RISING star Luke La Volpe has already earned himself spots on the bill for some of this year’s biggest music events.

Now, the singer-songwriter, who hails from West Lothian, is preparing to make his TRNSMT Festival debut this weekend.

Looking ahead to his performance on the King Tut’s stage, the 25-year-old told the Glasgow Times that he still can’t believe that he is included in Sunday’s massive line-up.

Luke said: “It’s just next-level, isn’t it? I grew up going to T in the Park and I always dreamed of playing it. Obviously, that isn’t an option anymore.

“But TRNSMT is like the child of T in the Park – so that will be surreal. I haven’t really accepted that I’m playing it yet and I don’t think I will until I actually walk out there.

“It’s pretty wild to be in the same breath as people who are playing that stage, because they’re people that I listen to.

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He added: “I’m looking forward to seeing the crowd and everybody together. I think the one thing that everyone has needed over the past two years is a bit of togetherness.

“Everything has been so divisive and we’ve been shut away from each other, so feeling the love of the crowd and hopefully hearing everybody singing the songs.

“If they know them, it’ll be great. If they don’t, it’s fine,” he laughed.

“I’ll get changed out of my suit afterwards so I can blend in a bit better and take a wee wander around.

“I’ll probably try to see Joesef’s set. I quite like his music. I hope to see The Chemical Brothers later that night – if I manage to last that long, that is.”

After completing a sold out Scottish tour last February, Luke was forced to postpone a milestone gig at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Bathgate singer, whose show sold out in just 12 hours, finally made his headline debut on the famous Tut’s stage last week.

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He said: “It was incredible. It’s been a long 18 months waiting to perform in front of people and it was tough thinking that it was never going to come back.

“It was really emotional, to be honest. That show sold out around two years ago and we waited 489 days to play it.

“I was kind of nervous for it. I never really get nervous before a gig. I started thinking, ‘Can I still do this?’, since it had been 18 months since my last show.

“It was nice just seeing the crowd. A lot of my friends were there on Friday as well and they were all emotional for me because it feels like I’ve finally broken through.

“Now that we’re out there and playing to people, especially hearing them singing the words back to us, it’s quite emotional.”

Luke made a name for himself after securing supporting slots for top acts such as The Snuts, Tom Walker and childhood friend Lewis Capaldi.

In August 2019, the crooner was hand-picked from dozens of entries to open Tom Grennan’s sold out Glasgow show at St Luke’s, quitting his warehouse job shortly afterwards to focus on his music career full-time.

The singer, who won the Breakthrough Male prize at last year’s Scottish Music Awards, is set to play his biggest headline show to date later this year – in the very same venue he performed in as a warm-up act two years previously.

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He said: “To be headlining St Luke’s myself in December will be a nice, full circle moment.

“A lot of people messaged me saying, ‘We first saw you at the Tom Grennan gig and now we’re going to see you doing the headline slot’. It’s quite nice to hear that people have stuck with us.

“It’s one of my favourite venues, too. It’s beautiful inside and a lot of great bands have played there, so I’m looking forward to that.

“A fair whack of the tickets are gone – a third of them went in the pre-sale. I’m hoping it sells out fast because I want to make a statement again.”

Luke Gibson, to give him his real name, landed himself a Scottish number one single with Dead Man’s Blues in May last year, taken from his Terribly Beautiful EP.

The newcomer is set to support Wigan four-piece The Lathums at O2 Forum Kentish Town, London and Dunfermline’s PJ Molloys later this year.

When asked about his plans for the future, he said: “I’ll see what happens and see what falls onto my plate. That’s the way I’ve been doing it, so I’m not going to change it.

“I’m just going to gradually climb up the ladder and hopefully after we play St Luke’s, we’ll play a bigger venue again.

“The dream is to get to the Barrowlands. I’ve performed in it once, supporting Lewis [Capaldi], when it was just me and my guitarist.

“It would be great to play it with my full band at my own headline show. That’s the dream.”

Luke La Volpe will perform on the King Tut’s stage at TRNSMT this Sunday, September 12. Tickets for his headline show at St Luke’s on December 16 are on sale HERE.