Gig review: Pearl and the Puppets

Published on Tuesday 22 December 2009 21:57

KING TUT'S WAH WAH HUT, GLASGOW **

LIKE Paolo Nutini and Amy MacDonald before her, Kirkintilloch singer/songwriter Katie Sutherland, aka Pearl, is being groomed for mainstream pop success. Sutherland shares management with Sir Elton John and has already supported the grand Dame at the SECC, and she was recently shoehorned on to the bill at Homecoming Live.

Her record label Universal Republic considers her a contender, and why wouldn't it? Pearl and the Puppets fit so innocuously into the whimsical singer/songwriter club that their forthcoming debut single Because I Do has already been featured on a mobile phone advert in Australia. Of all the songs in their set, it is the most representative of Pearl's rather affected, gauche style. If ever she was gazing bashfully through her fringe at her snuggly object of desire, it is in this song.

But there was plenty more cutesiness where that came from, mostly derived from the Colbie Caillat/Jason Mraz school of drippy dippiness. Her band provided lovely, mellow backing vocal input, adding a warmer texture to the sound than the string quartet adopted for a handful of wan, winsome numbers.

Sutherland is a likeable, comfortable performer – at least she was once she had removed her killer heels. Wouldn't want to scare the horses after all. In a further bid for bland, barefoot bohemia, she broke out a ukulele on a blithe but still lightweight pop number, which she suffixed with a couple of coy, pouting lines from Santa Baby.

Finally, she pitched for a slot on Radio 1's Live Lounge – the broadcasting home of gutless campfire karaoke – with her earnest, acoustic cover of Kings of Leon's Use Somebody, which silenced the chatter from the sold out crowd and garnered the biggest cheer of the night. Sutherland's task now is to get her target audience as excited about her own songs.