Tori Amos - Gold Dust - Royal Albert Hall

Tori Amos chased the muse around the Royal Albert Hall when she performed with the Dutch Metropole Orchestra as part of her Gold Dust tour this October. Dressed in an elegant green floral suit and black rimmed glasses, Tori evoked the woman behind the image of her 2003 album “Tales of a Librarian” when she played a selection of songs from her impressive twenty year repertoire to an orchestral accompaniment arranged by John Philip Shenale. The black rimmed glasses only came off when the muse turned around and chased her back, inspiring an improvisation – She Calls My Name – in between “Snow Cherries from France” and “Ribbons Undone” during the first half of the evening. Tori’s 12-year-old daughter, Tash, and her friends gave a shout out from one of the loggia boxes when Tori called to her down the mic, saying she hoped Tash would use discretion with her candy and give her best at school in the morning. Assuming Tori’s husband, sound engineer Mark Hawley, was among the crew operating the sound deck, it felt like Tori was very much at home in the grand London venue after overcoming a racing heart at the beginning of her opening number, “Flying Dutchman”. Tori left the stage to a standing ovation in a show that peaked with highlights, “Hey Jupiter”, “Programmable Soda”, “Leather” and “Precious Things”. Her art has been an inspiration to so many people over the past twenty years and the people who love what she does look forward to what’s still to come.

Link to Snow Cherries From France.

Isreali Philharmonic Orchestra targeted by Protesters

I feel for the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra this morning after a small group of protesters wrecked their performance at The Royal Albert Hall last night. The concert had to be pulled live off air from BBC Radio 3. You can hear the protesters shouting: “Off, off, off,” on a recording featured on The Telegraph online today. What got me was that Communications Minister Ed Vaizey, who was in the audience, tweeted: “Demonstrators seemed to have turned the entire audience pro-Israel.”

I’ll say it again: Being Pro-Israel does not mean that you are anti-Palestinian or that you endorse every policy that the Israeli Government makes. I am pro-Israel. That doesn’t mean I support the denial of human rights. For all the protesters know, the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra doesn’t support oppression either. And yet they get booed off the stage purely because they are Israelis. No one equates the statement: “I am pro-American” with the same logic; that is: “I support all American foreign policy.” Why does this happen with Israel? Now it seems that anyone from Israel, whether that someone be a musician, an athlete, an artist or a writer, is a controversial figure merely for being Israeli. I remember meeting a tourist from Tel Aviv in a London pub. She hadn’t said anything more than where she came from, but it was enough for a couple of people around her not to want to have anything more to do with her.

Ed Vaizey’s final tweet last night was a link to this blog post, which is worth reading.