KT Tunstall's 50th birthday concert review
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A good singer-songwriter is the highest form of the art, IMHO. Someone who can entertain a crowd by picking up a guitar and singing their own songs has it all. KT Tunstall is a great musician, with a very distinctive voice and a fine catalogue of songs spanning twenty years in the business.
Monday at the Royal Albert Hall was a special concert ot celebrate her 50th birthday, and also the 20th anniversary of her debut album, Eye to the Telescope. And the concert was actually on her birthday, which is true dedication.
The Albert Hall is an impressive venue. It is what you get when the Queen of half the world decides to make something nice for her husband (that is Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, for any Trumpers reading). The capacity of the hall is over 5,000, and it was pretty packed.
Of course, she wasn't on stage with just her guitar. She had a pretty decent band. This included Arnulf Lindner on bass. He played double bass, wonderfully, on her 2006 album KT Tunstall's Acoustic Extravaganza. On stage, he alternated between double bass and electric bass on different songs. It also included Andy Burrows (ex-Razorlight) on drums. More on him later. Together with the other band members, they formed an extremely capable ensemble.
The format of the evening was playing the tracks of Eye to the Telescope, in order. It was an excellent first album, of course, that spawned five singles, including Other Side of the World and Suddenly I see.
Partway through, Jools Holland wandered onto the stage. Holland, of course, started life as a member of the British band Squeeze in the 70s. I think almost every British musician of that era was a member of Squeeze at some point, including Paul Carrack, Paul Young, Elvis Costello and two of the Attractions (Pete Thomas and Steve Nieve).
But why was Holland here tonight? A long story. After Squeeze, he went on to present The Tube, a live music programme in the early 80s, on the brand new UK TV station, Channel 4. That's right, we only had three TV channels before that! It was the first time most of us had seen live music on TV, since the main chart programme Top of the Pops was almost entirely mimed. The programme was a breath of fresh air at the time, seeing new and interesting bands performing live. Sadly, Holland was also partly responsible for ending the show a few years later, by accidentally dropping an f-bomb live at 5 pm (which was officially classed as a "children's TV" slot).
Holland then went on to present the long-running Later.... It was a grown-up version of The Tube, with less of the teenage shock factor. This is what he became best known for, and it is why he was on stage right now.
The story they told is that a scheduled guest on Later... pulled out at the last minute, and they needed someone to fill the gap at very short notice. Someone had seen KT Tunstall playing at a pub and thought she was good. She appeared on the show, belted out the excellent Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, and the rest is history.
Holland knows his way around a piano, so he replaced the regular keyboard player for the last couple of songs. There had not been a support act, and an hour into the show, the album was finished. Was that it? Well, it was her birthday, I suppose. But no, of course, that wasn't it. They took a break, with the promise that we had no idea what was coming in the second half.
The second half was introduced by none other than Craig Fergusson, probably best known for being in a punk band with 12th Doctor Who Peter Capaldi, before finding fame in the States. When the lights came up, the band had a very different look, with shiny jackets and big hair. They kicked off with "Jump" by Van Halen, the first in a long list of covers.
Then, of course, it was time for another guest. Sporty Spice, aka Mel C, came on and they performed a couple of songs.
Next up was Natalie Imbruglia. They sang Torn (of course) and a cover of I need a hero.
And then, Rick Astley, with Never gonna give you up and Highway to Hell. It turns out that Astley isn't half bad on a drum kit, too!
To be honest, the guests weren't acts that I would have gone out to see if they were doing a solo show (well, Natalie Imbruglia maybe). But it was a lot of fun in this format.
The show was coming to an end, but there was one last guest. Someone I would never in my life have imagined I would ever see live. Roger Daltrey! They finished with the iconic Who song Won't get Fooled Again.
I wouldn't have liked to be Andy Burrows at that point. "We'd like you to drum for Roger Daltrey. And if you can make it sound exactly like Keith Moon, the best drummer who has ever lived, that would be great". But you know, he made a pretty good job of it.