Peter Capaldi releases a new album, Sweet Illusions, in March 2025, produced by fellow Glaswegian Robert Howard of The Blow Monkeys.
The forthcoming album is a beautifully understated slice of sophisticated pop music. It will be released by local record label Last Night From Glasgow - first single Bin Night debuted last month.
Although best known for his extensive career as an actor, Capaldi first became involved in music as a Glasgow School of Art student, when he fronted punk group The Dreamboys, part of the city’s eclectic 80s music scene. Four decades on, he released his debut solo album St Christopher in 2021.
There’s a lot of Glasgow in Peter’s music: echoes of his hometown set against a canvas of Americana guitar and retro synths. “I kept going back to a Glaswegian art school ‘80s vibe,” Peter told me.
“The city itself, how it has such a power about it. Glasgow is a wonderful, noirish, synthy setting for things."
Watch our exclusive chat with Peter Capaldi about his second album, Sweet Illusions, to be released by Last Night From Glasgow in March.
The forthcoming album is a beautifully understated slice of sophisticated pop music. It will be released by local record label Last Night From Glasgow - first single Bin Night debuted last month.
Although best known for his extensive career as an actor, Capaldi first became involved in music as a Glasgow School of Art student, when he fronted punk group The Dreamboys, part of the city’s eclectic 80s music scene. Four decades on, he released his debut solo album St Christopher in 2021.
There’s a lot of Glasgow in Peter’s music: echoes of his hometown set against a canvas of Americana guitar and retro synths. “I kept going back to a Glaswegian art school ‘80s vibe,” Peter told me.
“The city itself, how it has such a power about it. Glasgow is a wonderful, noirish, synthy setting for things."
Watch our exclusive chat with Peter Capaldi about his second album, Sweet Illusions, to be released by Last Night From Glasgow in March.
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MusicTranscript
00:00Good morning Peter. Good morning up-and-coming Glasgow musician Peter.
00:07There you go, it's incredible, it's 66. It's all happening.
00:12Sweet Illusions second album is coming out next month.
00:17Do you know there was going to be a second album when you started work on the first?
00:21Did you think this was going to go somewhere?
00:25I think it became clear that I enjoyed doing it,
00:30so that I sort of couldn't stop doing it.
00:33I just kept at it because it was so enjoyable.
00:37But there was no plan, it just ended up with more songs.
00:42It was so much fun putting together an album,
00:46because it's not like the old days where you have to be signed up to a big record company
00:50and you have to have people on your back all the time and get lots of money.
00:55Anybody can do it.
00:58The doors are open to access all that creativity,
01:02whether it be the music and doing the sleeve and all that kind of stuff.
01:06So it's fun.
01:08But I didn't have a big plan.
01:10I got the sense that it started off out of…
01:16There was almost a social aspect of it,
01:18because you were recording with people that you got on well with.
01:22You enjoyed the experience of collaborating with the musicians in the band.
01:26You bounced off ideas,
01:28but you didn't necessarily arrive with a whole plastic bag full of songs or anything
01:33to get together or anything like that.
01:36No.
01:38This second album was a wee bit less random than the first one.
01:43The first one was really just having a go.
01:45I hadn't done it for years.
01:47I'd never really done it seriously,
01:50although I'd been in a band and stuff before.
01:53And obviously I'd subsequently in my life met musicians who I respected
01:57and liked being around.
02:00So the first one was just really having a stab,
02:03as is the second one really,
02:05but you just learn more as you go along.
02:07And I tried to make it a bit more…
02:10I tried to make the songs a wee bit more complete this time around.
02:14So your vocals are obviously on this.
02:16Did you play guitar as well?
02:18Was there another element?
02:19Yeah, yeah.
02:20I played a lot of guitar, yeah.
02:23But it's essentially me and Dr Robbo,
02:29who plays the bass and plays a lot of acoustic and electric guitar,
02:33and Steve Seidelneck, who's a fantastic drummer
02:37and processor of drum sounds,
02:41who did all the drum sounds.
02:43It's amazing.
02:45Yeah, it sounds a bit more filled out and complete,
02:50this one, than the first album.
