The pain of splitting up with a partner after a 20 year relationship isn’t usually the subject for songs of heartbreak and woe.

But it’s a topic Glasgow band Beecake tackle in one of the stand-out tracks from their new album Blue Sky Paradise.

Ahead of the release of the group’s second album, Beecake frontman Billy Boyd, explained the meaning behind Please Stay.

He said: „It’s about a friend of mine who was splitting up from a long term relationship.

„All the break-up songs you hear are always written like pop songs for teenagers where it’s about burning passion and lust – a break up after meeting someone three months ago.

„They’re not about a 20 year relationship where you’ve spoken things over, you’ve done it maturely and inside the guy is screaming ‘Please Stay’.

„It’s not like ‘I love you and I don’t even know who you are’, it’s about being together for a long time.

„This album is different from the first, because we wrote all the songs then learned to play them live. It’s exciting now, learning the songs again.“

The group will mark the release of their long-awaited second album with a launch night at the Classic Grand on December 22.

Lord of the Rings star Billy formed the band with Billy Johnston, John Crawford and Rick Martin in 2006. Beecake have since toured the UK and America and in 2010 released debut album Soul Swimming.

The singer said: „The songs on the first album were all written over a long period of time. Friends and Lovers was written years ago when I was working in a printers in St Enoch Square.

„They were building the St Enoch Centre at the time and as they were digging it up all the rats were coming out of the old railway lines and there were lots of cats there too.

„There was a woman who would feed the cats and I could see her from the window of the factory. Friends and Lovers is written for her, imagining who she was and what her life was like.

„Blue Sky Paradise was written over a summer while touring with the Sunshine on Leith musical. I was sitting with a guitar, watching the news in the hotel rooms when I wrote it.

„My favourites from the new album come and go, as we play them it changes. At the moment I love playing Images it’s a positive track.“

They may have played gigs against the bright lights of New York and Los Angeles but Glasgow is Beecake’s favourite city.

The band members first met when they were pupils at Cranhill Secondary, and during their last year of school played their first gig, a soaring set of Sex Pistols covers mixed in with some of their own songs, at a pub in George Square.

For Billy acting and singing have always come hand in hand. He honed his craft at the Dolphin Arts Centre in Bridgeton where he mixed with Glasgow music veterans Duglas T Stewart, Frances McKee from The Vaselines and Teenage Fanclub’s Norman Blake.

Billy said: „We love playing Glasgow, it’s good fun because we’re from here. Lots of musician friends come, we get good feedback and the crowds are great.

„I made a choice to stay here because of my family and friends. Life’s not all about working. I enjoy the day to day coming and going of normal life – I enjoy it here.

„Everything in LA is about making movies, you go for dinner just to talk about scripts etc. Here I could not talk about acting for weeks.

“My family is here, and I love Scotland as a place.”

Tickets for Beecake’s album launch night are available from Tickets Scotland. For more information go to Beecake’s website.

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