This gig sold out well in advance with tickets like gold dust - and it gave support act Ed Harcourt the chance to perform his oft-misunderstood music to a larger audience. Harcourt’s music isn't the most accessible but it is worth persevering with. This should have been the ideal chance to increase his popularity. What could go wrong: music fans, a talented singer-songwriter and a charged atmosphere. Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way. Perhaps the crowd were too impatient for Tunstall, maybe Harcourt’s slower music didn’t strike the right chord or maybe the UEA is just not suited to staging intimate gigs. Harcourt tried but I suspect he knew the game was up when he had to apologise for playing another slow song. The reaction showed that the jury was still out. Never mind, Ed! It’s their loss! Local talent The lights dimmed then glowed blue and Tunstall sauntered on stage to a rapturous applause and the strains of Eddie Cochran’s Summertime Blues. Tunstall’s meteoric rise to fame is no fluke. Her band has the tight sound gained through the experience of gigs ground out in smoky bar-rooms. The drumming in particular was top class. But what do you expect when you get a Sprowston lad (and your boyfriend) – Luke Bullen - to do the job! The well-known hits provided the show’s backbone but Tunstall has enough quality tracks on her album to fill a gig comfortably. Harcourt was given a chance to impress again as he returned for a duet. The pair seem suited to each other and thoughts of a future collaboration sends shivers of anticipation down the spine. Singing the blues The undoubted, and unsurprising, highlight was a thundering rendition of Black Horse And A Cherry Tree. The room reverberated with cries of 'Woo-hoo' and the vibration of a hundred feet stamping in unison as the gig took on the feeling of some giant shamanistic Indian ceremony. Using her live sets as a chance to evolve her music, Tunstall spliced in the old blues number Baby Please Don't Go. The chart-friendly harmonies of Black Horse hide a song that would be at home in the Mississippi Deltas and it was thrilling to hear an artist refer to such powerful music. Tunstall knows how to put on a show and work the crowd. Her career will carry on up the charts - as long as she checks the Pink Floyd-esque guitars! Expect to see her at a stadium near you - soon. KT Tunstall and Ed Harcourt played the UEA, Norwich, on Saturday 29 October 2005. Picture credit: Anthony Reed. | 