02:54Yeah, the first one, yeah.
02:56It's all just a stab in the dark, you know.
02:59It's all just experimenting and seeing what you can do.
03:02I mean, we had…
03:06Originally, with the first one, we were going to go into the studio
03:09with a band that we'd put together,
03:12but then COVID struck and we weren't able to do that,
03:15so we were forced then to…
03:19We still wanted to do it,
03:20so what we did was we just took all the demos
03:23that I'd made on GarageBand and all that
03:26and began to…
03:27You can send them back and forth on the internet
03:30and Mick Talbot would add the keyboards or something to it
03:33and it would come back and be great.
03:35And I thought, well, this is fabulous,
03:36I can just pass things around
03:39and they come back much better than they would be
03:43if you'd just done it yourself.
03:45And obviously Robert's got a great address book,
03:48so you're able to get a lot of good people.
03:51And he himself is a very, very skilled musician.
03:55But this one was much more just us, you know.
03:59You said both albums are rooted in a version of Glasgow.
04:04I thought that was quite fun because, you know,
04:06I've talked to other musicians who…
04:11You know, the Glasgow that they base their songs on
04:14or their characters are,
04:15it isn't necessarily the one that they inhabit,
04:17if you know what I mean.
04:18There's a kind of version of it
04:20that either takes on an American quality
04:22or a noir-esque quality and stuff like that.
04:25Yeah.
04:26In your mind's eye,
04:27did you have a particular version of Glasgow
04:29that some of your characters were emerging from?
04:32Yeah, because really what I was doing
04:34was picking up where I left off 40 years ago
04:36when I was an art student in a band
04:39and, you know, when Simple Minds and all that
04:43were knocking about
04:44and Strawberry Switchblade and Altered Images
04:47and all that in Glasgow
04:48was a bit kind of happening place.
04:52So I was just…
04:54It's that kind of range.
04:56But I mean, it is quite cinematic, that.
04:57Even then, I mean, the concept of Glasgow
04:59was always quite cinematic and quite dramatic.
05:02It kind of suited to that.
05:05So I'm unashamedly nostalgic, you know, for that period.
05:09And I think a lot of the songs
05:11and the sounds of the songs
05:13would fit into that period quite well.
05:17I talked to PJ Moore from the Blue Nile
05:21and he talked about that period in the 80s
05:25and Bobby from the Bluebells has talked about it as well,
05:28about that there was…
05:29Yeah.
05:30There was all kinds of folk arriving up in Glasgow
05:32trying to find the next best sound and stuff like that.
05:34Do you think there was a version of things
05:36where you could have been sitting in Nico's
05:38having a Brandy Alexander
05:39and you could have actually signed a record contact
05:41at that stage?
05:43Well, me personally?
05:44Yeah, because, I mean,
05:46there was people who were like barmen,
05:48there was people who were waitresses,
05:49there were people who were like artists
05:50and stuff like that.
05:51And then next week they were on top of the pops, Peter.
05:53So you could have been in the right place at the right time is all.
05:57Well, obviously we weren't in the right place at the right time.
06:01And it wasn't for want of trying.
06:04That never really worked out for us.
06:06But, you know, we would have loved something like that to happen.
06:08And yes, of course, that's what very much
06:10what the vibe was on the scene really
06:14was people would be knocking about Great Western Roads
06:17dressed as, you know, as baby goths.
06:21And then the next week they'd be signed.
06:22And then the next month they'd be on top of the pops or whatever.
06:25So it seemed quite possible for all these things to happen.
06:28But sadly, it didn't happen to us.
06:32Why do you think kids had that confidence at that time?
06:35I asked Jim Kerr, you know, like his first interview,
06:37he was a wee guy from Tory Glen.
06:38His first interview, he said he wanted to be
06:40the biggest band in the world.
06:41Where do you think that kind of bravado came from?
06:43From people of that generation?
06:48I don't know.
06:49I mean, Glasgow's a very, I think it's a very artistic, creative city.
06:56I don't really know where that comes from.
06:58I don't know where that seam of creativity has grown from.
07:04But I think people just felt they were entitled
07:08to have a go at doing this.
