Tori Amos

Tori Amos (born Myra Ellen Amos on August 22, 1963 in Newton, North Carolina, USA) is an American singer-songwriter.

Biography

Early years

She was born Myra Ellen Amos (called Ellen) to Dr. Edison & Mary Ellen Amos on August 22, 1963 during a trip from their home in Georgetown to North Carolina, at the Old Catawba Hospital in Newton, N.C. When Amos was 2½, her family moved to Baltimore, Maryland where she began to play the piano and attend her father's church every week. By age 5, she had written her first song. During these years, she spent formative time with her maternal grandfather, who was part Eastern Cherokee (an Eastern Cherokee with some European ancestry).

Related Topics:
August 22 - Georgetown - North Carolina - Baltimore, Maryland - Eastern - Cherokee

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In 1968, she won a full scholarship to the Peabody Conservatory of Music; she was the youngest person ever to attend the school. At age 11, her scholarship was discontinued due to the growing influence of popular music on her. Two years later, she began studying at Montgomery College and began playing at piano bars (many of them gay), chaperoned by her father. Reverend Amos began sending tapes of the songs she'd written to record companies at this time.

Related Topics:
Peabody Conservatory of Music - Montgomery College

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She first came to local notice by winning a county Teen Talent contest, and her picture was published in a local paper. The song she sang was called More than Just a Friend. By the time she reached high school, she was well known in the DC area. During her years at Richard Montgomery High School, she was elected Homecoming Queen, Most Likely to Succeed (female), Most Talented (female), and Best All-Around (female) and became involved with the drama group. As a high school senior, Ellen Amos co-wrote Baltimore with her brother Mike for a competition involving the Baltimore Orioles. This song won the contest and became her first single, released as a 7" pressed for family and friends. At around this time she adopted the name "Tori," after a friend of a friend told her that she looked more like a Tori than a Myra Ellen. She sang at a wedding and a funeral for the same family also.

Related Topics:
Richard Montgomery High School - Homecoming Queen - Baltimore - Baltimore Orioles

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Y Kant Tori Read (1985-88)

At age 21, Tori Amos moved to Los Angeles to pursue her music career. While there she managed to get several acting jobs, including a Kellogg's Just Right cereal commercial (for which role she beat out a then-unknown Sarah Jessica Parker). After playing a bar one night, she gave a ride home to a patron, who sexually assaulted her—an experience that would feed into her influential song "Me and a Gun". She also met Steve Caton, who played guitars on her albums through To Venus and Back (1999).

Related Topics:
Los Angeles - Kellogg - Sarah Jessica Parker - Me and a Gun - Steve Caton - To Venus and Back

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In 1985, Amos formed a music group, Y Kant Tori Read. The band's name is a reference to Amos’ facility with playing by ear at Peabody and her difficulty with playing from sheet music. Besides Tori herself, the group was comprised of Caton, Matt Sorum (later of The Cult and Guns N' Roses), and Brad Cobb. A year later, Atlantic Records gave Amos a 6 record contract. In 1988, her debut album Y Kant Tori Read was released and was panned by critics. Amos was devastated, and started working with other artists (including Stan Ridgway of Wall of Voodoo, Sandra Bernhard, and Al Stewart) as a backup vocalist. She also recorded a song called "Distant Storm" for the film China O'Brien; in the credits, the song is attributed to a band called "Tess Makes Good" with "additional vocals by Ellen Amos".

Related Topics:
Y Kant Tori Read - Matt Sorum - The Cult - Guns N' Roses - Brad Cobb - Atlantic Records - Stan Ridgway - Wall of Voodoo - Sandra Bernhard - Al Stewart - China O'Brien

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Little Earthquakes (1990-92)

Atlantic Records told Amos that she had to produce another record by March 1990. When she presented them with her initial recordings, they were rejected on the grounds that the "girl and a piano thing" wasn't going to sell. Extensively re-worked and expanded with the help of Steve Caton, Eric Rosse, Will MacGregor, Carlo Nuccio, and Dan Nebenzal, the record ended up full of raw, emotive songs recounting her religious upbringing, sexual awakening, struggle to establish her identity, and her rape. The Atlantic executives changed their minds upon hearing the edited version, and relocated Tori to England to launch the "new" album, which was released under the title Little Earthquakes.

