A fish-and-chip shop heir who became a roadie, then a star

Paolo Nutini was meant to go into the family business. His father Alfredo, a Scot of Italian descent from Barga in Tuscany, ran a fish and chip shop in Paisley, and his son was expected to follow. But a music-loving grandfather, Giovanni "Jackie" Nutini, and a teacher at St Andrews Academy had spotted something in his voice, and he took a different road.

He left school to work as a roadie and sell t-shirts for the Scottish band Speedway, spending three years learning the music business and performing live. He later worked as a studio hand at Glasgow's Park Lane Studio, where he began demoing songs and writing with Speedway's drummer, Jim Duguid. At seventeen he moved to London and played regularly at The Bedford pub in Balham.

His first demo got him signed to Atlantic Records in May 2005, shortly after his eighteenth birthday. "These Streets" came out as a free download in May 2006, then "Last Request" reached number five on the UK Singles Chart. His debut album These Streets, produced by Ken Nelson, entered the UK albums chart at number three and has been certified quintuple platinum. Many of its songs were inspired by a turbulent relationship.

Through 2006 he played the King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow, Carnegie Hall in New York and the Montreux Jazz Festival, and supported the Rolling Stones in Vienna. He played the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury in 2007 and performed at the Ahmet Ertegun Tribute Concert, which marked the first full live concert by Led Zeppelin in 27 years.

Sunny Side Up in 2009 debuted at number one in the UK, as did Caustic Love in 2014. His fourth album, Last Night in the Bittersweet, came in July 2022. He has had three BRIT Award nominations and an Ivor Novello nomination for songwriting. The shop's loss was the stage's gain.