KT Tunstall / Sam Lewis

After a hectic Friday night zooming up the M6 in rush hour to get to Manchester to see Norwegian Electronic songstress Robyn, a gig that had previously been postponed from March this year. A 350 mile round trip from Manchester – Bath – Birmingham was the order of the day last weekend to see two amazing female artists who are so underrated it's untrue.

I have previously seen KT Tunstall on six other occasions, at various festivals and the last time was at the Assembly Rooms in Leamington earlier this year, unfortunately it wasn't one of the best shows I've seen due to the lead guitar drowning out all of Tunstall's vocals.

Unbeknown to me this was the last indoor show of the current tour which showcased Tunstall's latest offering 'Tiger Suit'.

Tonight's show was at the amazing Forum in the centre of Bath. It has certain similarities to the Assembly Rooms in Leamington; helpful staff, amazing surroundings and an all round amazing venue. Tonight we were shown to our seats; I was half expecting the popcorn and ice creams to be sold by vendors in the aisles.

Support tonight was provided by one man and his guitar Sam Lewis. A 30 minute set whisked by, it was hard to hear Lewis at times due to the fact that the doors to the main room had been left open so we had background noise of chitter-chatter of people in the reception area quaffing drinks and eating chocolates; the doors were finally closed later on in the set so we did get to sample Lewis' vocals.

The backdrop was a massive picture of Tunstall with a Tiger's headdress on, wicked in the dark as it was illuminated.

Tunstall is so underrated, a one women band and she showed this later on in the show when her and her guitar stole the show.

The show tonight went down a storm, the audience lapped every second up, the show kicked off with stonker 'Glamour Puss'. It was an all seated show, old theatre style seating, Tunstall beckoned the audience to come and stand at the front and get jiggy with it, a mass exodus from the seating area and a stampede to the front saw half the audience leave their seats. We missed our opportunity to join in, gutted.

It was quite funny because all through the show Tunstall kept harping on about the people standing at the front and that she may have been a bit previous asking people to come to the front as other audience members that stay seated were having trouble seeing.

We were treated to a 90min spectacular. Tunstall was on fine form and her band was tight, it was astounding to hear and watch.

We were treated to both old classics and newer material from 'Tiger Suit' and a few tracks from the 'Scarlet Tulip' EP - 'Come On Get In', 'Uummammaq Song', 'Hold On', and 'False Alarm', they were music to my ears, I was in my element, classic Tunstall 'Little Favours' and 'Other Side' were up next and the audience where whipped up into a frenzy.

'Hidden Heart' and 'Scarlet Tulip' - two amazing tracks from the 'Scarlet Tulip' EP, the latter track was dedicated to all the 9/11 victims. I've always found Tunstall to be a very caring person, she cares about the environment and absolutely adores her fans, so much so she refers to them as hardcore 'nut jobs'.

Tunstall did apologise during the show at the lack of reaching some of the high notes but it didn't really seem to hinder the vocals and besides the audience helped with the vocals at times and it was an absolute joy.

A 19 song fiesta of Tunstall Magic, it was definitely pure bliss, the best I've ever seen Tunstall live. 'Black Horse in a Cherry Tree' was an absolute diamond in the set, 'Madame Trudeaux', 'Saving My Face', stonker 'Push That Knot Away' and show stopper 'Fade Like a Shadow' closed the show. Were did the time go, the audience wanted more and they did get more: Last two songs 'Funny Man' and 'Suddenly I See'.

Tunstall has an amazing back catalogue and I could listen to her for hours. It'll be interesting to see her on her forthcoming acoustic tour showcasing the 'Scarlet Tulip' EP.

All I can say was if you haven’t seen her live then you should be ashamed of yourself.

FUTURE GIGS