Related Topics:
Eric Rosse - Will MacGregor - Carlo Nuccio - Dan Nebenzal - Little Earthquakes

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Atlantic's European counterpart, East West, worked hard to promote the record. It was trailed by a promotional single featuring the emotional, unaccompanied desolation of "Me and a Gun", which received considerable critical attention. When the album was released in the UK, it went straight to #14. A month later, it was released in America to breakthrough critical success. The accompanying singles were "Me and a Gun", "Silent All These Years", "China", "Winter" and "Crucify". During this time, Tori recorded the song "Happy Workers" for the Toys movie soundtrack. A remix of the song is also included on the soundtrack.

Related Topics:
Crucify - Toys

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Under The Pink (1993-94)

After touring throughout 1992 in support of Little Earthquakes, Amos went to New Mexico to write her second solo record, Under the Pink. It debuted at #1 in the UK and #12 in the US charts on its release in January 1994. It disappointed some critics, however, who considered it a step sideways rather than forwards from Little Earthquakes (but was voted among the greatest albums of the 1990s by Rolling Stone magazine some years later). In February, she began the "Under the Pink" tour. Four tracks were released as singles: "God", "Cornflake Girl" (a #4 single in the UK), "Pretty Good Year" and "Past the Mission", which featured the vocal contribution of Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. A limited edition release of the album commemorating the Australian tour included a second disc entitled "More Pink", a collection of B-Sides including a cover of the Joni Mitchell song "A Case of You".

Related Topics:
1992 - New Mexico - Rolling Stone - "Cornflake Girl" - Trent Reznor - Nine Inch Nails - Australia - Joni Mitchell

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Around this time an Austrailian tabloid managed to take "up-skirt" photographs of Amos during a live performance at which she was not wearing panties. Amos did not comment on this until eleven years later, citing it as her impetus to not return to Austrailia during a tour between 1995 and 2005.

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Amos also contributed the song "Butterfly" to the soundtrack for the 1994 movie Higher Learning as well as a cover of the R.E.M song "Losing My Religion".

Related Topics:
Higher Learning - R.E.M

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In June, 1994, Amos co-founded RAINN, The Rape Abuse and Incest National Network. RAINN is a toll-free help line in the US which connects callers with their local rape crisis center. In 1995, Amos, duetting with Robert Plant, contributed the song "Down by the Seaside" to the Led Zeppelin tribute album Encomium.

Related Topics:
RAINN - 1995 - Robert Plant - Led Zeppelin - Encomium

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Boys For Pele (1995-96)

Soon after the "Under the Pink" tour, Amos released her third solo album, Boys for Pele. Mystical, experimental, and substantially longer than the first two albums, it garnered mixed reviews. The erratic lyrical content of its songs seemed unduly indecipherable to some fans, and the instrumentation, including church bells, bagpipes, and a gospel choir, kept it away from the mainstream scene. The accompanying tour was known as the "Dew Drop Inn" tour; as on the album, Tori performed on harpsichord in addition to piano. The single "Caught A Lite Sneeze" was a hit in the UK, and the Armand Van Helden remix of "Professional Widow" became a massive club hit.

Related Topics:
Boys for Pele - Harpsichord - Armand Van Helden

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Boys for Pele is Amos' most successful transatlantic chart release, reaching UK #2 and US #2 upon its release in January 1996. As with her first four solo albums, it has been certified platinum for sales of more than a million US copies.

Related Topics:
January - 1996

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The movie Twister released in 1996 included one of Amos' songs, "Talula" also found on the Boys for Pele album.

Related Topics:
Twister - Boys for Pele

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Also in 1996, Tori began her own label, internal to Atlantic Records, called Igloo. Her first signing, which she co-produced, was the band "Pet" headed by lead singer Lisa Papineau. Their self-titled debut album included the song "Lil Boots" which was also featured on the soundtrack for .

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From The Choirgirl Hotel (1997-98)

Her fourth solo album, From the Choirgirl Hotel, was released in May 1998. A departure from earlier records, it was much more lavishly produced and featured arrangements which expanded considerably on her core piano sound, including elements of dance music, electronica, and jazz. Again reviews were mixed but mostly positive (voted among the best albums of the year by Q magazine), and the album was generally feted by Amos fans.

