KT Tunstall review — a galaxy of stars join a spangly 50th birthday party

Times

6 hours ago

Don't go to a KT Tunstall gig if you don't like patter with your music. Her physicist father's penchant for Blind Date; meeting someone who knew someone who had slept with Cilla Black; a woman requesting Under the Weather, in memory of her mother, who died in a shark attack … these were just some of the topics covered by the Scottish singer-songwriter at the Royal Albert Hall during the 20th-anniversary celebration of her Mercury-nominated debut, Eye to the Telescope.
Backed by a band whose clothes and instruments were spattered in sequins and wearing a sparkly dress herself, the Ivor Novello winner sang the entire album. She went from the wistful Other Side of the World to Suddenly I See (made famous by the opening scene in The Devil Wears Prada) and Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, the song she broke into the public eye with thanks to her performance on Jools Holland . In what quickly became a star-studded night, Holland appeared for the last to add some bluesy piano.
If it had ended there, after 90 minutes of nostalgia, the sold-out crowd (many also sporting sparkly outfits and wigs) would have left happy thanks to Tunstall's energising rhythmic guitar and cajon beats, as well as her spotless vocals — nowhere better than on Heal Over, on which she harmonised with Emma Flynn, the star of the new Clueless musical Tunstall wrote the music for.
But there was much more to come. This was also a 50th birthday party for Tunstall and she invited an eclectic collection of famous friends on stage — with wonderfully bizarre musical combinations. First up was an Adidas tracksuit-clad Mel C who, after belting out When You're Gone, duetted (I've Had) The Time of My Life with Tunstall, mashed up with the Spice Girls classic Stop. The woman behind me wept when she saw the next guest: Natalie Imbruglia, who performed Torn and, for some reason, Holding Out for a Hero. Then came Rick Astley with a birthday cake and Never Gonna Give You Up, which he followed up by playing the drums for Highway to Hell — he was the drummer for a band called FBI in the Eighties and can still hit a hi-hat.
Finally, 'Sir Wanky Bollocks' appeared — the name Tunstall gave the recently knighted Roger Daltrey. He didn't get the sparkly memo, and had opted instead for jeans and a white tee, but you couldn't fault his delivery of Won't Get Fooled Again — even if at his 'gentle age' of 81, as he said, he found it hard to do the scream at the end. Imperfect scream notwithstanding, this was a chaotically joyous night to remember.★★★★☆KT Tunstall is performing at Glasgow Summer Sessions, Jun 27, Bedford Summer Sessions, Jul 3, and other festivals through the summer, kttunstall.com
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