Latest news with #KT Tunstall
The Guardian
28-05-2025
- Business
- The Guardian
‘Blur were so obnoxious!': 35 years of epic gigs at Glasgow's King Tut's, from Oasis to Lewis Capaldi
'Lewis Capaldi said to me recently: 'All I ever wanted was to get my name on the steps at King Tut's,'' says Judith Atkinson, one half of the couple behind the music venue that has long been where Glaswegians find their new favourite band. Celebrating 35 years this year, King Tut's Wah Wah Hut was where Oasis were discovered by Alan McGee and soon signed to his record label Creation. The Verve and Radiohead played in the same two-week period as that gig in 1993, while Manic Street Preachers, Florence + the Machine and entire scenes of Scottish alternative music have got a leg up there since. 'When I was growing up you didn't dream about playing Glastonbury – but you dream about playing King Tut's, the thing that's within your reach,' says Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall. 'It's such a big deal.' Small music venues like this have been in crisis since the pandemic due to rising costs for rent and utilities – according to the Music Venue Trust, 125 grassroots venues permanently closed in 2023, the worst year on record, followed by another 25 in 2024. And yet, thanks in part to a live music empire the owners have built around it, King Tut's is thriving, despite only having space for 300 people. Stuart Clumpas, who founded the venue in 1990 alongside his wife Atkinson, reckons it has something to do with Glasgow's dismal climate. 'Scotland is an indoor entertainment society because of the weather,' he says. 'The only way to go, 'Hey I'm going to go out for a night' and be guaranteed it's going to happen and work is to go to something indoors.' He remembers that fabled Oasis night, when the band drove from Manchester to try their luck and play an already-filled support slot. From the bouncer almost not letting them in, to venue staff refusing to let them perform, each story is different. Clumpas sets the record straight: 'It was another support band who said they can't play, not us,' he says. 'They went, 'Fuck off, it's too small a stage.' You can't put three drumkits on the stage the size of King Tut's.' But Oasis did manage to perform, and the rest is history. Another legendary band would never have been booked, though, if it was up to Atkinson and not venue booker Geoff Ellis. 'He kept booking this band called Radiohead and they only ever did 150 people,' Atkinson says, 'I remember saying to him: 'Why do you keep booking that bloody Radiohead, Geoff?' That's why I'm not a booker!' But Atkinson's experience in promoting gigs meant she was well placed to spot local up and coming artists, including future indie legends Belle and Sebastian. 'They used to come in a lot and hang out,' she says, and the band once struck up an impromptu live set in the pub area below the main venue. 'They were playing Boy With the Arab Strap and the whole pub was sitting at their tables jiggling to this song. I just went: wow, we're in a scene!' Blur got much shorter shrift. 'I do like Blur now, I'm very fond of them. But they played King Tut's when they'd been tipped to be the next big thing. They were so obnoxious because they were on the front cover of all the magazines that week – they were so full of it. I was only in my mid-20s but I was able to be like, 'Guys, you're going to meet the same people on the way down as the way up.' They came back and played about six months later and their tail was between their legs. God, they were polite.' When you enter King Tut's, history surrounds you. Downstairs in the pub the walls are adorned with memorabilia from gigs past, and on the stairs up to the venue each step shows an artist and the year they played. Tunstall has her name painted on the 2005 step next to Simple Minds, Arctic Monkeys and Texas. 'It's definitely one of the proudest notches on my belt,' she says. That gig was around when her debut album Eye to the Telescope was released – the next year, she received three Brit nominations, winning for British female solo artist. She reckons the venue's success comes down to the kind treatment she received from the owners, along with the sound quality. 'Your job on stage is to just try and whip up that energy to the point where everybody feels extremely present and connected to each other, and at some venues it's hard to do that,' she says. 'But at King Tut's, you're halfway there already. Thank God they don't freshly paint it every three years – it's like all the energy is kind of soaked into the walls in that place.' Another Scot, Nina Nesbitt, says 'it feels like a moment when you go there' to play – her first time was in 2013, the year before her debut album Peroxide (a Scottish chart topper). 'Touring at that [grassroots] level is really difficult mentally and physically,' she says. 'You're not really getting much sleep and you're sitting in dressing rooms with no windows, and it's quite depressing. The shows are amazing, but everything else is tough. Sometimes you don't even have a dressing room.' But at King Tut's, 'they really do take care of their artists. They have a lovely little dressing room, I think they have fairy lights in it. Little things go a long way, and put you in a good mood for the show.' General manager Davie Millar says he is still visited by famous faces who have made it big since their King Tut's debut. Liam Gallagher set the video for his single Come Back to Me at the venue – Millar has a cameo – and the 1975 'just popped in for a drink' recently. 'There's just a real vibe about the place. Bands like Manic Street Preachers and the Killers who played here many years ago, it's a real privilege for them to say 'yeah, we'd love to come back and play'.' As well as its famous patrons, King Tut's has benefited from being a small part of a much bigger operation. Clumpas, the founder, and Ellis, the booker, founded Scottish festival T in the Park in 1994 as a joint venture between DF Concerts – Clumpas's entertainment business he started in Dundee in the 80s – and Tennent's Lager (it later became TRNSMT festival). After Ellis took over as chief executive of DF Concerts in 2001, Live Nation acquired a majority stake in 2008 – all of which means that King Tut's has a financial security that is rare for a grassroots venue. It's also unique in that it doesn't have outside promoters putting on their own gigs: all the booking are still done in house. Millar clearly sees all that as a privilege, too: 'We're just going to keep doing what we're doing: continually finding artists, giving them a platform to be able to create and share their art.' He says the fundamentals won't change – 'People buy tickets because they love coming to live shows' – so what's next? 'Another 35 years. I truly believe that.'
