00:00 Lewis Capaldi, I mean, I knew of him. He played here one night as part of a night.
00:06 He was first on supporting Bawani Junction and Dead Rabbit and I knew he was playing and I was
00:14 like, "Oh, there's this guy, there's a lot of hype about Lewis Capaldi." I'm always a little bit
00:20 sceptical when I hear all this hype. I mean, the Sam Fender thing was very natural. The Jerry
00:26 Cinnamon thing was very natural. Lewis Capaldi, people seemed to know about him from very,
00:31 very early on, but it was like Lewis Capaldi was being talked about as being the next big thing.
00:37 So I missed him that night, but then I, in 2017, the year that Transmit launched, we had a night
00:43 in here called, I think they called it Transmission, and it was like an industry night where
00:49 people were invited. It wasn't a gig where you could buy tickets for, so it was like, you know,
00:54 journalists and liggers, that kind of thing. And there's maybe 100 people in, 150, and it was Lewis
01:04 Capaldi and Louie Berry that were asked to play. So Lewis was just playing acoustic guitar. I think
01:09 maybe Kieran had the keys as well. And I remember standing in the stairwell as Lewis was playing
01:15 and his manager at the time was like, "He's signing to Capitol Records in LA on Friday." And I went,
01:20 "Him?" I mean, he was in the middle of talking to the crowd about how he really needed to go to the
01:25 toilet, like for a number two. And it was like, it was kind of a bit, "Oh, I don't know if you
01:30 should be saying that." But like, it was just his, that's his pattern. It's been his pattern ever
01:34 since. He's very candid on stage. He doesn't hold anything back. But I was just like, "He's signing
01:39 to Capitol Records in LA." And he was like, "Aye, aye." He was like, "I think they're wanting to
01:43 make him the new Adele." And I was like, "Wow." And I was just like, opened the door again,
01:48 just looked out at him as he's, and obviously he had a good voice, but I just, I didn't,
01:54 I didn't see that happening. I just couldn't envisage that happening. I was like, "I mean,
02:00 I'm sure he'll do well, but like the next Adele, come on." And then I met him in the bar afterwards
02:07 and I went, "Oh, the famous Lewis Capaldi from Bathgate." And he kind of like put his hair behind
02:12 his ear and he was like, "Oh no, actually from Bathgate, I'm from East Whitburn, but I just say
02:16 Bathgate because it sounds more glamorous." And I was like, "If you've ever been to Bathgate,
02:22 it's not glamorous. Let's be honest." And I'm from there, so I can say that. But he was just always
02:28 a nice guy. Went to the same school as me and I was really pleased to see someone do well.
02:34 But what he's done since then is absolutely wild. Like my friend Andy, he's a sound engineer. My
02:42 friend Paul, he's guitar tech. So they've been on this mad journey with him. Craig up the stairs
02:48 promotes him and has promoted them since he was playing in here, you know, and has been on that,
02:54 that rise with them and going up all the venues to the point that, you know, he's headline transmit
03:01 and numerous hydros and whatnot. I mean, he can do whatever he wants now, really. And not just here,
03:10 everywhere. I went to a festival last year in Belgium called Rock Werchter and he was on third
03:16 top. It was Metallica, Greta Van Fleet, but they pulled out and then Louis Capaldi. And he was on
03:23 the stage and I think he was maybe a little bit nervous because he was like, "How am I going to
03:27 go down? This is surely a Metallica crowd that I'm playing to." But he was singing and everyone
03:32 was singing his songs. Like the whole front of that crowd were all singing his songs. And then
03:37 he was kind of jokingly saying, it was like, "You've probably never heard of me. My name's
03:42 Louis Capaldi. I'm going to be in your lives for the next 40 minutes, 45 minutes, and then I'll be
03:47 gone. And then you can have your master, master." And he was like taking them echoing Metallica
03:52 in front of a lot of Metallica fans. But he just had that charm. And I just thought,
03:58 "Wow, this is amazing." He's doing the business and a 60,000 capacity festival or 80,000 capacity
04:05 festival in Belgium. And obviously I see Andy's stories and Paul's stories on Instagram and I see
04:14 the places that he's played because they always put posts up of where they are. And I see these
04:18 venues that he's playing all around the world and it's happened all over for him. And to be fair,
04:26 it's happened for Sam and Jerry actually. People would think that Jerry's just a...
04:32 It's only happened in Glasgow for Jerry and the two Hammers, but Jerry's done huge outdoor shows
04:37 in Belfast and Dublin, plays to big crowds in London. He's not solely rooted in Glasgow and
04:48 can only do the business in Glasgow, it's elsewhere. So all three of those guys, it's
04:52 quite mad to see how it's a ripple effect. If you can get big in your own territory, then it spreads
05:01 out. And it all started for those guys here on our humble wee stage in King Tut's.
Comments