Eye To The Telescope - KT Tunstall

There are just some moments on TV that can really accelerate a performer's rise to stardom, and for those watching Jools Holland on the BBC in 2004 will have witnessed one such event. When KT Tunstall stepped up to the microphone with just an acoustic guitar and a loop pedal not many could've predicted the effect that this performance would have.

The performance of 'Black Horse and a Cherry Tree' was spellbinding - and astonashing at what a complex arrangement could be produced using only three items of equipment. On the back of this, I was one of the many who rushed out and..... well rushed to the PC and downloaded the album. Oh how things have changed - no more dashing for the bus, darting around shopping masses only to be disappointed that the record stockist no longer has any stock.....

And it is a great debut album - solid folk pop songs with enough of a difference to let them stand out from the crowd. And what a crowd it was becomming with female singer songwriters finally getting the recognition they deserved; this latest tranche starting with Dido and running on to the current day. For me, the debut by KT was head and shoudlers above the rest and all that would follow.

As we had narrowly missed seeing her perform in a small venue in Dublin - we were there for the weekend and it was only whilst walking around the city centre on the Sunday morning that we realised we had missed out - so we bought tickets as soon as the tour accompanying her second album was announced; buying tickets for the Glasgow show as we thought her home town gig would be something special.....

.....and how right we were for totally the wrong reason. It was absolutely awful. Performed in an aircraft hanger of a venue with no atmosphere, KT did not have enough stage presence to fill the arena. This, in conjunction with dreadful sound made for a challenging evening. We'd had enough - it was so appalling that we left before the end of the set - I had never done this before nor since (and believe me I have been to some really poor gigs). To say it was disappointing was an understatement. What was even more surprising was that the critics, writing in the papers the following day, gave it a glowing report. They must've been to a different concert to the one we attended. But perhaps the lesson to take from this is that singers who produce intimate and acoustic based pop music really shouldn't hold gigs in cavernous arenas, or we should avoid such events in the future.