Daily Mail
26-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
Guess who! Noughties pop star who gained massive success for her Devil Wears Prada anthem looks unrecognisable at Sydney Airport
She's the Scottish-born singer who enjoyed huge chart success thanks to the 2006 film The Devil Wears Prada which featured her catchy song, Suddenly I See. The hitmaker has enjoyed a decades long career and picked up numerous accolades, including two Ivor Novello Awards. Her debut album Eye to the Telescope catapulted her to international stardom, selling more than five million copies globally. It was also the 51st best-selling album of the 2000s in the UK. Now 49, the songstress is currently in Australia as the support act for US rockers Train during their five-date Down Under tour. From A-list scandals and red carpet mishaps to exclusive pictures and viral moments, subscribe to the DailyMail's new showbiz newsletter to stay in the loop. KT Tunstall looked unrecognisable when she was spotted arriving at Sydney Airport ahead of her ICC Theatre show on Saturday. She wore a sleeveless cream and tan jacket from French designer Isabel Marant. Dressing for warmth, Tunstall rugged up with a plain black jumper with loose-fitting sleeves. She could not hide her rocker persona though, stepping out in a pair of form-fitting grey acid wash jeans with seam details on the thighs. Tunstall finished her outfit with a pair of chunky black combat-style boots that enveloped the cuffs of her jeans. She added an extra element of disguise with a pair of yellow-tinted sunglasses and finished her look with a leather crossbody bag and some subtle silver bling in her ears and on her wrists. Tunstall recently revealed that she went deaf in one ear after attending a Spice Girls concert. She explained on Channel Ten's The Project she had travelled on a long flight to get to the concert. However, the pressure of the flight and the loud music at the show led to her suffering from sensorineural hearing loss (SSHL). 'I lost my hearing on tour in 2018 on one side. [Earlier] I had come off a long haul flight and I went to a Spice Girls concert which was amazing,' Tunstall explained. 'I guess it was a combination of working too hard, travelling too much and something too loud and I lost some of my hearing.' Tunstall also revealed she suffered from vertigo for three months but it eventually disappeared. She recently told OK! magazine: 'It was a huge shock. I'm 97 per cent deaf in that ear now and can't use a hearing aid because it's gone too far.... 'I'm not blaming the Spice Girls, but I think it overloaded my nervous system. I woke up with ringing in my ear, like I'd gone underwater. I couldn't hear the car indicator or a shower in another room.' 'But the worst part wasn't the deafness, it was the vertigo. 'I lost my balance completely, for two or three months. That was really disabling. Thankfully it passed, and I can still write, record, perform - just in mono. 'I started seeing it as a message from the universe telling me to slow down, look after myself. I still tour, but I'm more careful.' As she prepares to turn 50 later this year and celebrate the 20th anniversary of her breakthrough album Eye To The Telescope, Tunstall admitted she feels like it is the end of an era but that she is proud of her age and how she remains a force in the music industry. Tunstall, who has released eight studio albums, is perhaps best known for the 2005 track Suddenly I See. The track featured prominently in the 2006 film Devil Wears Prada starring Meryl Streep and Anne Hathaway. The song's inclusion in the soundtrack definitely did not hinder its success, peaking at number 12 on the UK chart - giving Tunstall her most successful single to date in the UK. Speaking about the song's association with the hit film in 2007, Tunstall said she found it 'amusing', given it was inspired by punk poet icon Patti Smith. 'The whole thing with The Devil Wears Prada was very amusing,' she said. 'The song is actually about the photograph of Patti Smith on the cover of Horses. I didn't realize the lyrics could perfectly fit a chick flick, and it could sound like I was singing about wanting to be a f***ing model!'
