Engage Paolo Nutini in conversation, and you will encounter a hefty Scottish brogue. His accent is thick enough to spread on bread.

But when he sings, his tones lift, lighten and become exquisitely mellifluous. His voice, a mixture of gravel and honey, brings to mind a young Joe Cocker or an old Motown troubadour.

Lyrics, at times poignant, at times ribald, suggest he has been around the block a few times, too. All the more surprising then to learn the half- Italian, half-Scottish singer-songwriter, who looks like a model, is only 19 years old.

So where did he get his voice?

"Och, I've never had anything as formal as vocal lessons," he says. "But I did sing in the school choir for a while. That was tough.

"As you can imagine, not a whole lot of guys take to singing in a place like Paisley."

It was his grandfather, a big music lover, who first encouraged him to sing and soon Paolo realised it was something he could do almost without effort.

"My nonno loved boogiewoogie piano," says Paolo, "and he adored opera. He always wanted somebody in the family to make music their living.

He's not around to see it, unfortunately, but I'm doing just what he wanted and I'm doing it in his honour."

While he was still at school, a teacher, with a sideline in jazz piano, quickly spotted his prodigious talent. Later, fate intervened in a most unlikely manner.

"You remember David Sneddon, right?" he says. David Sneddon was the winner of the BBC's Fame Academy four years ago.

A fellow Paisley native, Sneddon's triumph on the talent show was a huge deal back home.

For his homecoming, the local council had booked out the town hall for his first proper concert but Sneddon was delayed on his journey back. As the audience got restless, a local radio presenter bounded on stage and held an impromptu pop quiz, the winner of which would get to sing a couple of songs to the crowd.

Paolo, almost in spite of himself, won.

"Initially, I was like, no way am I going up there," he says. But his girlfriend, who had dragged him along to the concert in the first place, insisted otherwise. The crowd loved him and in the audience was the man who would go on to become Paolo's manager.

"Shortly after, I was moving to London to become a singer and record an album," he says, still bewildered at this turn of events. "I always thought I would carry on with the family business in the chippy. I told my dad I'd stay and do what was expected but he wouldn't hear of it."

The chips and Mars bars may have to be fried without him: the chip shop's loss is very clearly music's gain.

Paolo Nutini's debut album, These Streets, is out now.

Starts 8pm. Tickets cost £6 (sold out). Call 01273 605789.