07:10Yeah.
07:11And then they could pick up a guitar and get a sense.
07:13Also, it was part of the times.
07:14I mean, the ethos of the times was, I mean,
07:18Axoff started really doing it, I suppose, in 1977, 77, 78.
07:23So that was just post-punk.
07:25I mean, that was kind of punk.
07:28Although I wasn't really punking myself.
07:32It was just that that's what you did.
07:34You could be in a band.
07:36If you had a guitar and you'd get a drummer,
07:38you could just have a go.
07:39And then you'd go and see.
07:40I mean, I saw the Simple Minds in the Mars Bar.
07:43I was like, what?
07:44I was like, how could people from Glasgow do that?
07:47How could?
07:48Well, they can.
07:49You know, and they were amazing.
07:51And it was in a squashed wee sweaty bar.
07:53And Jim was there with his, you know,
07:55pudding haircut, his Shakespearean haircut.
08:00And it was just great.
08:03I thought, well, I want to be part of all this.
08:05This looks fun.
08:07But, of course, it's not.
08:08You know, you have to work hard.
08:10They worked incredibly hard.
08:11And you've got to get lucky as well.
08:13We worked.
08:14You know, we did our best, but it never really happened for us.
08:17But I always maintained an interest in music.
08:20But we got kind of tired and punch drunk, really,
08:24from constantly trying and not really getting anywhere.
08:27Yeah, and then things like, you know,
08:30Local Hero kind of sets the scene for acting
08:34and becoming the big focus.
08:36Did you still kind of carry around a guitar and stuff like that?
08:39You know, were you?
08:41Not really.
08:42I mean, first of all, I've never really been a guy.
08:44I'm not the guy with the guitar at a party.
08:47You know, I'm not that guy.
08:48I don't come and join in and get people to sing songs.
08:51I've never been that guy.
08:54I think it just wanted to.
08:58Local Hero was such a great kind of,
09:05a great accident, a great piece of fate,
09:08sort of plucking me out of, you know,
09:12hanging about the Amphora or the Miles Bar
09:15or the College of Building Technology Bar
09:20and going to this other world
09:22that I was also very, very interested in.
09:25I thought, well, I've got to go with this.
09:27So I didn't really, I stopped sort of pursuing
09:32actually being a signed up pop person.
09:36There were a few kind of residual things that happened.
09:43I was always sort of half in bands
09:46and half kind of, there's lots of, you know,
09:50recordings of bits and pieces and things that we did
09:53in various studios that never went anywhere.
09:57But I think my heart had gone over, really.
10:00And I just wanted to get on with acting,
10:03which seemed strangely more,
10:05that was kind of happening for me, you know.
10:09But that was quite terrifying as well.
10:11I didn't really know how to do that.
10:15Here we are.
10:16This album, you know, you're picking up where you left off
10:22and you say that there's bits and bobs of things
10:24that you've worked on over the years.
10:27Are these all fresh songs or is there echoes of things
10:30that have been going around in your head before
10:32when you're kind of wandering around
10:33or quiet moments where you get a melody
10:35or you get a kind of lyric and stuff like that?
10:37No, these are all new because what happened was
10:43I'd been befriended by Dr. Robert from the Blowmonkeys
10:46in Weller Hardy in Spain.
10:48And Robert's a great musician and a great guy.
10:51He's the guy at the party with the guitar.
10:54And he'll play anything you like.
10:57You can tell he'll play it.
10:58It's amazing.
11:00And he used to get me to kind of join in with him
11:03on the guitar.
11:05And then he had a small label,
11:08well, it was part of a small label called Monks Road Records
11:10and they used to annually kind of do a thing
11:12where they gathered lots of disparate musicians
11:15and record something.
11:16I happened to be there when they were doing it
11:17and he said, write a song.
11:19I said, yeah, I'll write a song and see what happens.
11:22So I wrote a song and I brought it in
11:25and they recorded it.
11:26And that was an amazing thing.
11:27They did it in a day, you know.
11:30And I was like, wow, that's amazing.
11:32So then I thought, well, I'm going to need to do more of this.
