Doctor Who actor Peter Capaldi at Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival 2025

Peter Capaldi may be best known to millions as the time-travelling Twelfth Doctor - but at Belladrum Tartan Heart Festival this weekend, a different side of the Scottish actor took centre stage.

Performing with his band for just the fourth time, Capaldi returned to his musical roots - more than 40 years after he last fronted a group.

And it was far from a low-key comeback - the Grassroots stage was packed as Capaldi delivered a moody, synth-laced set that echoed his Glasgow post-punk roots, reimagined through the lens of a seasoned actor, writer and director.

“This is me having a go at doing music again after having been in a band like 40 years ago,” he told The Inverness Courier backstage. “We're delighted that Belladrum asked us to come here - it's a great gig for us.

"It's wonderful, it's a great vibe here.”

Capaldi came of age in Glasgow’s art school and post-punk scene, fronting the band Dreamboys as a teenager - with a young Craig Ferguson on drums. Decades later, that punk spirit still underpins his approach to music.

“It's probably not dissimilar to music you might have heard round about Glasgow in the rainy dark winters of 1979 and 1980. Synthy, fuzzy guitars, kind of noir-ish, but fun hopefully too,” he said.

“It’s melancholic - but then I'm a man from the west of Scotland, that's what we're all like.”

While acting made him a household name - from The Thick of It to Doctor Who - Capaldi’s creative career began with music. And despite his decades on screen, his approach to music remains rooted in the punk ethos of his youth.

“When I started out it was the mid-’70s and that was the ethos - the punk ethos - just have a go. And I would apply that to anything, whether it be music or acting or painting or anything.

“I'm very lucky to have had these opportunities and I've enjoyed them all.”

Despite more than 40 years in the spotlight, Capaldi admitted that stepping onto a festival stage as a musician is a different kind of pressure.

“I get nervous”, he said. “I'm nervous now!”

“When they invite you, you think, ‘oh that'll be lovely, that'll be fun’. But then you are confronted by the real thing, that people will actually be watching and have paid money and deserve to be entertained.

“But the band's great, so even if I might be a bit rubbish they're wonderful.”

Capaldi was quick to credit the musicians behind him for helping bring his vision to life.

“I'm very lucky to be working with a bunch of great young musicians who put up with me. We just go out there and see what happens!”

Despite his modesty, Capaldi said four decades in film and television have taught him the value of structure and sustained effort - lessons he admits his younger self hadn’t yet learned.

“When I was young and I was in the band, we didn't really understand the work ethic. We would just do something and go, ‘oh it's rubbish’ or ‘it's good’.

“But you learn over the years when you become a professional that you can actually apply your mind and labour to the stuff that's coming out naturally.

“But the stuff that's coming out naturally is the most important thing.”

Now in his 60s, Capaldi isn’t chasing chart success - but says music has lost none of its excitement.

“I'm not trying to be a pop star”, he said. “I’m just playing and singing with musicians. So the opportunity to do it on this scale is a great privilege.”

And while his Belladrum appearance may have been a new chapter, his mindset remains firmly rooted in the same unfiltered creativity that’s defined his career.

“You know, I don’t expect anything to come of it,” he said. “But I do want to create good songs. Ones that a small amount of people who hear them might actually enjoy.”

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