KT Tunstall

EMMA LEE

>UEALCR,Norwich

"How many of you guys are here because your girlfriends have dragged you along?" K T Tunstall asked the male contingent of the sold-out crowd at UEA's LCR on Saturday night.

Even if the blokes in the audience did go along at the behest of their other halves, they can't fail to have been won over by the Scottish singer-songwriter.

Since releasing her breakthrough single, the rootsy stomper Black Horse and the Cherry Tree earlier this year, former busker Tunstall, who hails from St Andrews, has seen her album, Eye to the Telescope, nominated for the Mercury Music Prize.

She arrived on stage wearing a sassy blue sequinned dress, which she later admitted was being held in place by "industrial-strength tape" provided by the mum of her drummer boyfriend Luke, who is a "good Sprowston lad".

The show opened with the single Other Side of the World, and as well as playing most of the songs off her album, Tunstall also debuted some new material, which seemed to get the crowd's approval.

Suddenly I See and the new single, Under the Weather, were among the highlights

Tunstall and her band obviously love playing live - and it gave her a chance to show her amazing voice.

Incredibly versatile, it was raw and earthy one minute, choirgirl sweet the next.

And she is also a versatile musician. As well as playing guitar, she took up the drums and the keyboard, and recorded samples live to loop during the songs.

And her band, which included a cello player, were very well rehearsed - with one percussionist even using a dustbin lid as a drum at one point.

"You rule", she told the crowd before the encore.

Judging from the cheers of the crowd, I think it was the other way round.