Related Topics:
From the Choirgirl Hotel - May - 1998 - Dance music - Electronica - Jazz - Q magazine

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The lead single "Spark" became a substantial hit in the spring of 1998, and was followed by "Jackie's Strength" and the club hit "Raspberry Swirl." The album itself followed the commercially successful trend of its predecessors by reaching UK #6 and US #5 upon its release and selling more than a million copies in the US alone.

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The accompanying tour, Amos' first with a full band, was known as the "Plugged '98" tour. Another tour followed in 1999, the "Five and a Half Weeks" tour with Alanis Morissette prior to the release of her To Venus and Back double album.

Related Topics:
Alanis Morissette - To Venus and Back

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To Venus And Back (1999)

Next, Amos planned to release a live album - a document of her first band tour from 1998. She decided to write a small amount of new material to be included as a bonus disc on some releases; ultimately, however, she produced a double album's worth of material which was released in September 1999 under the title To Venus and Back.

Related Topics:
1998 - September - 1999 - To Venus and Back

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The album included a live disc (subtitled Live: Still Orbiting) as well as a disc of new studio material (subtitled Venus Orbiting). This was sparser both in production and arrangement than From the Choirgirl Hotel, but like that album featured overt dance music and electronica influences and a relatively subdued piano sound.

Related Topics:
From the Choirgirl Hotel - Dance music - Electronica

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Some of the topics Amos covered included a massacre on the U.S.-Mexico border in Ciudad Juárez. Its closing track "1000 Oceans" was much closer in spirit to her early songs and, along with the more experimental "Bliss," "Glory of the '80s," and "Concertina," became a radio and chart hit. The album itself, on account of increased price due to its double-disc format, reached UK #22 and US #12, making it transatlantically the worst-charting original album of her career.

Related Topics:
Massacre - U.S.-Mexico border - Ciudad Juárez

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Strange Little Girls (2000-01)

Amos took a break from both touring and writing in 2000 and that September gave birth to her daughter, Natashya, after suffering three miscarriages. She returned in September 2001 with Strange Little Girls, an album of cover versions of songs written by men about women. Despite her break, the album was still a commercial success, reaching UK #16 and US #4, her best position there for almost six years.

Related Topics:
2000 - September - Miscarriages - 2001 - Strange Little Girls

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This time, the reviews were quite uniform: most critics saw the album as a mixed bag, praising the unlikely reworkings of Eminem's "97' Bonnie and Clyde" and Slayer's "Raining Blood", but panning the sprawling, messy version of John Lennon's cryptic "Happiness is a Warm Gun" and the rocky, fuzzy version of Neil Young's "Heart of Gold".

Related Topics:
Eminem - Slayer - John Lennon - Neil Young

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The accompanying "StrangeLittleTour", Amos' first entirely solo tour since 1994, was acclaimed particularly for its solo renditions of Boys For Pele, From the Choirgirl Hotel and To Venus and Back material and is perhaps deemed her best tour.

Related Topics:
Boys For Pele - From the Choirgirl Hotel - To Venus and Back

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Scarlet's Walk (2002-03)

In 2002 Amos released her eighth major label release, Scarlet's Walk. Described as a "sonic novel", the 18 track album proved to be a landmark for a variety of reasons. Stylistically, Amos put drums and bass guitar at the forefront, using her piano playing as an accent rather than a highlight. Thematically, the album explored Amos' alter ego Scarlet and her cross-America trip post-September 11, 2001. Through the songs, Amos explores the history of America, the American people, Native American history, pornography, masochism, homophobia and misogyny. The first single, "A Sorta Fairytale", was a top 10 hit in the US. It was also released in the UK with a B-side entitled "Operation Peter Pan".

Related Topics:
Scarlet's Walk - September 11 - 2001 - Native American - Pornography - Masochism - Homophobia - Misogyny - UK - Operation Peter Pan

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The second single, "Taxi Ride", was an homage to the late make-up artist Kevyn Aucoin, a friend of Amos'. A contest was held online to create a music video for the song, and it reached the top 40 in the US. The third single, "Strange", was remixed with a country and western feel and almost became a radio staple.

