Tori's concert in The Hague we had a chance to talk with Marcel van Limbeek (who recorded 'Boys for Pele'), and I asked him about those Dutch pilots in 'Not the Red Baron'. He said "That's me! Or rather, me and Rob." [van Tuin, the assistant] He said that one of the special microphones they used had broken down and they had let a new one come in from London. They were testing whether it worked alright, with Marcel in the studio and Rob in the control room outside, using radio telephones to communicate. Tori overheard them on the studio speakers, thought it sounded like two pilots and wanted to do something with that. So she asked them to start the tape and keep talking. They started the tape and asked her in what language she wanted them to talk. Tori said "What language?" - well, should we talk in English - "No, Dutch!", and that's what you hear in the beginning. Marcel and Rob are talking about this microphone, Marcel asking if Rob did receive it alright and everything. Tori played 'Not the Red Baron', and that was another song recorded. That's what Marcel told us. Just another bit of Tori trivia. :-) Here are some of the bits that I could make out. In the beginning it's something about Marcel explaining to Rob that he has to keep talking, doesn't matter what he says, and after the "No, Dutch" bit "dit is al wat beter, laat het maar zo anders dan gaat het alleen maar piepen", "dit staat op 3... 1... 2", "eh even kijken, die zit nu ongeveer op 1, deze staat op 3". (Something like "this is better, leave it there otherwise it will start squeaking, this is on 3, 1, 2, ehm let's see, this is about 1 now, this one's 3") That's about all that I can make up from what I hear. Anybody else hear more? Chris? Marcel? Sister Ray? And ehmm - does anybody know 'Snoopy vs. the Red Baron'? I looked around on the Net for some more information about the Red Baron, a warpilot in the First (or Second?) World War, and I came across several references to a song called 'Snoopy vs. the Red Baron'. So now I wonder, given the fact that this is another 'spur of the moment' songs for Tori, whether that could have been part of her 'inspiration'. ("Not Charlie's wonderful dog...") :-) Best wishes, Marion ______________________________________________________________ Marion Kippers Wolters Kluwer Academic Publishers Automation Department Dordrecht, The Netherlands Marion.Kippers@wkap.nl "She's a Beauty Queen..." (Tori) ______________________________________________________________ ------------------------------ From: mfgr@bart.nl Date: Mon, 18 Mar 1996 19:53:15 -0100 Subject: Tori Live in The Netherlands, 15/16 March Hi, I am running a bit short on time, so I'd best write my review of Tori's concerts in Holland all in one report. First up, here's the setlists: Den Haag, 15/3 Amsterdam, 16/3 (1) Amsterdam, 16/3 (2) Beauty Queen Beauty Queen Beauty Queen Horses Horses Horses Crucify Flying Dutchman Losing my religion Teen Spirit Lite Sneeze (& Steve) Muhammed Marianne (harpsicord) Blood roses (harpsi) Bells for her (harpsicord) Little Amsterdam (& Steve) Space Dog (&Steve) Little Amsterdam (& Steve) Cornflake Girl (& Steve) Amsterdam (&Steve) Space Dog (& Steve) Doughnut Song (& Steve) Cornflake girl (&St) Cornflake Girl (& Steve) Silent all these years Honey (&Steve) Doughnut song (& Steve) Precious Things Leather Leather Not the Red Baron Precious Things Precious Things Bells for her (Harpsicord) Not the Read Baron Not the red Baron Me and a Gun Little Earthquakes Blood Roses (harpsicord) ------ (Baltimore) Winter China Talula (& Steve) Me and a Gun Putting the damage on (harpsicord & - ---- ------ backing track) Twinkle Past the mission (& Steve) Me and a Gun Hey Jupiter (& Steve) Hey Jupiter (& Steve) ----- - ---- (harmonium) Putting damage on Amazing Grace Winter ----- Let it be / Sugar Doughnut song (&St) - ----- Icicle Hey Jupiter (&Steve) (harmonium) As you can see, rather nice setlists. My first concert in this year's series was the one in Den Haag, last Friday. I went to the Congresgebouw (Congress building) in the afternoon, with a copy of Tori Amos Covered on CD, which I was planning on giving her despite the non-cooperative record company in Holland, Warner. (Those people are just not motivated to do anything for the fans at all; rather in complete opposite to East West in London, I have to add!) Tori and her