11:34So I went to, I was doing the film Suicide Squad in Atlanta
11:39and I could have done my part in about a month
11:43but the way it worked out, I was there for like three months.
11:46I had all this time.
11:47I thought, well, what I'll do is I'll write a song.
11:49Every day I'll make sure I write a song
11:51because I've read that you've got to write a hundred songs
11:53before you get one good song.
11:55I don't know if I'm there yet.
11:56I'll let you know.
12:00So I would just spend my days off writing songs,
12:05just deliberately trying to do stuff.
12:08So there was nothing old lying around.
12:09I didn't have anything old lying around.
12:13So I just would say, okay, I'm going to write a sad song
12:17and I'm going to try and write a banger or, you know,
12:20a little terrible, but it doesn't matter.
12:22You just have a go.
12:24Yeah.
12:25I was listening to the album over the weekend.
12:30Starts off really strong.
12:31Where is it today?
12:33Other tracks.
12:34I love the title track, The Sweet Illusions
12:37and Something's Gold and Not Going Anywhere.
12:40Those were my kind of four standout tracks.
12:43Oh, thank you.
12:44Do you love all your babies equally
12:46or is there any favourites that you have on this particular album
12:49or ones that you enjoy the process of?
12:52I think I just get thrilled that there's any of them,
12:56that any of them exist, you know,
12:58and then I'm always kind of very knocked out
13:01by what people do with them, what other people bring to them.
13:06I kind of like, you know,
13:09is it awful to say you like them all?
13:13It doesn't matter because they're just for me.
13:16In my experience, when an artist says they like them all,
13:19that is a good thing for you, so keep moving.
13:21Is it?
13:22Yeah.
13:23I like Through the Cracks because I worked to try
13:27and make quite a long kind of rocky kind of thing
13:32with some dynamics and dips and balances
13:35and a bit of a rant in it.
13:37So I quite like that.
13:40No, I like No One in the World
13:45because there's a wee bell at the end of that.
13:48I like wee soundtracky kind of things.
13:51Yeah.
13:52Yeah.
13:53So, you know, they are what they are.
13:56I'm sure I listen to them sometimes just think they're absolute crap.
13:59Sometimes you go, oh, that's really quite good
14:01and then sometimes you go, that's absolute rubbish.
14:03Who do you think you are?
14:04Just do it.
14:05I mean, I just do it for fun.
14:07You know, it's not to make another career.
14:09It's because I enjoy it.
14:12So it's very important to, you know, I take it seriously
14:18in the sense that I'm trying to improve my skills
14:20and all that stuff, but I don't take it seriously
14:22in terms of expecting to go anywhere particularly with it.
14:28Well, last time we spoke, which was just before
14:32the first album came out, and I asked you about live performance.
14:36I said there was a number of those I could imagine being performed
14:39on stage and the crowd would get into it.
14:41And it's much more so on the second album.
14:45It sounds like there's tracks there that should be on a stage
14:48and be live.
14:49You dipped your toe in, I gather, in Glasgow last year
14:52and then there might be a festival appearance this year.
14:56Yeah, we did a gig at Stereo, which was cool.
14:59I just wanted to see if that was possible, you know,
15:01because obviously I hadn't done it for so long.
15:04I got this fabulous band together.
15:07They were all brilliant, you know.
15:10Charlotte Prenton and Craig McMahon worked with Joseph
15:13and Andrew Cowan, who does Altered Temperatures,
15:19and Chris Dickey.
15:21I love Glas Vegas.
15:22I'd always loved the drumming in Glas Vegas,
15:24so he'd come and they were just great, you know.
15:28So we just rehearsed.
15:32Every time I came up, we would rehearse,
15:34and it was great hearing what they did to the songs,
15:36and it would give them a kind of attack.
15:40But I had to see whether or not it was possible for me
15:43to actually have the guts to go ahead and go out
15:48in front of the band and do that.
15:52And we did it, and it was great fun.
15:54So we'll do it again.
15:55We'll do it again.
15:56I mean, we're going to do…
15:57Yeah, Bella Jo and I asked us to do a gig,
15:59so that's nice.
