'Alcohol and drugs ruined my band - I'm glad to have another chance'

Phil Campbell still shudders when he recalls how his band the Temperance Movement came to a messy end.

After years of hard graft and endless gigs at home and abroad, the blues-rock group were finally tasting regular success - but Campbell had become increasingly hooked on drink and drugs.

It eventually led the Glaswegian singer to leave the band, and attempt to get his own life back on track.

Now the group have not only reunited but brought out a new album, marking a fresh chapter that at one stage seemed an unlikely prospect.

Campbell told BBC Scotland News how the aftermath of a shambolic gig in Wales in December 2019 made him realise that the band was all but over, and that his actions may have accelerated the end.

"The last gig we did in 2019 was just so terrible that it had to be the end," he reflects.

"I had taken the band and crashed it into a wall. The way I dealt with it all made it worse and then I realised I had lost everything.

"The point at which I knew I had taken it too far was when it was too late. It was the end of the last gig and my memory of that was how quickly everyone vanished at the end of the show.

"Usually you'd finish a gig and people stayed behind to talk or celebrate, and this time they just fled."

It was a grim end to an unlikely success story.

Campbell was a Glasgow singer-songwriter type who, he jokes, took music far too seriously. The rest of the band were session musicians who had backed big names like Robbie Williams but were keen for a crack at their own songs.

When they began playing together the result was old time, full throated blues rock n' roll. Within two years an album was released, and in the 12 months after that they found themselves opening for the Rolling Stones at several shows.

"We got together in this wonderful romantic way, and it was amazing," says Campbell.

"Those early days we worked in Luke's [Potashnick, guitarist] kitchen, eating well, drinking coffee and just recording songs. We must have done hundreds of shows."

The five-piece took their name from the social movement that shuns alcohol and while band members did not go that far, they kept focused on the music as by far the most important thing.

However, Campbell had past issues with drinking too much, and as the band's fame grew and they began embarking on lengthy tours of America, his resolve wavered.

"I've always had problems with booze and drugs, since I was a young man", he says.

"A lot of people I grew up with drank too much, and played music, and you heard about all the casualties, these Scottish bands that didn't make it because the singer was a mess.

"The band was called the Temperance Movement partly because I was sober when it started and it was a reminder to stay sober, but then I found I loved getting stoned.

"When you're playing music all the time a wee bit of this or that made it more interesting and the problem is the rest of the band aren't hedonists at all, they're very measured. When I started using again it changed the whole dynamic of the band."

That led to problems that culminated on that stage in Porthcawl in 2019. The following month Campbell's departure from the group was announced.

However, after years working on other projects, the band began to stir.

A reunion tour playing old material took place in 2025, and the band felt secure enough to start plotting a new album.

The result is New Promise Land Incorporated, produced by Ethan Johns, who previously worked with the likes of Kings of Leon.

"For the comeback tour we just needed to play the old music and say hello again," says Campbell.

"But there was a bit of a wait before we could start writing again after that, just due to how everyone's lives are now."

Campbell himself is a dad of two and he jokes that fronting a rock band is his second job, behind being a taxi service for his kids.

A more serious problem emerged following the comeback tour though, after a cyst was found on his vocal chords.

"I needed to get that sorted, so I couldn't sing for two months.

"I was terrified of life as an average singer and that I wouldn't have the big voice of before, but the minute I came around I knew it was better instantly."

Back to full strength vocally, Campbell was able to join his bandmates in crafting their fourth record.

It is unlikely to surprise too many, delivering emphatic rock that is heavy on grooves and riffs.

Campbell himself makes no bones about the fact he is relishing being back on stage again, with a November tour pencilled in that includes a date at Glasgow's famed Barrowland.

Being front and centre of attention is something he loves.

"I've always been a show off, doing voices or acting or trying to show what I can do," he laughs.

"I was quite keen to get onstage and start singing and showing off again, as lead singers like to do.

"We opened on the reunion tour with us singing in harmony and playing acoustically, which is what we used to do in small venues - but to be honest, I just couldn't wait until the big drums kicked in and we got the dry ice going again."