Peter Capaldi prepares for headline solo gigs in Glasgow city centre after Glastonbury appearance

Peter Capaldi is to perform his first headline gig in more than 40 years at Stereo in Glasgow city centre later this month. The Glasgow actor had played a test event with a band at the same venue last year and was most recently seen joining Franz Ferdinand on stage at Glastonbury to perform their hit Take Me Out.

The gigs were arranged after the success of his second album, Sweet Illusions, released by local record label Last Night From Glasgow - you can read more about their story here. The former Doctor Who and The Thick Of It star, who grew up in Springburn before the family moved to Bishopbriggs, took his first forays into music in the early 1980s with punk rock band The Dreamboys.

Early success in acting, particularly being cast in Local Hero by Bill Forsyth, took Capaldi in a different direction. He told me: “It was such a great accident. A great piece of fate plucking me out of hanging about the Amphora or the Mars Bar or the College of Building and Technology Bar. Going into this other world that I was also very, very interested in.”

He has returned to his music roots for the last five years, delving back into Glasgow in the 1980s for inspiration as Peter sees his songs as a continuation of what he started in his time in art school: “Really what I was doing was picking up where I left off 40 years ago when I was an art student in a band and when Simple Minds and all that were knocking about and Strawberry Switchblade and Altered Images.”

“Glasgow was a bit of a happening place. Glasgow was always quite cinematic and quite dramatic, it suited that role. So I'm unashamedly nostalgic for that period. And I think a lot of the songs and the sounds of the synths would fit into that period quite well.”

Peter explained about testing the water with a live performance: “We did a gig at Stereo, I just wanted to see if that was possible. I got this fabulous band together who were all brilliant. Charlotte Printer and Craig McMahon who worked with Joesef, Andrew Cowan who does Altered Images. Chris Dickie who does Glasvegas. I'd always loved the drumming in Glasvegas, he came along and it was just great.

“Any time I came up to Glasgow we would rehearse and it was great hearing what they did to the songs, they would give them a kind of attack. I had to see whether or not it was possible for me to have the guts to go out in front of the band and do that. And we did it and it was great fun. So we'll do it again.”

Stereo has a capacity of 300 and the two sold out shows will take place on Tuesday 29th and Wednesday 30th July. Peter Capaldi’s second album Sweet Illusions is available to buy here. Our full interview with him is available on the GlasgowWorld YouTube channel.