16:00We'll do that.
16:01But I'd like to maybe get some more gigs in before that.
16:03I mean, it's hard.
16:04I'm kind of filming just now, so it's hard to…
16:07It's very difficult to do all of this stuff without…
16:11If you don't want to build an empire,
16:14people are slightly confused by what it is
16:18that you're wanting to do, you know, as it were.
16:21In the old days, you know, you would say
16:23if you wanted to be on top of the pops
16:24or something like that, you know,
16:26that would be a direction.
16:29But my direction is just I like doing this,
16:31so I don't…
16:33Already people are going,
16:34oh, well, we can get you this,
16:35and we can get you that, you know.
16:36But then all these obligations begin
16:38to mount on your shoulders to other people,
16:41and I don't want to do that.
16:43I just want to have fun with it.
16:45So more live, but possibly not afforded to date,
16:49European tour in the future?
16:52I don't think that would be useful for anybody, really.
16:59But I don't know.
17:00You know, I quite like to support some people.
17:02I think that would be nice.
17:04It's hard, because it's difficult
17:06if you're well-known, that's one thing,
17:09and then you have a go at this.
17:11I don't want to be coming along and saying
17:13I should be a headlining kind of, you know,
17:17pop star or something like that.
17:19I'm happy just to sweep the stage, as it were,
17:23and come and support people and be around
17:25and just practice doing it in front of people.
17:30And festival's quite good for that,
17:32because you're not, you know,
17:35all the big giant acts are all on the main stage.
17:38You get to be on the side stage
17:40where there's not so much pressure.
17:43So you tend to write more with characters in mind
17:48rather than writing from your own,
17:51drawing from your own stuff.
17:52Well, I mean, everyone draws from their own experience,
17:54but I just mean that this is a collection of songs
17:57where there's characters set against
17:59a Glasgow-ish background.
18:01That kind of sums up what the thread is
18:03that ties these together.
18:05Yeah, I think that's right, yeah.
18:08Yeah.
18:10So did you start, was there a particular song
18:15that was the first one that you wrote for this album?
18:18Was there a particular starting point?
18:19Do you remember?
18:21Something to Behold was a kind of thing
18:24that I started doing that was quite a personal thing.
18:26And I mean, one of the things is, you know,
18:30I'm not really that experienced at writing songs,
18:33so I just get a guitar and sit there
18:35and try and put something together.
18:38But I've discovered even in this brief time
18:41that I've been doing it
18:43that you want to go further than that.
18:45You want to, you know, you want to dig into deeper things.
18:48So there are actually quite some,
18:50there are a few quite personal songs in there.
18:54I mean, Midnight really was, I think,
18:58came about because I became my grandfather.
19:01And I just really,
19:04you're very conscious when you become a grandfather
19:07that there's a ticking clock, you know,
19:10in the sense that you,
19:13you have this wonder,
19:14these wondrous children brought into your life,
19:19but for a more limited time.
19:23And so I wanted to do something
19:24that was kind of quite atmospheric, quite
19:31lullaby-ish.
19:34So I think that was one of the first ones I did,
19:37was Midnight,
19:39which actually was,
19:40I did music first and then took ages to get there
19:44for the title.
19:45People laugh at me because I love Midnight.
19:47I'm a great advocate of Midnight
19:49because it's the one night where the entropy
19:52and chaos of the world seems to be able to help.
19:55I can hold it back by taking the bins out.
19:59That's what that's about.
20:00That's that illusion.
20:04So I described you as a Springburn,
20:08a Springburn actor a while back,
20:12and I got a very angry email
20:14from one of your former neighbours in Bishop Briggs
20:16who claimed you for Bishop.
20:18Yeah.
20:20You grew up in Springburn,
20:22then there was Bishop Briggs.
20:23I grew up in Kepical Road in Springburn.
20:27Yeah.
20:28And then my family moved to Bishop Briggs
20:30and I went with them.
20:32So I'm both of those things.
20:33Obviously I found the, you know,
20:36I mean, being brought up in Kepical Road was brilliant.
20:40I absolutely loved it.
20:41I mean, all my aunties and uncles
20:43lived in the same block or behind us.
