Get yourself some Granfix supergrip - like rubbish to a blanket mate.
I must admit, I used some blue star the other week to do my mates moms kitchen wall, and the tiles slipped all over the place. Normally you can place the tile on, move away to sort something out maybe and come back to put a spacer in etc.. and the tile hasn't moved. But with the blue star I had, it seemed weak and too easy to spread on the wall.
Only batten when the bath / kitchen units are missing and you know the height. Normally on new builds this happens, where you can work off the plans.
To batten onto a solid wall, drill your holes in your batten first, then swapping your drill bit to a masonry one, drill through the batten into the wall, add raw plug and screw in.
🙂