Hop & Grape, Manchester University, Manchester, England 1st July 1997

Setlist Photos Tape SETLIST PHOTOS WANTED

8:30 The lights go dowm. There's about 500 people in the bar (eat your hearts out USA). There's a rap beat - ani, resplendent in green vest with green and (long) purple braids lauches into My IQ, and immediately forgets her lines. There follows a wonderful 5 minute anecdote from ani about Glastonbury - apparently Andy was intrigued by the bins behind the toilets, and sneaked around to see what was inside; he found a bin full of used tampons - and lots of questions about the so-called British summer, and how muddy Glastonbury was.

Next up is a fairly mediocre version of Fire Door, with Amazing Grace. ani complained about people at the front of the stage blowing smoke in her eyes - it immediately stopped ! She mentioned something about it harming her unborn child (with a laugh) !

Next came standard versions of Willing To Fight, and the Fuck You song, Untouchable Face - there was an initial cheer but NO-ONE shouted Fuck You during the whole song.

ani now seemed to relax a little - a really percussive version of Worthy (again forgetting the lines, having to prompted by the audience and then restarting two verses earlier) followed, ani plucking for her hearts worth, followed by Overlap, Letter To A John and The Slant.

Gravel and Glasshouse came next - everyone seemed to be completely dumbfounded with Gravel. Glasshouse gradually became Anticipate. Halfway through, the band started playing Bob Marley's "Get up, Stand Up" after a verse of which ani retreated to be back of the stage and produced a book Jason had bought during the day, entitled "Frank Zappa". She then read a passage about rock fans, emphasising sarcastically the "I'm a big Zappa fan, AND SO IS MY GIRLFRIEND".

This was followed by what ani described as a new song - lyrics included something about "gravity" and "shark infested waters" (so any help in the title would be appreciated).

This flowed seamlessly into Out Of Habit, and then an almost eerily quiet Dilate (the highlight of the night). The mood was changed by a raucous Cradle and All and Shameless, accompanied by much jigging about. The night was then almost over - a brief hush descended before ani reappeared to play In Or Out. There was no such quietness after this, when ani disappeared from stage for a few minutes, before coming back unaccompanied for a final encore of Both Hands at just after 10:00.

Andrew Wood