20:46My granny, both my grannies,
20:48my dad's mother lived down the stairs
20:50and my mother's mother lived across the road.
20:53So it was kind of like,
20:54it was the,
20:55I think I caught the tail end of that
20:57kind of a tenement kind of culture,
21:01but it was great.
21:02It was like a kind of,
21:03I don't know,
21:04it's like,
21:05it wasn't horrible.
21:06It was like a place where I imagined
21:08the Marx Brothers might be brought up.
21:10Something like that, you know.
21:12And my father and his brothers,
21:14they all played musical instruments
21:15and they were,
21:16they were kind of,
21:18they were their own party band.
21:23We'd all get together.
21:24So that was all
21:26that happened in the tenements.
21:28But then obviously they all began to,
21:31the tenements began to get demolished
21:33and people began to move out.
21:34But they moved to Bishop Briggs,
21:36which was obviously more,
21:37they went once into
21:41high rise blocks
21:42or anything like that.
21:43They were going into wee wimpy houses,
21:45which was nice,
21:46you know,
21:47but it was very,
21:48it was quite boring,
21:49you know,
21:50for a teen
21:51compared to
21:54to Springburn.
21:55So was the art school
21:56the beginning of the excitement
21:57where you could reinvent yourself
21:59and chart?
22:01Oh yeah.
22:02Yeah, I mean,
22:03I'd actually tried to go to,
22:04yeah, I mean,
22:05I tried to go to drama school before that,
22:07but I'd been rejected.
22:10I just didn't really,
22:11I just wanted to do something that was,
22:13I wanted to be on the telly,
22:14I think basically,
22:15I wasn't very sure what,
22:18what discipline I would pursue.
22:20But
22:22the art school was a place
22:23where you were allowed to be very creative.
22:26And it was,
22:28it had a vibe about it
22:30that was just very,
22:32very,
22:33it was quite cool.
22:34And, you know,
22:35we looked down on those terribly.
22:37At drama students,
22:38for instance,
22:39we thought drama students
22:40would be the most boring
22:43and architecture students
22:44and all that stuff.
22:45We thought we were very,
22:46very cool.
22:47And we probably were quite cool,
22:49actually.
22:50Yeah.
22:51But the funny thing was,
22:52I remember when we went to,
22:53I think I started in
22:551976,
22:58so that was before,
22:59kind of,
23:00sex pistols.
23:01So we all went to art school
23:02and we were all basically dressed,
23:03you know,
23:04we were dressed as,
23:05like,
23:06Neil Young,
23:07you know,
23:08heart of gold,
23:09you know,
23:10with long hair
23:11and all that kind of,
23:12army issue coats
23:13and all that stuff.
23:14And then in the summer,
23:15the sex pistols came along
23:16and we all came back
23:17with peroxide hair
23:18and
23:19plastic trousers
23:20and all that.
23:24Yeah.
23:25It's what we could manage
23:26with that.
23:27It's a great place for,
23:28I don't think that
23:29people acknowledge
23:30how much the art school
23:31has contributed
23:32to the music side of things.
23:33It really is where people
23:34can find their voice
23:35in a lot of ways.
23:37Yeah.
23:38And there used to be,
23:39I mean,
23:40that was where we used to rehearse.
23:41A lot of bands
23:42rehearsed there.
23:43And also,
23:44the
23:45student union
23:46began
23:47after a certain amount
23:48of pressure
23:49from
23:50people like myself
23:51and others
23:52to get,
23:53kind of,
23:54cooler bands
23:55to come along.
23:57And so,
23:58we started to see
23:59better bands there,
24:00you know.
24:02But at the time,
24:03the College of Technology
24:04in Printon
24:05was actually,
24:06had better bands.
24:07As a venue,
24:09they attracted
24:11bigger bands,
24:12funnily enough.
24:15But it was a great time,
24:16you know.
24:17You see those books,
24:19a couple of books
24:20people have sent
24:21and photographs
24:22from all that period there.
24:23People's snapshots
24:24of just, you know,
24:25the Bungalow bar
24:26and all that stuff.
