The Hammersmith Apollo is easier to find than to ignore. That’s provided you don’t get lost in the shopping centre which appears to merge with Hammersmith tube station. Still, I guess that’s what sign posts are for.

Tori’s Original Sinsuality Tour is a Tori-only Tour. So for this gig, there was no band, just Tori and her ever present Bösendorfer, Rhodes piano, plus two little electric organs. Support was by a guy called Tom McCrae, who whilst being technically accomplished is far too much in the strummy/sing-y mould to warrant much attention. His cello player was cool though. I walked out of the auditorium when Tom was playing to get to the bar. It seemed a much more attractive proposition.

I must admit I had big concerns about seeing Tori band-less. Can you get the best out a song when it’s not played as originally intended? But that’s just the stupid idiot in me asking. All of Tori’s songs start out without a full accompaniment, and in any case it’s her piano work that I love so much, so not having a band should be rewarding experience. And I was hoping that Take to the Sky and Winter were going to get played.

Tori opened with Original Sinsuality which, frankly, I can live without. It does nothing for me. The rest of the set was glorious. I got to hear my ‘want list’, and loads of other great songs – Yes Anastasia, Cooling, Witness – which was staggering, and closing with Hey Jupiter. The Beekeeper was a nice close to the main set, which given it’s lyrical content makes a lot of sense. Nice and slow, played just on the organ. I wasn’t keen on her cover of Like a Prayer during the Tori’s Piano Bar segment which exposed Madonna’s song as a simple dumb ditty.

After Icicle Tori introduced six singers from the London Community Gospel Choir (who only appeared on her entire world tour at the two Hammersmith gigs) and who appear on The Beekeeper album. It’s these guys who made Witness a great theatrical success, and later, with Tori, brought the sex and sensuality of Hoochie Woman to life.

The 1st Encore began with some weird organ intro. It’s one of those moments when you think you recognise a song, but can’t place it, and the intro just doesn’t sound right. After about 10 seconds Tori stopped playing, paused and said “I’m in the wrong key”, which resulted in huge cheers and applause.

Setlist:
Original Sinsuality
Father Lucifer
Icicle
Mother Revolution (with Gospel Choir)
Take To The Sky
Yes Anastasia
Bells for Her

Father Figure (cover)
Like A Prayer (cover)

Winter
Cooling
Jamaica Inn
Witness (with Gospel Choir)
The Beekeeper

1st Encore:
Sweet The Sting (with Gospel Choir)
Rattlesnakes (cover)

2nd Encore:
Hoochie Woman (with Gospel Choir)
Hey Jupiter