JUSTIN Currie, Eddi Reader, and KT Tunstall are all iconic Scottish singers – and Friday night's Barrowland audience were lucky enough to see all three share the stage.
To celebrate 20 years since Tunstall released Eye to the Telescope, and as part of Celtic Connections ("it was their idea", Tunstall said) a one-off special performance was hosted at the iconic ballroom for Tunstall's most loyal fans. A similar one had been held the night previous at the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, but this was more Tunstall's "jam".
Personally, I was five and my sister was two when the album was released and I remember playing it on our stereo and learning the words from the lyric booklet.
In a crowd which spanned generations, we belted them out like the best of them.
Tunstall and her band played the entire album as well as songs from subsequent records, and a few covers with some very special guests.
The crowd danced and sang in a space with no time, no date. Enjoying the music of two decades ago that has been in their head ever since. We time-travelled, and it could not have been easier.
When it came to the globally-recognised Suddenly I See, Tunstall joked that no-one was to leave after hearing it. And all I can say is that if they did, they were fools, because what followed was truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
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Tunstall welcomed back Chris Leonard to the stage. He had been the evening's opener and brought his Irish energy for a very Celtic Connection Irish Gaelic mash up of an Irish folk song with Black Horse and a Cherry Tree.
Having rewatched Tunstall's first appearance on Jools Holland only last week, we were both brought in to the present moment with Tunstall as a defined and established artist who had owned her craft, but transported back to be with the raw, 25-year-old woman who was just beginning her adventure.
Then she said could it get better. Could it? Yes.
Reader came on stage with the band bowing down to her. The pair did a rendition of Perfect, which was as you'd expect. Perfect.
After that, she performed alongside young singers Amy Papiransky and Roddy Hart, who were both visibly nervous to be sharing the stage with Tunstall but she put them at ease and you could see her mentoring skills come into play.
Finally, when the band were begged back on, they brought another guest with them – but had lost him.
Del Amiri's lead singer Currie (above) was then hurried on, and he told the crowd he was in the dressing room all along with Reader, hearing some of her "showbiz stories".
A final encore was done with all joining Tunstall on stage. She said the song held a message that would be obvious when she started the song.
Don't You (Forget About Me) by Simple Minds was played with Reader and Currie giving a backing of hey, hey, hey, hey's.
Don't worry KT, we couldn't forget that night or the last 20 years.
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