24:27It's great.
24:29Good morning, Peter.
24:31Morning.
24:32Good morning,
24:33up-and-coming
24:34Glasgow musician, Peter.
24:36There you go.
24:37It's incredible.
24:38It's 66.
24:39It's all happening.
24:41You said both albums
24:43are rooted
24:44in a version
24:45of Glasgow.
24:46I thought that was quite fun
24:47because,
24:48you know,
24:49I've talked to
24:50other musicians
24:52who
24:54you know,
24:55the Glasgow that they
24:56base their songs on
24:57or their characters are,
24:58it isn't necessarily
24:59the one that they
25:00inhabit,
25:01if you know what I mean.
25:02There's a kind of
25:03version of it
25:04that either takes on
25:05an American quality
25:06or a noir-esque quality
25:07and stuff like that.
25:08Yeah.
25:09In your mind's eye,
25:10did you have a particular
25:11version of Glasgow
25:12that some of your
25:13characters were
25:14emerging from?
25:15Yeah,
25:16because really
25:17what I was doing
25:18was picking up
25:19where I left off
25:2040 years ago
25:21when I was
25:22an art student
25:23and when
25:24Simple Minds
25:25and all that
25:26were knocking about
25:27and
25:28Strawberry Switchblade
25:29and altered images
25:30and all that in Glasgow
25:31was a bit kind of
25:32happening
25:33place.
25:35So I was just,
25:37it's that kind of
25:38range.
25:39But I mean,
25:40it is quite cinematic
25:41that even then,
25:42I mean,
25:43the concept of Glasgow
25:44was always quite cinematic
25:45and quite dramatic.
25:46It kind of suited to that.
25:48So I'm unashamedly
25:49nostalgic,
25:51you know,
25:52and I think a lot of
25:53the songs
25:54and the sounds
25:55of the songs
25:56would fit into that
25:57period
25:58quite well.
26:00I talked to
26:01PJ Moore
26:02from
26:03The Blue Nile
26:04and he talked about
26:05that period
26:06in the 80s
26:07and
26:08Bobby from
26:09The Blue Bells
26:10has talked about it as well
26:11about that there was
26:12all kinds of folk
26:13arriving up in Glasgow
26:14trying to find
26:15the next best sound
26:16and stuff like that.
26:17Do you think there was
26:18a version of things
26:19where you could have been
26:20sitting in Nico's
26:21at the Alexander
26:22and you could have actually
26:23signed a record contact
26:24at that stage?
26:25Well,
26:26me personally.
26:27Yeah,
26:28because,
26:29I mean,
26:30there was people
26:31who were like barmen,
26:32there was people
26:33that were waitresses,
26:34there were people
26:35who were like artists
26:36and stuff like that
26:37and then next week
26:38they were on top
26:39of the Pops, Peter,
26:40so you could have been
26:41in the right place
26:42at the right time is all.
26:43Well,
26:44obviously we weren't
26:45in the right place
26:46at the right time
26:47and it wasn't for what
26:48I'm trying,
26:49but that never really
26:50happened.
26:51I mean,
26:52yes,
26:53of course,
26:54that's very much
26:55what the vibe was
26:56on the scene really
26:57was people would
26:58be knocking about
26:59Great Western Roads
27:00dressed as,
27:01you know,
27:02as baby goths
27:03and then the next week
27:04they'd be signed
27:05and then the next month
27:06they'd be on top
27:07of the Pops or whatever.
27:08So it seemed quite possible
27:09for all these things
27:10to happen,
27:11but sadly
27:12it didn't happen
27:13to us.
27:14Why do you think
27:15kids had that confidence
27:16at that time?
27:17I asked Jim Carrey,
27:18you know,
27:19his first interview.
27:20He was a wee guy
27:21from Tory Glen
27:22in his first interview.
27:23He said he wanted
27:24to be the biggest band
27:25in the world.
27:26Where do you think
27:27that kind of bravado
27:28came from
27:29from people
27:30of that generation?
27:31I don't know.
27:32I mean,
27:33Glasgow's a very,
27:34I think it's a very
27:35artistic,
27:36creative city.
