REVIEW: KT Tunstall wows Strathpeffer Pavilion with all the hits – Suddenly I See, Black Horse and the Cherry Tree, Other Side of the World – and a Lidl help from her friends
The normally sleepy village of Strathpeffer got an unexpected treat when pop-rocker KT Tunstall came to perform in the pavilion.
The tour was arranged in conjunction with Lidl as the Edinburgh-born singer supports the store’s efforts to source local produce.
She took to the stage with just a three piece acoustic band supporting her that left many of the high production values of many of her songs behind.
That was a clear advantage and the set was anything but a dry run-through of familiar hits as the quality of the song-writing shone through all the better.
If Only – far better acoustically than the studio version, using her incredible voice to its full and showing an already fine song in a whole new light.
Far from dashing through a greatest hits, the singer took time between songs to relay some of the eventful episodes – such as one distressing aspect of the video for If Only.
She said the ski-jump scene used a six foot two body double for the five foot two songwriter and she was at pains to point out the backside of the woman on the ski-jumped belonged to the body double.
It Took Me So Long To Get Here, But Here I Am followed and revealed the song as something finer than the studio version before she went into what she called her “one country song” – Boo Hoo.
After a little negotiating with the sound engineer to the amusement of the audience, KT delivered one of her earliest and finest songs – Black Horse and the Cherry Tree.
There was no looking back after and having described an earlier show in Aberdeen “stonking” with a “really great vibe” the Highland crowd certainly agreed.
Next up was Little Favours off the Drastic Fantastic album and The River off her most recent release Wax.
Then came a surprise for most, when local hero and former Strathpeffer-resident, the Gaelic singer Julie Fowlis joined the show first for KT’s Wipe Those Tears Away.
Then cruelly raising the hopes of Proclaimers fans throughout the audience, KT said she wanted to play a Scottish “classic” before adding “It is not 500 miles if that’s what you think.”
It was something almost as good, Eddi Reader’s classic It’s Got To Be Perfect – which it was – as well as being a song KT used to “make a lot of money on” when she was still busking.
Finally after encore, the band came back on for Saving My Face, Other Side Of The World, a completely brilliant version of Erasure’s A Little Respect and rounding off a wonderful performance with Suddenly I See.
The £7.50 entry fee went to charity but even if it was not for a good cause it would have been a steal at three times the price.