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In an attempt to prevent Internet trading of the album, Amos, in conjunction with her husband and crew, invented a special kind of glue to bind closed portable CD players containing the album. These were then distributed to the press on the understanding that they would be returned within forty-eight hours. If an attempt was made to open the player, both it and the disc inside would shatter. The success of this attempt was so great that the record industry began to follow suit.

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As an additional incentive to buy the album rather than download its contents illicitly, the CD also served as a key to access "Scarlet's Web", a web site which featured several songs ("Tombigbee", "Seaside", "Mountain") as well as various photographs and journal entries that were not available elsewhere. Tori was nominated for a Grammy for the packaging of the limited edition version of the album. It included a bonus DVD as well as collectible items such as charms, stickers, a map, and mock Polaroid postcards. Once again, the album was a commercial success for Amos, reaching UK #26 and US #7 and becoming her biggest-selling album for five years.

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Tales of a Librarian (2003)

In 2003 Amos released a sonic autobiography, Tales of a Librarian (she does not believe in the term "greatest hits"). Rather than compiling hit singles and tossing them into a generic hits package, Amos instead chose to revisit the mixing of many of her own favourite songs from a career spanning over a decade, focusing on those she thought were not fully realised in their original recordings. Recording under the premise that a librarian is a "chronicler", Amos pieced together the album, adding two new songs and two re-recorded b-sides: "Angels" and "Snow Cherries from France", and "Sweet Dreams" and "Mary", respectively. Though the album charted #40 in the US and #74 in the UK, making it her weakest-charting album to date, sales have evened out in the long-term.

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Welcome to Sunny Florida (2003-04)

In 2004 Amos released a DVD/CD set called Welcome to Sunny Florida. The DVD featured a full-length live performance from her 2003 "On Scarlet's Walk" tour. The CD compiled several previously Internet-exclusive B-sides from Scarlet's Walk, with some new tracks on a bonus disc entitled "Scarlet's Hidden Treasures". The tracks on the bonus disc are "Ruby Through The Looking-Glass", "Seaside", "Bug A Martini", "Apollo's Frock", "Tombigbee", and "Indian Summer". The set reached UK #1 on the Music Videos and DVDs Chart, and #2 on the US equivalent, qualifying it as a commercial success.

Related Topics:
2004 - DVD

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The Beekeeper and Piece by Piece (2004-05)

In late February of 2005, Amos returned to superstardom with a new face and a new concept album, The Beekeeper. The album deals with topics like death, adultery and romantic conflict, and makes brief reference to ancient Gnostic mysticism. It was leaked to the Internet over a month before its release. Early reviews described it as her most lyrically accessible, and reminiscent of her first album. The music is perhaps Amos' most melodic, and sees a move towards a more groove-based sound, evidenced by the appearance of the London Community Gospel Choir on four songs and Amos' whirring B-3 Hammond organ.

Related Topics:
2005 - The Beekeeper - Gnostic

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"Sleeps with Butterflies" was the first single released from the album, with "Sweet the Sting" following in the summer. The album itself reached UK #24 and US #5, making Amos one of an elite group of women to have secured five or more US Top 10 album debuts. Despite this feat, however, "The Beekeeper" remains Tori's weakest selling album to date (233,000 copies, even less than the 1992 and 1996 EP's "Crucify" and "hey Jupiter".)

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The accompanying tour, dubbed the 'Original Sinsuality Tour,' began April 1, 2005 and was Amos' first solo tour since 2001, bringing out piano and organ. The tour also encompassed Australia, Amos' first trip there to perform since 1994. The tour received mixed reviews, but continued into the late summer of 2005 through Europe, including appearances in June 2005 at the Glastonbury Festival and Patti Smith's Meltdown festival in London. The European Leg of the tour included what fans believe to be some of Tori's strongest performances yet, with several Americans following the tour oversea. The tour finished in the States as the 'Summer of Sin', which received much better reviews than the U.S. Spring Leg. Amos played over 202 different songs on the tour.

Related Topics:
April 1, 2005 - 2001 - Australia - 1994 - 2005 - Europe - June 2005 - Glastonbury Festival - Patti Smith - London

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In conjunction with the album, Amos released an autobiography entitled Piece by Piece; co-authored by rock music journalist Ann Powers, it delves deeply into Amos’ obsession with mythology and religion. It explores her songwriting process while telling the story of her progression into fame.