27:37I don't really know
27:38where that comes from.
27:39I don't know where
27:40the,
27:41that seam
27:42of creativity
27:43has grown from,
27:44but I think people
27:45just felt
27:47they were entitled
27:48to have a go
27:49at doing this
27:50and then they could
27:51pick up a guitar
27:52and get a sense.
27:53Also,
27:54it was part of the times.
27:55I mean,
27:56the ethos of the times
27:57was,
27:58I mean,
27:59Axoff started
28:00really doing it,
28:01I suppose,
28:02in 1977,
28:0377,
28:0478,
28:05so that was just,
28:06no,
28:07post-punk.
28:08I mean,
28:09that was kind of punk,
28:10although I wasn't
28:11really punky myself.
28:12It was just
28:13the,
28:14you know,
28:15it was just the,
28:16that's what you did.
28:17You could be in a band
28:18if you got a guitar
28:19and you get a drummer
28:20and you could just
28:21have a go.
28:22And then you go,
28:23you go and see,
28:24I mean,
28:25I saw the Simple Minds
28:26in the Mars Bar.
28:27I was like,
28:28what?
28:29I was like,
28:30how could people
28:31from Glasgow do that?
28:32How could,
28:33well,
28:34they can,
28:35you know,
28:36and they were amazing
28:37and it was a squashed,
28:38wee sweaty bar
28:39and Jim was there
28:40with his,
28:41you know,
28:42pudding haircut,
28:43his Shakespearean haircut
28:44and it was just
28:45great and I thought,
28:46well,
28:47I want to be part of all this.
28:48This is,
28:49this leaves fun.
28:50But,
28:51of course,
28:52it's not,
28:53you know,
28:54you have to work hard.
28:55They worked incredibly hard
28:56and you got to get lucky as well.
28:57We worked,
28:58we,
28:59you know,
29:00we did our best
29:01but it never really
29:02happened for us,
29:03so.
29:04But I always maintained
29:05an interest in music.
29:06But we got kind of
29:07tired and punch drunk
29:08really from the,
29:09constantly trying
29:10and not really getting anywhere.
29:11Yeah,
29:12and then things like,
29:13Local Hero
29:14kind of sets,
29:15sets the scene
29:16for acting
29:17becoming the big focus.
29:18Did you still
29:19kind of carry around
29:20a guitar and stuff
29:21like that?
29:22You know,
29:23were you?
29:24Not really.
29:25I mean,
29:26first of all,
29:27I've never really been a guy,
29:28I'm not the guy
29:29with the guitar
29:30at a party.
29:31You know,
29:32I'm not that,
29:33that guy.
29:34I don't come and
29:35join in and get
29:36to sing songs.
29:37I've never been
29:38that guy.
29:39I think,
29:40I think I just wanted to,
29:41Local Hero was such a,
29:42a great kind of,
29:43a great accident,
29:44a great piece of fate
29:45sort of,
29:46sort of plucking me
29:47out of,
29:48you know,
29:49hanging about
29:50the Amphora
29:51or the Miles Bar
29:52or the College
29:53of Building
29:54and Technology
29:55bar
29:56and going to
29:57this other world
29:58that I was also
29:59very,
30:00very interested in.
30:01I thought,
30:02well,
30:03I've got to go
30:04with this.
30:05So I didn't
30:06really,
30:07you know,
30:08I didn't really
30:09think about
30:10that.
30:12I stopped
30:13sort of pursuing
30:14actually being
30:15a signed up
30:18pop person.
30:19There were a few
30:20kind of
30:21residual
30:24things that happened.
30:26I was always
30:27sort of a half,
30:28kind of half in bands
30:29and half
30:30kind of,
30:31there's,
30:32there's lots of,
30:33you know,
30:34recordings of bits and pieces
30:35and things that we did
30:36in various
30:37studios
30:38that never went anywhere.
30:39But I think
30:40my heart had gone out,
30:41had gone out of it really.
30:42And
30:43I just wanted to
30:44get on with acting
30:45which seemed,
30:46it seemed strangely
30:47more,
30:48that was kind of happening
30:49for me,
30:50you know.