Paolo Nutini helped legendary venue King Tuts celebrate their 20th birthday in style by performing an ‘intimate’ gig on Wednesday 17 March.
STV caught up with Paisley’s finest after his outstanding performance and he looked surprisingly fresh having just stormed through an energetic 19 song set.
Paolo told us the gig was “good fun” and that it was great to get the chance to “road test new songs.”
Playing Tuts is a bit like coming home for Paolo as he used to play gigs in the venue when he was starting out.
He explained he played “once just acoustic, next time with a few more people and now there's seven of us on stage.”
It’s a small stage to fit so many people on, not to mention the brass section which now features heavily in his set, but it didn’t seem a problem for the talented Scot as he joked: “I don’t take up much space.” He’s clearly not taking advantage of fish and chips on tap from his dad’s chippy.
Nutini is used to selling out much bigger venues now so what was it like to be back playing somewhere much smaller where he could get up close with his screaming fans? He joked: “Good, if they're good looking it's cool.”
Other venues have come and gone but Tuts has stood the test of time and seems to have the right formula for putting on quality gigs that keep music fans coming back for more.
Paolo spoke fondly of King Tuts saying: “you walk in, you get your drink and it puts you in the mood. By the time you're up and round the corner you're at a proper gig, it feels like you're at a proper gig and there's not many small places can do that.”
Tuts is also credited with being the venue that has kick started many artists careers and one of the most famous stories is how Alan McGee spotted a very young Oasis there.
When asked if things like the Oasis story helped add to the magic Paolo made a cheeky reference to the Liam Gallagher incident at the BRITs the night before.
He said: I think it depends if you like Oasis. If you like guys that throw bits of metal people.”
So what next for the man who has two albums (Sunny Side Up was no1 in the album chart) under his belt at the ripe old age of just 23?
He told is: “I’m trying to get a little studio together so I can experiment more. I’m trying to get time to get better, I kind of blag it a lot so I need time to get better.”
Talented, charming and modest with it.
