KT Tunstall :: Wessex Scene Online

KT Tunstall

14th November 2005
Tim Woodall

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Mar 05 - KT Tunstall - Southampton Joiners
Oct 07 - Gigs: Stephanie McIntosh at Southampton University
Dec 05 - Lizz Wright Live at Turner Sims Concert Hall
Dec 05 - Martha Wainwright live at the Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
Dec 05 - Ray Lamontagne live at Shepherd's Bush

More by Tim Woodall

May 06 - Sigur Ros live at the Carling Hammersmith Apollo
Dec 05 - Lizz Wright Live at Turner Sims Concert Hall
Nov 05 - The Public Versus the Critics
Oct 05 - Jonny Greenwood with the London Sinfonietta

Fresh from her success at the Q Awards, KT Tunstall literally bounded onto the stage at Southampton’s Guildhall. This is not surprising when you consider the year she has had: the run away success of her debut album, a Mercury nomination and now the Q Award. Surrounded by her band, Tunstall cuts a diminutive figure, but her size is only small in stature. Right from the outset she looked like a seasoned performer, not a woman young in both years and musical experience.

With a Scottish lilt to her voice and with her energetic guitar strumming, Tunstall has an effective stage persona and her band did not disappoint either. Several of her early songs impressed, especially ‘Girl and the Ghost’, a B-side which she announced had never been played live before. The crowd reacted with excitement to her new songs, but it was when Tunstall banged the opening rhythm to ‘Black Horse & the Cherry Tree’ on her guitar that the atmosphere really lifted. She held the spectators like putty in her hands, and for the first time in her set, she really rocked.

She gelled well with Ed Hardcourt (who had done an excellent supporting performance) when he made an appearance for one of her songs. ‘Silent Sea’ was exquisite, but it was songs from ‘Eye to the Telescope’ that the crowd really wanted to hear. Tunstall wittily thanked them for their patience and then launched into ‘Suddenly I See’, a song that showed her to be the consummate performer she is. Cleverly she used the middle section to refer to Van Morrison’s ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’. After a couple of encores, one of which was a beautiful ballad at the piano, she bounced from the stage with as much energy as when she came on.

The future holds much for KT Tunstall. She is certainly no one hit wonder, and is an example to those who want to write and play sassy effective pop music. However, as with so many artists, the songs she has released are undoubtedly her strongest.