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Previews: Morcheeba, KT Tunstall, Derren Brown
by Conrad Astley19/ 5/2005
KT TUNSTALL is the latest in a line of singer-songwriters to
have been pushed forward to the big time, after record companies
saw the potential of acts like Dido.
Within months, the 29-year-old Scot has risen from complete
obscurity, playing to groups of less than a dozen in cafes, to
having a gold-selling album and a sell-out tour on her hands.
And all this was down to a rapper deciding he couldn't be bothered
to make a television appearance.
When Nas suddenly pulled out of an appearance on BBC2's Later...
With Jools Holland, the producers made an odd choice, replacing a
US rap star with a Carol King-influenced girl with a guitar.
Her performance was voted best by the show's online poll, and also
came a few weeks before her album, Eye Of The Telescope, was due to
hit the shops.
KT - real name Kate, which she dismissed as being not rock `n' roll
enough - grew up in the small university town of St Andrew's, which
she describes as "a little bubble".
However, it was also home to a thriving music scene which produced
successful acts like the Beta Band.
And absorbing this music, as well as early blues recordings, has
given her music an earthy edge that sets it apart from many of her
coffee table contemporaries.
She said: "On the whole, I'm a positive, skippity-la-la person but
I love the dark side of music and I will always want to explore
that. It's a positive-sounding album but there's stuff underneath
for sure."
KT Tunstall, Academy, Sunday.
HE CAN control human behaviour, make you see
things that aren't there and do things you would never dream
of.
Last year's show The Séance, in which he duped a group of students
into believing they were contacting dead members of a suicide cult,
has recently topped the charts to become the most complained about
programme ever to appear on British TV.
Hundreds of Christians contacted the authorities, fearing that such
a programme would put the broadcasters in league with
Satan.
And Derren - surely he means Darren - Brown felt a bit miffed
that his pledge to blow his own head off on live TV only attracted
a measly 20 objections.
His Mind Control programmes and the Russian Roulette special have
also established him as a powerful and controversial force, and
he's moved on a long way from his original role of "Britain's
answer to David Blaine."
The psychological illusionist is now back with a sell-out tour,
Something Wicked This Way Comes.
Derren Brown, Lowry,
Thursday
THERE was a time when it was impossible to walk
into a shop or watch TV without hearing Morcheeba.
The band appeared in the mid 90s along with the likes of
Portishead, and a new term - trip hop - was created to describe the
downtempo, chill-out style.
Like Air and Zero 7 after them, the music, originally intended as
an early morning soundtrack for clubbers, became synonymous with
adverts and gardening programmes.
Moorcheeba - based around brothers Ross and Paul Godfrey - have now
sold 5m albums.
But, despite the loved-up nature of the sound, it is no different
to any band centred around a pair of siblings.
After the release of their last album, the pair were tired of the
constant touring schedule, and decided they needed a break from
working with each other.
Ross spent his time off travelling around the world, and forming a
loud rock group called The Jukes to get rid of all his pent-up
frustration. Meanwhile Paul decided the answer was to disappear
into a log cabin at the bottom of his garden, work out, and take
what he referred to as "shamanic truffles".
Either way, the split appears to have done them good. They have now
returned after a two-year break with their fifth album The
Antidote.
Although it is the first not to feature singer Skye Edwards, who
has been replaced with Daisy Martey from Noonday Underground, there
have been other changes to fit the new voice - the ultimate
chill-out band has gone rock `n' roll. The Antidote, unlike their
previous albums, was recorded almost entirely live, and contains
far more guitar rock influences than anything they've ever
done.
Ross said: "We wanted to up the ante a bit, tempo wise and
dynamically. We wanted to have a mix of that late 60s psychedelic
sound, but with a modern consciousness."
Morcheeba,
Academy, Saturday
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