It is two decades since KT Tunstall’s debut album Eye to the Telescope was released.To mark this she has been playing some special shows performing the album in full.
This Barrowlands gig followed on from a show in the Concert Hall on the previous night. Backed by a seven piece band featuring the familiar faces to me of Roddy Hart of the Lonesome Fire and Laura Wilkie of Kinnaris Quintet.
Between each song she’d tell a little of the story behind it all. Like a live autobiography – starting off with her time living in Fife.
“I used to play in a band called the Skuobhie Dubh Orchestra. Has anybody heard of it?” she asked the crowd.
That was King Creosote’s band before he was King and possibly Fence before it was Fence.
It’s interesting comparing the careers of all of those bands and artists. While Tunstall went to London and got a record deal, the others stayed in Fife and did it all themselves, to a point. Yet over these two decades they’ve all had solid careers.
Anyway, back to the gig. The opener ‘Other Side Of The World‘ had what seemed like the entire room singing along. It was the first of several times when that crowd drowned out the band.
For ‘Miniature Disasters’ she told the story of working with the producer Steve Osborne and how he helped develop what would become her trademark sound. He told her to “Watch what your right hand is doing” and made the drums/percussion follow that.
When ‘Under the Weather’ came out it was at the brief window of time when Top of the Pops allowed people to actually play live. She told about her appearance on the show, dressing all in black and playing a cherry red guitar while feeling like Johnny Cash.
Except the whole show, she said, was a mess.
No wonder it got cancelled.
‘Heal Over’ was recorded as a duet, although a duet with herself. To perform it here she was joined by Amy Papiranky.
And you know what song came next?
After the couple of slower numbers in the middle of the album ‘Suddenly I See’ brought the whole room back to life. Special kudos to the lighting design for the rainbow patterns that they used, referencing her rainbow band guitar straps from the time. Am I the only one to pick up on that?
She told how this song catapulted her into stardom. How she found herself in New York parties and being photographed between Mary J Blige and Justin Timberlake. That song developed its own level of fame in America without her having anything to do with it.
For ‘Black Horse and the Cherry Tree’ she told how it was put together quickly before her appearance on Jools Holland and how they didn’t have a recorded version so ended up having to use that one as a bonus track on the album.
To perform it here Chris Leonard who was support for the evening was invited to return to the stage and part of this song was performed in Irish – with a hasty lesson of the lyrics before it got underway.
After the album was played through there were bonus songs from other albums and a couple of surprise guests at the end in the shape of Justin Currie and Eddi Reader.
Leonard performed earlier with Aidan Burke accompanying on fiddle. They both play in another band called Shillelagh Law and they played some of that band’s songs along with Leonard’s own and included ‘A Pair of Brown Eyes’ in tribute to working with one of the Pogues.
He told how he’d grown up being told stories of the Barrowlands and how one day it was a place to aspire to play at.
Both Chris Leonard and KT Tunstall looked like competition winners – the most excited people in the room and beaming from ear to ear. If the audience had a good time, and they surely did, I can bet you they had a better one.
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