I'm on a mission with my music

FIVE years ago Callum Beattie was playing to 28 people in an almost empty hall. Next weekend, he'll fill the Hydro.

- 

His meteoric rise to fame came after a childhood of poverty during which he taught himself how to sing and play the guitar listening to his dad's records.

The Edinburgh rocker is determined to share the spoils of his success with those less fortunate than himself as he knows what it's like to have nothing.

Next year Callum will travel to Africa to help lay the foundations on a remarkable new project he is funding in Ghana.

It comes after Callum made a heart-wrenching visit to Basua last month.

The trip had such an impact on him that he has pledged to return to help build a school and buy musical instruments for the town's kids.

He said: "I was there with the Mighty Roar charity. It changed my perspective.

"I went to a guy's house who was a fisherman. His dad drowned, and he fed his family and his neighbours.

"He had eight kids himself, and when I asked why they had so many they told me it's because the likelihood is that some will die. So they overcompensate.

"I remember buying a kid a pizza and he'd never seen one before. He didn't know how to eat it. He took the veg off, left the dough.

"This boy told me through his interpreters he wanted to go to school. Families can't afford to send their kids to school, so we spent that week trying to get as many to school as possible.