I have been a fan of Dido's ever since I heard her singing backup vocals on Faithless first CD "Reverence". After spending months trying to find out more about that amazing voice I discovered that she actually had a solo release. I walked into every record store imaginable trying to find it, and as a last resort imported the disk into Australia via the internet because no one had heard of Dido, let alone stocked the album.

Now its the year 2001 every record store that I go in has huge promotional displays all about this new singer Dido! At first like many artists that I feel I have *discovered* I felt protective over Dido. All these little tennie boppers that heard her through the Eneniem song "Stan" had no right to listen to Dido, I knew her when she was just a back up singer to her brother Rollo's band Faithless.. and now, well now everyone in the world has heard about Dido.

One good thing that resulted from Dido hitting the main stream is that it has allowed her to come and tour in Australia. I was over joyed when I discovered that she would be playing at the Forum in Melbourne.

At first I was a little apprehensive as I wasn't sure if the crowd was going to be filled with tons of teenage girls screaming. I was pleasantly suprised that I was in fact one of the youngest people in the crowd. Perhaps I was must to my dislike the screaming teenage girl! :o)

The support act was Hamish, a local australian band hand picked by Dido herself to support her australian concerts. Basically a male version of Dido with a similar rich strong voice, not to dissimilar to the late great Jeff Buckley. Quite enjoyable and I look forward to hearing their album when it is released early 2002 (for more information please go to www.hamish.net.au )

The forum theatre was a fantastic venue for seeing Dido and her band. Its intimate settings and surroundings gave a great backdrop to Dido's emotional music. Dido herself mentioned that she was in love with the venue, and felt like she had some emotional ties to the theatre because they both had Spanish names.

After listening to Dido's album non stop over the last 3 years nothing had quite prepared me for how great this singer is live. She f*cking rocked, pure and simple.

From the moment she stepped out after the instrumental version of song "Worthless" and began singing the first few lines of melancholic song "My Lovers Gone" she held the crowd captive with her rich vocals, cute stage presence and amazing band.

She played all tracks found on the "No Angel" album along with a couple of new tracks including "Have a little time" and "See the Sun".

The highlight of the concert would have to be the song "Take My Hand", the danciest song on the album and one of my fav's of the CD blew the crowd away when the band performed it live. Great house beats going thump thump thump it was more like being at a rave than a cruisy friday night concert. Why "Take my Hand" won't be released as her next single I have no idea... it be very successful in the club and dance scene.

Overall a fantastic experience, if Dido is coming to a city near you be sure to pick up a ticket!