Less than three months ago it was near impossible to get hold of KT Tunstall’s much praised, but little sought after ‘False Alarm’ EP. An appearance on BBC’s ‘Later…With Jools Holland’, however, would set the Scottish-born singer-songwriter well on her way to selling out gigs and shifting over 10,000 copies of her debut album within just three weeks of its release. It has, of course, been helped by the huge critical attention ‘Eye to the Telescope’ has received; KT Tunstall is seemingly 2005’s media darling, winning much praise and comparisons as diverse as Janis Joplin to Joni Mitchell, via Patti Smith, Stevie Nicks, Carole King, Roberta Flack and Tom Waits. Meanwhile, her few detractors are keen to dismiss Tunstall as some sort of ersatz Dido, admittedly more fun but nonetheless equally irrelevant.

In some ways, they’re both right. Tunstall is bursting with talent and promise, ‘Eye To The Telescope’ boasts not a single duff melody and while perhaps at this stage lacking a little of the graphic insight of Joni, the brashness of Patti and the obscurity of Waits, the similarities are no doubt there to be made. Producer Steve Osbourne, however, best known for his work with the likes of New Order, U2 and the Happy Mondays, has insisted on a more radio friendly sound, lending a glossy pop sheen to the album. As a result, single ‘Black Horse and the Cherry Tree’ can often heard on any local MOR radio station, firmly wedged somewhere between the likes of Anastacia and Phil Collins, freshly gleaming from Osbourne’s effects studio. Soundsxp had recently compared the song to a blancmange, perhaps understandably, given the track’s almost sickly aftertaste, but this can in no way be used dismiss Tunstall, for on stage it’s a different story completely. So good was her ‘Later…’ performance of 'Black Horse' - switching with ease between her guitar, tambourine and loop pedal, the solitary Tunstall had captivated, somehow managing the work of a five-piece band, inciting soul legend Anita Baker to dance uncontrollably and completely upstaging The Cure, The Futureheads, Embrace and Jackson Browne in the process – that the recording was hastily added as a bonus track to the album; early punters being lucky enough to abtain a copy of this before the remixed single version was subsequently added to the re-release.

In a venue as intimate as The Scala, the results were equally as stunning. Tunstall is a wonderfully charming performer, changing from sweet chanteuse one minute to a gutsy, equally hard-headed Wanda Jackson the next. That such a sound can be emitted from someone who appears to be almost completely shielded from view by her own guitar is an idea which remains a little difficult to conceive, but the petite performer remains the star of the show, still managing to overpower her band - the drummer, his arms flailing madly like Animal of the Muppets on 'Suddenly I See' - and the occasional backing vocals; Tunstall has an excellent sense of rhythm, scratching out the beats of the song on her guitar on 'Miniature Disasters' and 'Black Horse', her shoulders constantly writhing through each song as she plays, and despite the excellence of her band, it remains a one-woman show.

The set proceeds with various renditions of her album's songs, the woozy 'Silent Sea', the gravel-toned 'False Alarm' and the gorgeous 'Throw Me A Rope', all of varying degrees of tailoring and ingenious creativity when transported from record to stage, and with constant surprises too - the bass-heavy 'Stoppin The Love' brings out an unexpected and entertaining trumpet solo. It is a hugely entertaining live act, one that does infinately more justice to Tunstall than even the songs themselves. It's obvious that Tunstall might be looking for the darker edge of Polly Harvey or Tori Amos, and this will probably come with time, and by then she could well be enjoying the accolade of being one of the most startlingly creative and promising acts in recent years. Now if she could just get rid of that gloss...

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