By any standards, Scottish singer-songwriter Lewis Capaldi has had a decent 2019 – his single Someone You Loved topped the UK charts for seven weeks, while his debut album Divinely Uninspired to a Hellish Extent was a global hit.
So heads were turned yesterday when the Glaswegian was spotted doing a shift as a Deliveroo rider in Leeds, where he was appearing as support to Ed Sheeran in the Yorkshire city’s Roundhay Park in the evening.
It turns out that Capaldi was delivering meals from Barburrito on Boar Lane to the three winners of a competition that Deliveroo ran last Thursday and Friday, open only to residents of Leeds.
Besides each winner having their order personally delivered by the 22-year-old, winners also received a £100 Deliveroo voucher code and a Lewis Capaldi CD.
Pictures inevitably were shared on social media– here by Ylenia Jessy Ansaldi on the Leedsplace group on Facebook, while the Yorkshire Evening Post has a selfie that Lucy Bradbury managed to snap as Capaldi cycled through the city centre.
It’s fair to say that Capaldi’s experience of the gig economy is a bit different from that of anyone else who pulls on a Deliveroo jacket and backpack.
In April, when tickets went on sale for his UK arena tour in 2020, they sold out immediately – something unheard of for an artist who at that point was yet to release his first album.
Born in Scotland, Simon moved to London aged seven and now lives in the Oxfordshire Cotswolds with his miniature schnauzer, Elodie. He fell in love with cycling one Saturday morning in 1994 while living in Italy when Milan-San Remo went past his front door. A daily cycle commuter in London back before riding to work started to boom, he's been news editor at road.cc since 2009. Handily for work, he speaks French and Italian. He doesn't get to ride his Colnago as often as he'd like, and freely admits he's much more adept at cooking than fettling with bikes.