This was published in a Melbourne indie music mag this week. Also, I
thought I'd let you know that No Angel is currently number one on the
Australian charts, and has Gold status.

INPRESS
Issue 652 - Wednesday 14th March

Page 10 -

They Sooot Poets Don't They?

It's taken a sampling of one of her tunes on an Eminem record, but after
years of languishing in the shadow's of her brother's group Faithless,
Dido has finally broken through. "You'll never find me writing a
book of poetry I hope, and if you do, shoot me," she tells Luke Buckle.

"My tea's gone cold I'm wondering why I got out of bed at all." That's
a line that has done a whole lot for Dido.

The platinum plus debut hasn't been doing it for her lately. In fact,
umpteen trans-Atlantic flights and big-name US TV appearences (Letterman and
Leno) might be taking their toll on Dido. As she makes a cup of tea, she
ponders that even self-promotion has its limits.

"I haven't been at home for a very long time," Dido says, sounding releived.
"Plus, it's snowing outside." Something made worse considering the blonde,
blue-eyes singer/songwriter is still fighting off an illness.

Lately, Dido (she says Die-doe) has opened shows for Sting and shared the
stage with Eminem. Her album is at number one here and was only beaten off
the UK top spot after four weeks, by the Beatle. But right now, that tea
has all this girl needs.

"I made it myself," she gleams, proud of her independence, minus the touring
entourage that has accompanied her for several months now. Dido thinks she
has travsversed America "eight of nine times", sometimes playing in foyers
and cafes to fewer than 20 people. Not fans, people. This hardworking
ethic has burned her out more than once in her relatively short career.

"I'm going on holiday next week, then I start a European tour. I'm going to
the Carribean - I'm not into this whole cold thing they've got going on
here."

Dido's London accent, undetectable in her trip-hoppy ballads, is broad and
at home in London's west-end. She lives close to where she was born, 28
years ago, along with her older brother Rollo. 'Good' sounds more like
'gerd'. Other words have her sounding like Liam or Noel. Dido Armstrong is
friendly yet forthright, she can be quite blunt and she doesn't shy away
from the odd expletive. "And yes, Dido is my real name," she starts
unapologetically. "it's just that I don't tolerate bullshit and stupid
people."

Millions have flocked to purchase the debut album with the telling title,
No Angel. Eminem's influence on her success is hard to ignore,
despite the estimated 200 US shows Dido clocked up with her six-piece band -
all before the LP was even released here or in her homeland. When the bad
boy rapper chose Dido's Thank You to counterpoint his bio of a psycho
fan, Stan, Dido knew things were about to change. She has since
toured America again, this time to packed houses.

"When I started being a backup vocalist, no one really focused much
attention to me," says the classically-trained singer who was paid a curry
dinner for her work on an album with Faithless. "So now it's like why's
everyone looking at me? What's their problem? My whole thing is I never
want to do a bad show, the anal thing of never wanting to let anyone down.
When you're on tour, you spend 23 hours leaping and building up to that
moment, you're damn well gonna enjoy that hour or so you're on stage."

Anonimity has become a rare thing for Dido, except in London where she is
still rarely recognized. "I'm definately enjoying the anonimity, I've got
used to going to America, and it's all so exciting and then I come back to
England where nobody knows what I'm up to and nobody cares - which is
fantastic - but that is beginning to change here, it's weird and I don't
know how I feel about it yet."

In contrast, the US know her well. "I s'pose so, but then it's such a big
country that you're never gonna get that claustrophoibic recognition thing.
I'll go shopping and I'll get people coming up to me and saying hi, and
that's it and they;ll leave you alone. Wheras here it's more like
journalists sitting on your parents doorstep. That's not cool."

No Angel's delay in reaching commonwealth countries was due to some
forgettable record label issues. Thanksfully, Eminem, who asked Dido for
the sample back in 1998, became a megastar and Dido's Sineadesque voice was
heard by millions of music-loving youth. "I've met him, he's really
lovely," remarks Dido, who now finds herself a defending and "obviously
talented" artist. In her typically sweet defiant tone, she reports Marshall
Mathers to be a delight in real life. "He's completely charming and really
friendly. Weirdly, with him, I thought he would be an alright person
because his lyrics are just too intelligent."

