I apologise for not writing on this blog sooner. Summer camp
was very busy and I’ve been getting used to settling back home and job hunting.
I don’t have any plans to go abroad anytime
soon, although I hope to go travelling one day. However, I will still keep up this blog and maybe
change the name (any suggestions are welcome!)
The first blog post-Spain
is about the KT Tunstall gig I attended at the Lemon Tree in Aberdeen on 27th
of August. I had bought the tickets a few months before and glad I did, as shortly
after I had purchased them, the tickets had all sold out. I was really excited
and asked my sister Hannah if she would come with me to the gig.
Summer passed quickly and soon as I knew it, the gig date
was here. I was really excited, especially as KT Tunstall said she would only
be writing songs for films, but instead came out with a brand new album! She
celebrated this with touring around the north of Scotland for the ‘Highlands
and Islands Tour’. I had seen KT
Tunstall perform way back in 2005 at the Aberdeen Music Hall and this was after
she had released her first album ‘Eye to the Telescope’. Since then I have been a huge fan of her
music. On this recent tour, she was only
two weeks away from releasing her fifth album ‘Kin’ and had also released an EP
with several tracks to give fans a taste of what the new album might be like.
Hannah and I mentally prepared ourselves for the gig by
listening to the first two albums ‘Eye to the Telescope’ and ‘Drastic Fantastic’
in the car. Of course, it was as if I had
never stopped listening to them. I knew the lyrics off by heart. We soon
arrived in Aberdeen and parked the car, then made our way to the venue. Hannah
joked that I’d got the wrong night and I gave her a glare as if to say ‘That’s
not funny.’ We definitely got the right night as there was a large queue of
people standing outside the door. Hannah and I got past the door and we were
soon into the venue.
The Lemon Tree is not a very large venue; it can get a few
hundred people in at the very most. Most people went to get a drink before the
gig started so that gave Hannah and I the chance to get as close to the front
as possible. Success, we were very close to the front, in fact, we were near the
people who were leaning on the bar which separated the stage from the audience.
The show started and the support act came on stage. His name
was Callum Beattie and he came from Glasgow, although he now lived in London.
Callum wrote all his own songs including one about growing up in Easter Road
which was very heartfelt and emotional. He sounded similar to Paolo Nutini. I hope
that he will get a record deal soon as he was brilliant.
After Callum performed there was a half hour break, but I
didn’t want to move as I didn’t want to give up my space. There were a few drunken
ladies behind us who couldn’t see properly and would have liked it if we moved
away so they could get in our space, but no way was that happening!!
During the break,
there was a sound technician (who went by the name of Lars – short for Larry)
and he was testing all the instruments to ensure they worked. The interval was
soon over and the audience started clapping as the music started playing. Smoke started filling the stage and the
cheers filled the place as KT Tunstall arrived on stage, greeting us with a
friendly ‘Aberdeen! How ya doin’?’
She proceeded to play ‘Little Favours’ a track from her
second album ‘Drastic Fantastic’. She played songs from her previous albums as
well as her new one. During the song ‘Black Horse and Cherry Tree’, she encouraged the audience to sing the ‘No,
no’ part. Unfortunately, some of the
audience were not aware of the timing so she had to prompt us. It didn’t take
long though before she was impressed by Aberdeen’s singing. When she was
speaking in between songs there was a man in the audience (presumably drunk)
who kept on shouting ‘Yes!’ Tunstall was so impressed that she said: “You sir, I think I’ll take you on tour
with me!”
She introduced a particular song by talking about long
distance relationships. Yes, they can be
a pain in the ass, but sometimes you just have to live with it. Then she
encouraged us to get our phones out and put the torchlight on.
“We’re gonna turn the Lemon Tree in the (insert swear word
here) o2!” she cried, as the audience waved their phones in the air.
“Over the sea and far away.”
Everyone screamed with delight as she started to sing her
debut single ‘Other Side of the World’ and soon the Lemon Tree was filled with
people singing the song word for word. KT Tunstall interacted with the audience
throughout and I gave her a huge cheesy smile as she looked down and smiled at
me. It was probably one of the highlights of my life, to have an international
superstar lock eyes with you. I soon got over the fan girl screaming wildly
inside me and got back to singing my heart out.
It was a very enjoyable concert, with great music and funny
anecdotes. The tour’s sound engineer had accidentally set off the fire alarm at
a previous gig, prompting KT and her band to make up a song about it. They played
the first line of the song and stopped as that was all they had written so far.
The band had managed to make their voices sound like a fire alarm blaring and
KT Tunstall screamed into a microphone ‘Fire alarm, fire alarm, you set off the
fire alarm!’ It then turned out to be a hilariously ridiculous song about not
working on a farm, you set off the fire alarm or not to self-harm as you set off the fire alarm. I’m expecting the song to
be on her next album and I’m sure it will be a smash hit (ha ha!)
All jokes aside, there was one story which was no laughing
matter (well not to Tunstall anyway). She was playing in Wick and when the gig
had finished and they were packing up to leave, one of the band members
realised that her tambourine (affectionately named ‘Tambo’) was missing.
Someone had obviously taken it from the stage and made off with it. Tunstall
was seriously miffed and made a plea on Twitter for whoever had taken it to
return it, because well it was her Tambo. People were making online campaigns
and memes for Tambo to be reunited with his owner.
The next morning, Tunstall and her band were leaving Wick
and a taxi pulled up to the hotel they stayed in. She looked in and lo and
behold there was her Tambo, in the back seat unaccompanied. She thought it was
so funny and she was thrilled she got it back (so much so that she wrote a song
about it, you can check it out on her Facebook page).
Tunstall decided to have a competition towards the end of
the gig. She held up a signed CD copy of her ‘Golden State EP’. It was
available for a fiver at the merchandise stand, but she would give away this
copy free to the best ‘headbanger’. She
warned us that this song was proper rock and not just rock that you roll down
your car window for. She then played this heavy rock song which I believe was ‘The
Healer’ (it’s on her EP). The whole arena started rocking and head banging (I
couldn’t do it too much; otherwise I would have ended up in the hospital). There was this one man however who
was properly ‘head banging’ and in the end,
he won the free signed CD. She played one ‘last’ song and then she was off
stage. Hannah and I knew that it wasn’t the end of the concert, as she hadn’t played
the song she is probably most famous for.
There was much stomping, hand clapping and cheering,
including the shouts of ‘We want more! We want more!’ Of course,
she returned to this stage and burst into ‘Suddenly I See’. Everyone started
dancing and singing along. It was the perfect end to an incredible gig. It was
fantastic to see KT Tunstall live again and I’m sure I will see her again in
the future!
Have you ever seen KT Tunstall live? If you have, leave a
comment as to where you saw her. She tours around the world so it’ll be
interesting to see where she has played!
