After we had laden my daughter with T Shirts and CD's we made our way into the Bridgewater Hall. I'd never been to this venue before and it opened out into a clean precise looking sound space ( Yep I have no idea what I'm on about either basically it looked really nice ;]). We made ourselves comfortable and wondered at the height of the ceiling.....
Now I would normally run for cover nowadays if somebody is described as being played on Radio 1 as I don't think I've listened to Radio 1 for at least a decade( Checkout Roots & Fusion on Pure FM it's very cool ) but thankfully Billy Lockett didn't spring this on us until already part way through his set. By this time we'd already decided we loved what he was doing which was playing great self penned music and then telling us between songs his name was Billy Lockett. His music had a beautiful simplicity bolstered with a voice which with it's hint of vibrato at times really complemented his sound. Needless to say my daughter shot for the door as soon as he finished his set to go buy his EP and get it signed by the man himself(Don't think she stopped grinning till she fell asleep on the way home).
After a short break the lights dimmed and KT Tunstall strolled on stage. You could feel the relaxed calm of someone who has been gigging for a while. She headed straight into the first song off the new album 'Invisible Empire' and all was right with world. The whole place was transfixed on the stage immediately floating along with KT's beautiful tones. I do love it when an artist surpasses the sound of their recorded songs and KT Tunstall definitely delivers live. I don't know whether it's the added edge of being in a situation where everything can go pear shaped(Always wondered why 'pear shaped' was used to describe things going wrong. I quite like the shape of pears. Anyway...) or whether when sound engineers and producers are looking for the perfect waveform they remove some of the irregularities that give a voice or playing style character but there is definitely something more to the sound of KT Tunstall live which was wonderful to hear. The whole feel is even more engrossing as you see the songs build from a thump on the guitar body(Very technical term that, thump, maybe I should have used percussive strikes, Oh well) and then layer upon layer is added by the press of a pedal until you are immersed in an ear caressing soundscape. One of the many high points of the evening for me was hearing the stunningly beautiful Alchemy which apparently was only available to the 'Inner order' of followers or was it just on an EP that you could only get at gigs it was definitely one of those two;]. As counterpoint to the floating flowing tunes there were some down in the dirt gritty bluesy stompfests like the 'Black Horse and The Cherry Tree' 'Seven Nation Army' mashup and 'Suddenly I See'. Basically you know you're in the presence of someone who is great at what they do when it all seems so effortless, just strolling between instruments or reaching down for the next instrument to add another looped layer without looking anxious or hurried. It's really easy to sum up KT Tunstall's performance at the Bridgewater Hall Manchester Class!!!!
I reckon I've earned a few years worth of Brownie points with my wife and daughter judging by how much they enjoyed the night. (think I'll remind them of that next time I put my foot in it) So big thanks to Billy Lockett and KT Tunstall.
For all things Billy Lockett you can find him here...
http://billylockett.blogspot.co.uk/
and here
https://www.facebook.com/billylockettmusic
The amazing K T Tunstall can be found here(It's not actually her it's a web site ;])
http://kttunstall.com/
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