Dido now finds it strange not knowing exactly what her own country thinks of
what she does. "I haven't done any shows in England for instance or any
places other than America. Also, it's hard for me to find any differences
at all. But it seems the people who've heard my stuff here and in Europe
seem to have the same reaction. What I like about America is the
enthusiasm. It;s cool the way they'll really go to concerts, and they'll go
to lots of them. And they're very lucky as well, 'cause in every American
city, there's hunders of great gig venues and there's people constantly
touring - so they just have this wealth of music all the tine. Every city
you go to you look in the paper and you see someone playing that you
wouldn't mind seeing. So they're very lucky and they're also very good at
getting out and going to concerts and stuff."

Dido's appearences on the Sliding Doors soundtrack, TV series
Roswell and the LP Sunday 8pm by Faithless (her brother is in
the group), also don't do any harm. Dido isn't worried by comparisons to
her brother's band. "I love the fact that [Sunday 8pm] genuinely is
what it set out to be: something you play when you get home from a club."
Just don't ask if she gets into the work of that other blonde, poetic
songstress, Jewel. "No, not in the slightest," she says sharply. "You'll
never find me writing a book of poetry I hope, and if you do, shoot me. I
think I'd like to be shot if I did something like that."

There's more confusion in the questions posed by an album that Dido herslef
struggles to relate to. "The stories are all about other people, not me,"
she chirps, adding that her brother's responsible for any "bitter, twisted
stuff".

"I started resordning this album in '97, but I started writing it in
'95-'96. [But] a lot of what's going on there isn't all me anyway, a lot of
it is stories about other people - so I obviously am a very different person
to back then. But it's funny 'cause the songs are still rooted in who I
was, you can't get away from your past or the way you feel about things.
Songs which didn't mean so much to me before will now mean more to me."

The soft, ambient electronica feel of Faithless is clear on an album that
sounds best anytime from 8pm onwards. Dido says it sounds best in bed, as
that's where she wrote most of it.

While Dido's appearence in Australia has been prolonged by her American
success, it won't be long now, she promises. "Well, I definately prefer the
beach than snow. And my brother spent years in Australia when he was
travelling after uni and stayed there for quite a while - I expect to be
there in May. Plus, I don't think I'd come all that way and not do any
shows."

No Angel is out now through BMG.

Thanks to Michael Ray for this :)

To all the fans of Dido that missed the first tour. I've got some great
news! She's doing another tour in Europe. Check out the Tour dates below. If
she's coming to a town near you, you should check it out. You'll love it.

date venue town
04/06/01 Barrowland In-house Glasgow SCO
04/07/01 Manchester University Manchester ENG
04/08/01 Colston Hall Bristol ENG
04/10/01 The Academy Birmingham ENG
04/11/01 Shepherds Bush Empire London ENG
04/12/01 Shepherds Bush Empire London ENG
04/14/01 Shepherds Bush Empire London ENG
04/17/01 Georg-Elser-Halle Munich GER
04/18/01 Vox Club Modena ITA
04/19/01 Alcatraz Milan ITA
04/21/01 E-WERK Cologne GER
04/22/01 Capitol Frankfurt GER
04/24/01 La Cigale Paris FRA
04/26/01 The Arena Madrid SPA
04/27/01 Razz Club At Razzmatazz Barcelona SPA
04/29/01 013 Tilburg NET
04/30/01 Columbia-halle Berlin GER
05/02/01 Cirkus Stockholm SWE
05/03/01 Rockefeller Music Hall Oslo NOR
05/04/01 VEGA Copenhagen DEN
05/06/01 Grosse Freiheit 36 Hamburg GER
05/08/01 AB Club Brussels BEL

Thanks to Samantha for this :)

I was visiting Dido's website http://www.didomusic.com/ and saw a link that said "Exclusive Dido Download." Once you click on it, it will give you a message basically like this:

Thank you for coming to the Dido download.....click on the download button and Dido icon below to get your DIDO BROWSER and EXCLUSIVE ACCESS to the Lukas Burton REMIX of the hit song "HERE WITH ME." Once you've downloaded the browser, click on the "HERE WITH ME" link (on the right side under Channels) to hear the latest remix from Dido. You will also get to see a stream of accoustic performance of "HERE WITH ME" taped live in Toronto. By signing up you will be eligble for a Dido CONTEST. The Grand Prize winner will recive a Dido gift pack consisting of a Dido DVD and SIGNED PHOTO.

