Gig review: Tori Amos at Sheffield City Hall
The North Carolina-born, now Cornwall-based singer-songwriter plays highlights from her 18th album and a smattering of old favourites on the opening night of her UK tour.
When I saw the date and place of the opening night of the 2026 Tori Amos tour, I knew the husband and I would be going.
It was 20 years to the very day since we got married and Amos, along with Badly Drawn Boy and for some mad reason Yello, had been on our repeat playlist when we first met more than 20 years ago.
The tunes undoubtedly got us through our long-distance romance, up and down the A1, between Dewsbury and Newcastle.
In The Times of Dragons kicked off at Sheffield City Hall, in Sheffield.
With a 2,000 strong crowd, among them lots of gorgeous flame-haired Tori fans, looking fabulous in boho inspired outfits, velvets and fancy boots.
It is around 30 years since I last saw her play at Manchester’s Apollo. I’ve loved her music since her debut album Little Earthquakes in 1992.
From North Carolina, her storytelling fuses personal experience and political commentary on women’s rights and equality, in a way that hits home and really matters.
Sitting five rows from the front, in the right-hand stalls, we had a cracking view of the stage and the piano, of course. It was good to see die-hard Tori fans are still keen for her new music.
After a quick support play from young British artist Isaac Levi, who said his last Sheffield gig in 2019 had been to four people, one of them his cousin. I enjoyed his melodic heartache and angst-ridden songs. He was ever so thankful to Tori for his biggest gig to date.
Amos swooped on stage with her ’70s flicked hair and spangly see through costume. It was good to see old faithfuls and long-time collaborators Jon Evans on bass and drummer Ash Soan.
In a new move, three backing singers joined them on stage. Amos said: “We are trying something new, we have three angels joining us Liv, Deni and Hadley.”
It was a first for Amos to have other females and singers on stage. It felt right, and sounded fantastic. She was very generous towards them and keen to showcase their talents.
Her amazing 35-year career has seen eight Grammy nominations and more than 12 million global record sales.
Her new studio album in Times of Dragons is out on May 1. The gig was homage to it and her 18th album to date really brings home the mass of music she has made.
All new songs were welcomed by the attentive audience, with some whoops and cheers for her solo playing. Nothing surprising but a new, dare I say, more mature and experienced tone, in a good way.
But of course, there was a few old favourites, which was what I’d been waiting for, as most of us were. Particularly welcomed was Crucify and a few re-mixes of early works.
Her voice has lost none of its range, and her performance was truly magical.
I loved the pantomime aspect of the encore. Amos told the crowd she had 65 gigs to go, so it wouldn’t be a lengthy encore, from her extensive European tour across 17 countries in April and May 2026, before the US dates follow.
The encore was of course universal favourite Cornflake Girl. After almost two hours on stage, it was all over by 10.20pm.