Review: KT Tunstall at Delamere Forest, Cheshire

Jun 16 2008 by Michael Green, Chester Chronicle

KT TUNSTALL/Delamere Forest, Chester, Sunday, June 15

REVIEW/by Michael Green

A GLORIOUS summer evening brought the crowds flocking to the ‘arena’ area of Delamere Forest to see the 2008 series of Forestry Commission concerts at the tranquil Cheshire venue brought to a triumphant conclusion.

Scots songbird KT Tunstall held the enthusiastic audience in the palm of her hand with her warm-hearted, irresistable brand of repartee that formed a genuine bond with the legions of admirers who had made the trek to the beauty spot.

But they had already been charmed into submission by a superb support set from London-based singer-songwriter Tom Baxter whose brand of bluesy folk rock received a rapturous reception as we were treated to selections from debut album Feather & Stone and his breakthrough release Skybound.

That rapture reached a whole new level when Tunstall hit the stage and took off at a blistering pace with Little Favours, the opening track from her second album Drastic Fantastic, before treating everyone to The Other Side of the World, one of the many crowd pleasing tracks from her incredibly successful debut album Eye To The Telescope.

For anyone who had never seen KT live before, perhaps the most surprising aspect of the show was the easy rapport she developed with the crowd almost from the start, whether it was getting everyone involved in a ‘massive rural body pop’ or sharing a couple of ‘KT’s fascinating facts’ (bats always go left when they fly out of caves, apparently)!

The Edinburgh star also threw in a couple of personal local references such as the fact her grandad used to work in Ellesmere Port and she was well used to a few pub lunches in Whitchurch.

Musically, it was Tunstall material from start to finish, not even falling prey to the encore cover trap, with the undoubted highlight coming with The Black Horse & The Cherry Tree which was performed almost entirely solo and acoustically until the band returned for an extended jam to finish off the song.

The only downside to the evening was the chaos which reigned as everyone tried to leave the car park the other side of Delamere Station. Nothing moved for about an hour until about 10 streams of traffic converged on one narrow exit. But this was the only black mark against an otherwise impeccably organised event that was a credit to the Forestry Commission.