It says it's an exclusive page for Allure Magazine readers, but you DO NOT need to have a subscribtion or anything like that.
If you're a Dido fan, I think you like it.

Thanks to Hip for this :)

Allure magazine has a special offer. You can go to
http://www.didomusic.com/exclusive and download a browser which will connect
you to the Dido Network. It will give you the option to download Lukas
Burton's remix of 'Here with Me'. I've attached the .gif file that
explains it. It's only for a limited time, the month of March I think.

The download link is: Go Download Here

Thanks to eM for this :)

Aussie Charts Info on Dido!

After 6 weeks, LeAnn Rimes drops to number 3 with "Can't Fight The
Moonlight" while Eminem and Dido finally move up to number one with "Stan",
with Eminem riding high on the publicity surrounding his performance at
the recent Grammy Awards. On the albums chart, Eminem's "Marshall Mathers
LP" is at number one while Dido's "No Angel" is at number 2, giving these
two artists massive domination on both the main charts.

Summary....Dido - No Angel : Gold Sales (35,000), 5th week in, was no. 6
last week, now no.2!

Thanks to Spike for this :)

*This little info of Dido is in Singapore's Lime this month's issue no. 53,
page 59.This was written next to dido's pix.

No Angel
Dido BMG
Three things you oughta know about dido : she's an ancient 28-year-old,she
plays the piano,violin and recorder and she's Eminem's mate!The foul-mouthed
rapper sampled her song 'Thank You' (also found on the Sliding Doors'
soundtrack) on his new single 'Stan' and ta-daah! Dido becomes the hottest
UK musical export in America!She definitely deserves it.This UK No 1 record
is hot stuff!Packed with 45 mins of guitar-pop, hip-hop and R&B, the
singer-songwriter sounds like a funked-up Sarah McLachlan.Our fave tracks:
'Thank you'(deliciously languid), 'Here With Me' (theme song for sci-fi TV
show Roswell) and 'Slide', a motivational ditty she wrote to tell herself to
"pull your socks up, Dido!" when she was dead broke. And guess what,it
worked!

Thanks to Star-Gazer for this :)

I just wanted to tell you guys that we could vote for DIDO "thank you" on
TRL. Just go to MTV, and on the search page type in TRL, and it will take
you there, and vote for DIDO. It would give DIDO a chance to get out more,
so please do it about 5 times a day, and try to watch TRL as much as you can
to see if she makes it. Last night i was listening to my radio and Dido made
it number 1 on our countdown. It was so exciting, i mean she has never came
on the radio before now she's all over my town and everyone loves her, this
is really kewl. Well if you have the chance please vote for DIDO "thank you"
on TRL.

Thanks to Jenni for this :)

In England Dido's No Angel album has been no. 1 for 2 or 3 weeks but becoz so many people have the album her single Here with me only got to number 4
Dido didn't win best female solo artist @ the brits, Sonique won.

Thanks to Maya for this :) This was from Feb 27--sorry for the delay :(

At amazon.fr (France's amazon.com), "la disque de la semaine," or "CD of the week," is Dido's "No Angel."

Here's what they say:
Le premier album de Dido est léger, lumineux, sensible. Tout de guitares scintillantes et de voix claire, No Angel visite la mélancolie et l'onirisme, servi par un son moderne, travaillé façon électronique par le frère de la chanteuse. Dido, ou les interrogations et envies d'une jeune femme moderne et belle dans sa tête et dans son coeur.

Approximate Translation:
The first album from Dido is light, luminous, sensitive. All of scintillating guitars and clear voice, No Angel visits the melancholy and the onirism, uses a modern sound, worked electronically by the brother of the singer. Dido, has interrogations and desires of a modern and beautiful young woman in her head and her heart.

Thanks to Leslie for this :)

On the Teen.com Entertainment Awards if you go under the Music section Dido
is nominated for Best Female Music Artist, Best New Music Artist, Best Song
By A Female Artist(Here with me), and Best CD of the Year(No Angel). go vote
at

http://ad.doubleclick.net/adi/main.teen.com/other;ag=none;pg=other;sz=468x60;ord=78619384765624?

I think it would be awesome if she won. Especially in the Best Song category!