Achingly Nostalgic; Peter Capaldi’s Sweet Illusions

Sweet Illusions Album Cover (Last Night from Glasgow)

Written by Ruairi Bolton, edited by Cormac Nugent

People may be surprised to learn that before he was known for fighting Daleks as Doctor Who or threatening civil servants with self-professed “violent sexual imagery” as Malcolm Tucker, actor Peter Capaldi was the lead singer of a Glasgow punk-rock band - though the latter’s penchant for profanity certainly lines up.

Forming in secondary school, the band featured future comedian and late night host Craig Ferguson as a drummer, with the band initially calling themselves the “Bastards from Hell” before transitioning soon after to the Dreamboys. They’d later cite German expressionism, and the Cabinet of Dr Caligari (1920) in particular, as inspiration for the change in name. The intention, presumably, was to conjure something surreal, oblique and thrilling in the minds of listeners, but realistically what they’d hit upon with the Dreamboys was one of the scored-out ideas from when they were drafting up One Direction.

The Dreamboys (Harry Papadopoulos/Street Level Photoworks)

Now, over 40 years later, Peter Capaldi has returned to his musical roots, and with a vengeance. 

Following on from his 2019 album St. Christopher, Sweet Illusions  was released on the 28th of March 2025 by Last Night from Glasgow and continues the wonderfully singular identity of its predecessor. Capaldi channels his early punk stylings through a mature and retrospective lens, cultivating a particular sound that resolves to be authentically heavy while also sober and reflective. The album as a whole elicits sensations of looking back in halcyon, in particular on more exciting days of youth where, as Capaldi might describe, one might spend most of their time “drinking lager and eating curries”. 

The title track, “Sweet Illusions”, exists as an ideal condensation of the album - a recombination of punk and glam rock to create something soulful and heady. It epitomises the ostensible mood of the record: the process of wrestling with an unkind reality and championing indulgence and compassion in the face of it, defiantly. 

The scope and range of tones and tempos exhibited within the album is also something to be admired. One moment you can be listening to the slow, synthy build up of “Hanger Lane”, almost malevolent in its conjuring of a moody cityscape, complete with blinding lighting and tumultuous skies, the next your uplifted by the light, doleful tones of “Something to Behold” as Capaldi’s vocal talents, leaning closer to emotive poetry readings more than anything, praise the essence of your very being. Then, you’re on your feet, fired up and ready to dance or fight or something, inspired by the rebellious energy of youth provoked by “Through the Cracks”, which succeeds fantastically in capturing that electric, life-as-a-blur feeling of being a renegade runaway, causing trouble and running amok in the streets of Glasgow.

It’s the complete package of nostalgia: unfiltered and beautifully individual. You can feel the overflow of passion, see it dripping down the edges. The Dreamboys may have started with the ambition of inspiring something dreamlike in its audience, but it’s its descendent, Sweet Illusions, that manages to be a true reverie.