Speaking to the crowds at Isle of Wight festival, Lewis Capaldi admitted he wasn’t sure he’d ever sing live on stage again following his battle with anxiety and Tourette’s in 2023
Lewis Capaldi has revealed that he thought his music career was on a permanent break following his public mental breakdown, while on stage at Glastonbury. But now three years on, the star took to the stage once again at this year’s Isle of Wight Festival and appeared comfortable as he addressed his adoring fans.
“I had what the kids are calling ‘a complete and utter mental breakdown’,” said Lewis Capaldi, back from the brink and making his first UK festival headline appearance since his two-year break from touring in 2023. “But my mental is no longer broken, I’m feeling good.”
The affection that met him from the sold-out, 50,000-strong Isle of Wight festival crowd was made up of both support and relief.
When Capaldi was unable to finish his Glastonbury 2023 set due to anxiety and Tourette’s issues, and cancelled all further live commitments, many feared his career might be over, including Capaldi himself.
“It really was a difficult period in my life,” he said, sitting at a piano in a plain grey sweater at odds with his comeback superstardom.
“There was a time I didn’t think this would be possible. Not dreading being onstage and feeling comfortable and enjoying it means a lot.”
Headlining over a thrilling Day One main stage bill including Two Door Cinema Club, Alessi Rose, Ash and homecoming heroines Wet Leg – themselves maturing into a formidable live act, all post-grunge buzz and exotic dance moves – Capaldi wasn’t just feeling good, but ultra-confident, witty and at the very top of his game.
“It’s all ballads, you know the score,” he said, and wasn’t kidding. Beyond the canyon pop opener Hollywood , the Sam Fender-esque Heavenly Kind of State of Mind and the sinewy funk of Forget Me , Capaldi’s set consisted of acoustic and piano-led love and heartbreak songs of varying scale.
Bruises and Something in the Heavens were dark, stark and soulful things, Pointless came drenched in a melancholy ambience and Almost evoked the stirring acoustic peaks of The Verve.
Most tracks built to glory pop crescendos that showcased Capaldi’s relatable, selfless and adorably respectful lyrics of heartache and loss, and a voice that – at its tumultuous peaks – could probably drown out all radar in a ten-mile radius.
He lightened the tone with regular intervals of between-song stand-up, complaining about breaking wind during the more emotional moments of Love the Hell Out of You , oversharing about his underwear discomforts and monster festival fee, and giving a running commentary on the Scotland versus Morocco World Cup match.
“We’re gonna beat Morocco and then we’ll beat Brazil and we’ll win the f***ing lot,” he declared early on, but later admitted that a second-minute goal for Morocco had put a dampener on things. “That’s not very Scottish of them. The second half is going to be even more miserable.”
The encore was lump-in-the-throat stuff. “How long ‘til it feels like the wound is finally starting to heal?” he sang beneath a shower of rain from the lighting rig on Survive , and closed with Someone You Loved , the ultimate singalong that had stalled him back at Glastonbury ’23, here performed with tear-jerking panache. “I’m gonna go away and make a new album and I’m gonna try to come back as quick as I can,” he promised. There’s a major support network here for him anytime.
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