News: Pubs And Clubs Overview (June 28, 2007)

Presumably in light of the new about her September tour of Australia, Pubs And Clubs magazine has posted a Tori-in-a-nutshell sort of article on their site, which is a decent overview of Tori’s career for the uninitiated. While the average Undented reader probably won’t learn anything from this piece, the average scenester might!

Tori Amos – Her Talent As A Musician Is Unquestionable!
[Thursday 28, June 2007]

Tori Amos is a woman amongst a very select group of singers today that use the piano as their musical weapon of choice; she doesn’t need any gimmicks or fancy props onstage to receive the enthusiasm from her fans during her performances.

With a tremendous fan base built up over the many years of success, praising her for her passionate and erotic style, Tori has cemented her place in the contemporary music world and has dared to go where no other woman has gone with a piano. Popular for her sexual piano playing, she is also known for sometimes making cheeky, eccentric comments during interviews and at concerts, giving her a status as being highly individualistic.

Tori, (born Myra Ellen Amos) was the daughter of a Methodist preacher and by the age of four she was singing and playing piano in church – it was hard to ignore that young Tori had an innate talent for playing the piano. Shortly afterwards she began writing her own songs and won a scholarship to Baltimore’s Peabody Conservatory, where she became infatuated with rock & roll, especially rock legends Led Zeppelin. When Tori graduated from high school in 1981 she was named ‘Most Likely to Succeed’ by her classmates and at twenty-one, right smack in the middle of her punk phase, she joined a hard-rock band called ‘Y Kant Tori Read’ – the band flopped and Tori went on her solo way.

“When you stop putting yourself on the line, and you don’t touch your own heart, how do you expect to touch other people?”

By 1990, there was a new approach to the Amos sound, falling into a class of her own – singing haunting, semi-confessional piano ballads that were arranged like Kate Bush, as introspective as Alanis Morissette, but had the melodies and lyrical approach of Joni Mitchell, but less folky than Jewel. As edgy and original as Björk but not as grungy as P.J. Harvey. In 1991 she played a series of concerts in England in support of the harrowing EP ‘Me And A Gun’ – an autobiographical song telling the tale of Amos’ own experience with rape. It gained positive reviews throughout the media and ‘Little Earthquakes’ was released in 1992, her first album as a singer/songwriter. She followed this up with her sophomore album ‘Under The Pink’ two years later, questioning femininity and exploring daring ideas with such singles as God and Cornflake Girl. Her third album ‘Boys For Pele’ was a darker album and followed Tori’s breakup from her boyfriend and co-producer Eric Rosse.

Tori spent most of 1997 dealing with personal matters, including an unfortunate miscarriage but released album ‘From the Choirgirl Hotel’ in 1998 and also married British sound engineer Mark Hawley, followed by the release of ‘To Venus And Back’ in 1999. In 2001, Amos returned with the covers album ‘Strange Little Girls’ and the following year released the album ‘Scarlet’s Walk’. Her eighth studio album, an autobiographical record titled ‘The Beekeeper’ was released in 2005. Tori’s latest album ‘American Doll Posse’ was released in May 2007 and prior to its release she revealed that the album was political in nature – “The main message of my new album is: the political is personal. This as opposed to the feminist statement from years ago that the personal is political. I know it has been said that it goes both ways, but we have to turn it around.” The “Posse”, a group of girls who are used as a theme of alter-egos in the album, consists of Amos in a number of guises: Santa, Clyde, Isabel, Tori, and Pip.

Known for the sexual and erotic way that she plays the piano while in concert and for her radical and often rebellious lyrics, Tori has developed a huge fan base and much critical acclaim. She is founder of RAINN, the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network; she and her music have helped many women deal with rape, having been a rape victim herself. Despite the tragedy Tori has seen in her life, she is now happily married with a beautiful young daughter and continues to please her millions of fans – earning some new ones along the way.

FYI:

• Tori is recognized as one of the most-toured artists in modern popular music
• She began performing as early as 1976
• Has performed more than 950 tour concerts
• Voted by Rolling Stones magazine in 2003 as the ‘5th Best Live Act’