14th AUGUST 2004
APOLLO, MANCHESTER, ENGLAND
Review from All Dido (Me):
Two big stars in one city on the same night. Madonna was at the Manchester Arena and Dido was
at the Manchester Apollo. There was only one choice for me, Dido of course. It was very hot
and sticky inside the Apollo as there was no air conditioning, apparently some people fainted.
Support act, Aqualung got the gig started at around 7.40pm. I only knew one of their songs,
'Strange And Beautiful (I'll Put A Spell On You)' which got into the top 10 in the UK Charts
and it was also from a VW Beetle TV commercial. Aqualung were OK and did about a 30 minute set.
Now it was time for the main act, Dido, she came on stage at around 9.10pm with a sell out
crowd of around 3,500 going wild, this was the second night of the UK 'Life For Rent Tour'.
She started the gig off with 'Stoned' followed by 'Here With Me'. She said, "Hello Manchester,
it's great to be back in England." Next came 'See You When You're 40'. One fan shouted to Dido,
"Will you marry me?" she replied, "You're quite cute, yes, see me afterwards." Then came
'Life For Rent', 'Hunter', 'Isobel', 'My Life', 'Honestly OK', 'Don't Leave Home' and
'Mary's In India'. Then it was time for my favourite 'Take My Hand' which was followed by
'Thank You' which we all joined in with, 'Sand In My Shoes' and 'White Flag'. At this point
she said, "Thank you Manchester you've been a great audience, goodnight." Now everybody knows
that there is usually an encore, so it amazes me that some people leave at this point. I bet
they don't leave the cinema 10 minutes before the end of a film. Anyway Dido came back to do
a three-song encore, 'Do You Have A Little Time', 'All You Want' and 'See The Sun'. After about
a 90 minute set she left the stage to a standing ovation. Dido was fantastic and she sounds
even better live. It was the first time that I had a chance to see her play live (I couldn't
get tickets for her gig at the Manchester Academy in 2001) and I hope it's not the last.
I can't wait for the live CD and DVD to be released so that I can relive the gig again and again.