Related Topics:
Piece by Piece - Ann Powers

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In July of 2005 Amos released an exclusive 45 track compilation in conjunction with the ITunes website called "iTunes Essentials". It consisted entirely of previously released material. In August of 2005, Amos released the first two of six official "bootlegs" of the Original Sinsuality tour. Each double-CD was recorded live. Amos had expressed frustration with the inferior sound quality of various unofficial bootlegs. The first two discs were recordings of the Chicago and Los Angeles shows.

Related Topics:
ITunes - Chicago - Los Angeles

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Official bootlegs (2005)

Amos, a long outspoken adversary of live bootleg recordings, announced in late 2005 that she would be issuing a series of live "official bootlegs", all recording during her "Original Sinsuality" tour. A website was established at Tori Amos Bootleg Boutique where hard copies of the releases were made exclusively available. The packaging was minimal and featured butterfly/insect artwork following the theme of her The Beekeeper album. They were sold for $13.98 each and featured full concerts from her 2005 tour. Soon after the hard copies were released online retailers began offering the entire albums for paid download.

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Six two-CD sets were released in all:

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Chicago, IL - April 15, 2005, Auditorium Theatre

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Denver, CO - April 19, 2005, Paramount Theatre

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Los Angeles, CA - April 25, 2005, Royce Hall Auditorium

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Manchester, UK - June 5, 2005, Carling Apollo

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Next album (2007)

Amos' next album, her third full-length release for Sony/Epic, is tentatively due for a release in 2007. No recordings have been made, although Amos has spoken about intended songs for inclusion.

Related Topics:
Sony - Epic - 2007

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In an interview in May 2005 she stated that she has not got a particular sound ready for her next album, "which usually means we're doing something quite different." She played a new 12-minute song on piano at a sound check in Bonn, Germany, on June 23, 2005, and later told a fan that she hoped it would be on her next album, which featured the refrain "I heard you scream from the other side of the mountain."

Related Topics:
May - 2005 - Bonn - Germany - June 23

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In an August 2005 interview for In Newsweekly magazine, she stated that she had been working on new material, and soon after described the new songs as "little embryos." At a concert on August 23, 2005, Amos stated that she was inspired to write three new songs after visiting the water park in Saratoga Springs for her birthday, and then in an interview the following day said that there were some songs that she had been working on for several years that may appear on the next album; Amos also stated that she has "a Warrior Woman inside of that will come out on the next record."

Related Topics:
August - 2005 - August 23 - Saratoga Springs

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In her 2005 book Piece by Piece (book), Amos also wrote about a song called "Melusine," which she said is linked with "Marys of the Sea" from the album The Beekeeper. "Melusine" is expected to appear on the next album, a fact verified by author Neil Gaiman on his website journal as early as October 2004.

Related Topics:
2005 - Piece by Piece (book) - The Beekeeper - Neil Gaiman - October - 2004

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CD singles, B-sides and non-album contributions

Early in her career Amos garnered a reputation for releasing an extensive catalogue of CD singles in conjunction with her albums. This catalogue of music collectables is so vast that a book was actually published titled "Tori Amos Collectables" which served as a partial (to that date) photographic journal detailing the variety of world-wide releases. One of Amos' best selling early releases was a five track E.P. for her song "Crucify" which was sold at regular album prices. Amos' penchant for including non-album B-sides on each of her singles played a major factor in her initial popularity. In particular her cover of the Nirvana song "Smells Like Teen Spirit" from the "Crucify" E.P. garnered major press attention and critical lauds. Though in recent years the production of CD-singles has become less common, Amos continues to release non-album B-sides through the internet.

Related Topics:
CD singles - Crucify - Nirvana

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Amos also established herself early-on as a willing contributor to film soundtracks (including Mission Impossible 2 and Great Expectations) as well as to compilation projects and projects by other artists (including Al Stewart, Tom Jones, and Sandra Bernhard). As such she had, to date, accumulated a catalogue of over 100 non-album tracks (not including live versions of album tracks or remixes.)

Related Topics:
Mission Impossible 2 - Great Expectations - Al Stewart - Tom Jones - Sandra Bernhard

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