KT Tunstall w Germein Sisters @ Northcote Theatre Eye To The Telescope 20th Anniversary Tour – May 24, 2026
Review: Joshua Batten. Photos: Jason Rosewarne
It’s been 12 years since Scottish singer-songwriter KT Tunstall played a headline show in Melbourne, and almost 22 years since she released her smash hit debut album Eye To The Telescope, combining blues rock energy with rootsy folk rhythms on such classics as “Black Horse & The Cherry Tree”, “Other Side Of The World” and “Suddenly I See”. Last year Tunstall broke her Australian drought by opening for Train in acoustic duo mode at arenas across the country. Exactly one year later, she has now returned to celebrate that seminal debut album by showcasing its tracks in more intimate venues, accompanied by an all-star backing band comprising American bassist Joel Gottschalk and two of Australia’s most in-demand musicians – drummer Jackie Barnes and guitarist Kathleen Halloran.
Opening act The Germein Sisters are just as accomplished in their own right, having spent decades honing their craft and touring both nationally and overseas. Performing tonight in semi-acoustic mode, their six-song set is packed with classic pop choruses and tight 3-part harmonies, showcasing a bond and chemistry that only comes from being a genuine family unit. Lead singer Georgia is proficient on both acoustic guitar and piano, and the combination of Clara’s Cajon and Ella’s Electric Bass ensures that a full band sound still resonates through the hall. Engaging with the crowd throughout the set and creating an audience choir on set closer “Choc & Cherry”, the Germein Sisters have held their own, winning over new fans and building up hype for their upcoming third album later in the year.
After taking an online poll earlier in the month asking the fans what order they would like the Telescope songs to be performed in, Tunstall has mostly decided to stick to the original album track list, with a couple of exceptions. Although this lineup of musicians only had one rehearsal before the tour kicked off earlier this week, you wouldn’t know it as right from the opening bars of “Other Side Of The World”, the band is tight, with Barnes and Tunstall holding down the rhythm on drums and acoustic guitar, Halloran adding colourful textures on her white Stratocaster, and Gottschalk clapping his hands whenever his fingers aren’t running across the bass. All three backup musicians are strong in the vocal department too, deftly recreating the dense vocal harmonies of the original album as well as adding oohs and aahs to fill in the space that would otherwise be filled by strings or keyboards.
Halloran in particular needs no introduction to regular readers of Australian Musician, as she has been featured extensively here through her work with Kate Ceberano and as a solo artist in her own right. Indeed, the KT tour is running concurrently with her own headline tour to celebrate her debut album “Nobody’s Baby”, which is getting rave reviews alongside its chart success. As tonight is also a hometown gig for Halloran, her family, band members and even Ceberano herself are in attendance to cheer her on, yet she never overplays, with a clean understated tone, and when she does take solos, she simply turns up the gain and utilises Stevie Ray Vaughan style vibrato with total control before stepping back again. It surely won’t be long before she leaves our shores to showcase her skills internationally!
Tunstall is both warm and genuine in her crowd banter between songs, taking the time to shout out the fellow Scot’s in the audience and marvelling at how despite flying halfway across the world, she has found herself with the “same weather, same jokes [and the] same people!” before launching into “Under The Weather”, its refrain of “Feels like Home” getting a rapturous response. She later acknowledges the mirror ball hanging from the Northcote Theatre ceiling, sharing her belief that such an object represents the spirit of David Bowie as it lights up the room for “Universe & U”.
Tunstall’s biggest hit “Suddenly I See” predictably gets the biggest response of the night, and after having seen many live clips online of Tunstall playing it faster than the original in both solo and band modes, tonight the tempo seems to be more restrained, giving the song room to breathe. Following this, we diverge from the album sequence as Tunstall announces the long-lost title track for Eye To The Telescope, which was only finished and released two years ago for the album’s 20th anniversary deluxe edition. The audience is totally transfixed and attentive during this number, creating a transcendent moment fitting the song’s galactic stargazy vibe.
Following the stomp-clap groove of “Stopping The Lovin’” and the sultry double harmonies of “Heal Over”, Tunstall, in the heat of excitement, accidentally skips over the album’s closing track “Through The Dark” and moves on to the one track that has been conspicuously absent from the setlist so far. While current editions of ‘Eye To The Telescope’ include Tunstall’s breakthrough hit “Black Horse & The Cherry Tree” as the fourth song, it was originally only included as a live bonus track on initial pressings of the album. As Tunstall explains, a studio version wasn’t created until after she performed the song on ‘Later…With Jools Holland’ as a last-minute fill-in for Nas, catapulting her into the spotlight and setting her on her long and illustrious journey. After telling a story about meeting Robert Smith of The Cure on the night of the Jools Holland taping, she launches into that now iconic Bo Diddley rhythm and leads the band in an impassioned rendition of “Black Horse”. In the years since its release, Tunstall has often included a mini cover of another song within the performance before the final chorus, such as The White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army”. While other shows on the tour have seen Tunstall playing an excerpt of Jimmy Barnes’s “Ride The Night Away” as a tribute to her drummer’s legendary father, tonight Tunstall instead performs the first verse and chorus of Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn”, which, of course, gets the crowd singing along.
Tunstall begins her encore set by acknowledging that she forgot to play “Through The Dark” but doesn’t feel like back-pedalling to include it, promising to return and play it at her next show in Melbourne. Instead, she plays “Little Favors”, the opening track to her sophomore album ‘Drastic Fantastic’, which underperformed compared to her debut (“Only a million copies!”) but got positive reviews from the likes of Dave Grohl, who she claims shouted out his praise for this track to her while riding a golf cart backstage at a festival. This is followed by Tunstall generously handing over the lead vocal duties to Halloran to play her own song “Wolves Like You” as Tunstall, Barnes and Gottschalk gather around a single mic to back her up. Considering just how much material Tunstall has released that could be included in the set tonight, the fact that she is generous enough to give up some of her own set time to put a spotlight on a new, relatively unknown artist is a testament to both her generosity and kindness as a musical mentor, as well as just how revered Halloran has become in the industry. Indeed, Halloran herself expresses her disbelief at what is unfolding and claims she has repeatedly tried unsuccessfully to give this spot in the show back to Tunstall to no avail!
The final two songs are the unreleased “Look At Me Now”, a sequel to “Suddenly I See” originally written for The Devil Wears Prada 2 before ultimately being rejected for the film, followed by “Push That Knot Away”, a rave-inspired anthem from the ‘Tiger Suit’ album which was highly requested by fans on Instagram before the tour. After standing politely for most of the show, the whole crowd bounces to this final song, ending the evening on a high energy climax.
A special shout-out needs to be given to the front of house mix tonight by veteran sound engineer Warwicke Newman. As a converted town hall rather than a traditional club or Victorian theatre, the Northcote Theatre can sometimes be a difficult venue for rock and roll. However, as there were no on-stage amps tonight and the sound design is not as technically dense as other recent or upcoming shows at the venue, the Northcote Theatre really was the perfect room for Tunstall’s unique brand of roots rock with pop crossover appeal.
As conversations surrounding the cost of live shows from international acts and ‘blue dot fever’ dominate news cycles, Tunstall’s choice not to bring out an entire band, crew and production from America, but to instead utilise the best of local Australian talent both on and offstage, is a clear sign of how live music can continue to thrive in a more intimate and engaging capacity. Although KT Tunstall is perfectly capable of delivering an entire solo show with live looping (as she has done on prior tours and will do later this week in New Zealand), it was great to finally see her deliver the songs from her most recognisable album in a full band setting for a dedicated and supportive crowd. Let’s hope it’s not too long before she returns!
