Far from having mere brazen brunette ambition, KT TUNSTALL has delivered an album of real substance that is shifting her into pop’s big league. Mark Robertson marvels at her big pink tour bus and witnesses how she handles frisky Bristolians, scurrilous gossip and the humble homeless.
F In I D
ndless red carpeting. huge hotel suites
decked out entirely in a very particular
shade of off-white. baskets of puppies to stroke. even a crystal bowl filled with colour coordinated M&Ms. But a croissant filled with egg mayonnaise. two apples and a bottle of water? Surely that‘s not what you really get when you cross paths with a diva‘.’
Standing in the makeshift car park beside the south west‘s premier rock venue. the Bristol Academy. I‘ve just finished a lengthy chat with said diva KT (nee Katie) Tunstall. As we leave her glowing pink tour bus — which. admittedly. is pretty damn groovy. despite its resemblance to a giant uncooked hot dog on wheels — we bump into her parents. who have just flown into town to see their daughter perform on what is the biggest tour of her career so far. Her father assumes momentarily that the Mark his daughter is with is actually Mark Radcliffe. Radio 2‘s sardonic professional Manc and fervent Tunstall supporter. For the record. I confide in him. he's much taller. older and more Iinglish than me. I am just about to take my leave of the family Tunstall as they‘ll be sitting down for the first proper meal together in some months when a small. down-at-hecl man in his 30s approaches us. He starts mumbling in an indecipherably
thick West Country accent. After 30 seconds of
gesticulation. apology and salutations we gather he is homeless. Katie cheerin intentipts him to find out ‘what he is needing‘. She turns on her
heels and hurtles back into the belly of her bus. Twenty uncomfortable seconds pass as a nervous Mama Tunstall shuffles awkwardly away from said fellow (who. truth be told. looks pretty benign as street folks go) before Katie reappears brandishing water. apples and said egg mayo pastry. presents them to the homeless lad. Smiling. he walks off. blissfully unaware that he has just encountered a diva.
You know you‘ve made it when you get gossiped about and Katie Tunstall is the latest pop starlet to be branded a diva for her ‘outrageous behaviour“ (©3am Girls). She made her debut appearance as a topic on Popbitch. the weekly email newsletter that is a now an infamous home for all manner of scurrilous gossip. conjecture and general unpublishable nonsense about the celebrity world. The story about her claimed: ‘KT Tunstall is a contender for this year's Geri Halliwell award for the fastest turnover of staff. In the last six months KT has gone through eight hairdressers. seven
‘YOU KNOW YOU'RE DOING SOMETHING RIGHT WHEN THE PRODIGY ARE INTO YOUR SINGER SONGWRITER ALBUM'
make-up artists and three PR firms. lrnagine what a diva she could turn into if she ever becomes famous'?‘
When Tunstall is reminded of this story that surfaced about two months ago she roars with glee.
‘I heard about this from a mate and he said he couldn‘t believe there was this thing saying that I sacked seven hair stylists and make-up artists or something. I thought it was hilarious.’ But given the attention that she gets. shouldn‘t a 30-year-old like Tunstall. performing as part of an industry so densely populated with bare-arsed teen waifs be totally within her rights to use her newly found fame as leverage to get the very best?
‘Nah! I mean. it‘s not that important. Of course you have people to do your hair. The only reason I got someone different is because the people I wanted were probably doing Ricky from the Kaiser Chiefs‘ hair that day anyway!’
Despite what Popbitch may think. Tunstall is getting famous. although there are few indications of a diva in the making. This date in Bristol. like the majority on her UK tour. are sold otit well in advance and it is reckoned the sales for her album Eye to the 72’](’.V(‘()p(’ will top a million by the end of the year. with over 200.000 of them sold in Scotland. a proportion of sales which in UK terms is unprecedented. She is happily a Scottish phenomenon that does not seem bound in by Hadrian‘s Wall.
An hour earlier we are holed up in the big pink tour bus. Tunstall is full of apologies for moving our interview time to accommodate her parents — 'so I said to them. let's have dinner on the tour bus. And they we‘re dead excited!‘ She wriggles off her burgundy Converse All Stars and snuggles down on the long. flesh-coloured pleather couch that runs along both sides of the middle third of the bus. ready to talk. While not as ellin as Bjork. but thankfully not has wholesome as say. Natasha Bedinglield. Tunstall has the air of what you‘d expect from a proper rock‘n‘roll star. reclining in a pretty cowboy shirt and battle-scarred denim. ()nly having her normally tousled black mane pinned up 50s-style in preparation for tonight's show hints that she might be anything else.
Tunstall has had a busy summer. But that‘s not to say the previous winter or spring were much of a slouch either. She shot her way into the nation‘s conciousness after her appearance on later . . . with Jon/s Holland last October. Drafted in as a last minute replacement for hip hop star Nas. she stole the show with a combination of ingenuity and passion on a stripped down version of ‘Black Horse and the Cherry Tree'. This leg up was considerable: no—one should underestimate the power ofthe Later. . . effect.
‘I forgot about just how many people watch TV! Thirteen months ago I was touring Beanscene coffee houses playing to seven people. intruding on their lattes. but it‘s incredible how people reacted to that show. I got about (300 emails. mostly from l‘)—year-old boys saying. "You were good and whatever but what‘s the effects pedal called and where can I get it?”
A tour supporting Joss Stone was enough to put pop stardom into perspective for her. ‘A 17— year—old girl on the road with her mum and a bunch of thirtysornething session musicians. Bless her!’ — and braving the mire at Glastonbury. she shone through the slowly drying squelch. The obligatory rapturous thank you at T in the Park followed and by the end of the summer she had emerged as fully-fledged headline grabbing. gossip—generating concern.
That is not to say it happened quickly for
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