following arrived at 4.30 pm with the bus behind the building, where I and some 12 others were waiting. A blonde guy ( I don't know who he is. Rumour had it he was Arthur Spivak - can anyone verify?) stepped out and instructed us to wait in line for Tori to walk by. I thought that my chances of handing her the CD were gone. We could give items to let her sign to him. Moments later, John Witherspoon got out with some bags and went inside the building. After him, Tori appeared and walked up to us. She recognized he first people in the line (Michel and Carola, whom she met at "Spijkers", a Dutch program she appeared live on last month) and started to talk to them, which was, I think, not what the blond guy had in mind, cos he looked a bit angered. The next guy had the music book for Little Earthquakes and wanted Tori to sign it on the spot, again, much to the blond guy's dismay. But Tori did it, and subsequently signed one item for everybody there. I was the last person in the line, and after she signed my "Boys for Pele" booklet from the CD, I gave her the "Tori Amos Covered" CD and explained what it's all about. She looked appreciative and thanked me for it. I asked her to pose with it so as to provide some proof that she did get it, and smilingly she agreed to do so. I made two photos (I noticed my hands were actually shaking, when saying this, she replied "That's alright, just take your time"). After this, she went inside. Three and a half hours later, the concert started with Willy Porter. I liked the way he treated his guitar, and his speeches were rather humorous as well. I wouldn't buy his album I think, although I did like his track "Cold wind" and of course the "I want you back" cover. We had to wait for 35 minutes, and then Tori started. She was in a very sad mood this evening, which made the concert a rather moody one, I think. Before playing Marianne she mentioned the murder of 12 children in Dunblane (sp?) a few days earlier, and said that she couldn't talk that well about it. "I invited them to come dancing. People who get murdered need a place to dance", was what she said. As mentioned in a review Saturday by a journalist, one could almost feel the presence of those murdered children in the room. This sad concert was therefore a very beautiful one. With the setlist mentioned above, you can understand that most of the tracks were slow, and thus it was a very low-key affair. Not that Tori wasn't humorous at all: before starting Bells for her (which sounded very aggressive on the harpsicord, IMO) she put on headphones and mentioned: "This is my space outfit". After the concert we looked at the setlist and saw that the only major changes were in the encores. Cloud on my tongue had been replaced by Hey Jupiter and the second encore was listed as: "Tori's choice", "Tori's choice" and "Jupiter". We also saw Marcel, who did sound at the Pele album and asked him what the "pilots" say in "Not the red baron". He explained (in Dutch, so I'll translate :) that they were testing a new microphone with Tori. An other one had broken down, and now Tori was playing and singing something while Marcel and Rob were communicating through walkie-talkies (is that the name for it outside of Holland as well?) about how it came through in the studio. Somehow, Tori picked up the talking in her headphones and asked what language they were using (you can hear this in the intro). Marcel replied "Dutch", which she says as well. She asked them to keep on talking while she played and so the track was recorded. What they actually say? Well, according to Marcel it's just talk of the sound level and compression. I'll try and decipher this if I get a chance and some time. BTW, Steve is not using any 12-string, the guitars which were left on stage (3 of them) were all 6 strings. I'll continue the story of Tori in Holland in my next mail, and then you'll read how I got the best seats in the house and how I lost my photographs... Regards, ** Marcel F G Rijs - "Conan the librarian" ** Internet: mfgr@bart.nl ** CIS: 100276,2176 ** WWW: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/marcel ** Hi Dear American Politicians! Can you say "Free speech for everyone"? ** Protect Free Speech Online -- http://www.cdt.org/ciec/ ------------------------------ End of precious-things-digest V1 #31 ************************************