Al Stewart and Tori Amos perform Year of the Cat
Tori accompanied Al Stewart at the Royal Festival Hall on April 24, 1991, during his hit song, "Year of the Cat."
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Spoken introduction:
"We've imported um, a pianist for the next song. Let me make sure we're in tune...
[Al talks to the audience while tuning his guitar] ...
Anyway, we have um, Viliana Tchaikovskaya, who is a Russian pianist who knows not a word of English,
and knows not much about English music, apart from the fact that she's learnt one of my songs.
Will you please welcome Miss Viliana Tchaikovskaya!"
[applause, Tori Amos walks out, sits down, and starts playing the piano]...
I don't know if you all know this, but I've played this place before. And um, but I didn't play it as me. And uh...
[someone in the audience shouts, "Now's your chance!"]
Huh? I know, it is my chance, isn't it? But this is the thing, if it doesn't go well for me tonight, I can't like, say it was my first time.
So um, the thing is, in 1991, I think -- Mom, it was in 1991, right? I think it was. And I got a phone call from somebody and he goes,
"Tori, my piano player is sick. Will you come to the Festival Hall and like, fill in?" And I said, "Um, well, I do know the song." And so I said,
"What's wrong with him?" And he goes, "Well, he's got the Russian flu." And I said, "Definitely, I'll come. Just make sure he doesn't get better."
I said, "It's a long train ride for me, so I'm coming in, don't fuck me over." So I show up and Al Stewart said to me, you know,
"You know this Year of the Cat song?" I said, "Of course, of course, I'm born the year of the cat, I know all about it." And I said,
"There's only one problem -- I can't play as me because um, I um, have a passport problem." And he said,
"Do you really think that anybody from Passport Control is concerned about what you're doing tonight?"
I said, "Well, maybe, you know, just maybe. I'm playing this big gig at the Mean Fiddler, and I'm opening for seven people
and I can't blow that." And so um, he said to me, "Ok, well, you'll be Villainess Tchaikovskaya." And that's who I was.
Special thanks to Nancy for generously donating the video,
and to Richard Handal for dealing with technical issues with the
video and screen shots and for providing the mp3.
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