MANY moons before he became the world’s most famous spaceman, long before his talks and books and music began inspiring people to think beyond their own horizons, Colonel Chris Hadfield was playing guitar in a Glasgow pub.

“I’ve stayed in the city many times – the first time I visited was in 1977,” he says, pleasantly, via a video call from his native Canada.

“My band used to love playing in the local pubs – the Victoria Bar, for one. I’m also heavily involved in the Scottish Space School at Strathclyde University.”

(Image: Chris Young)

The Space School takes 80 fifth year pupils each year on to the campus for a week of workshops lectures and guest speakers from NASA. Around eight young people are then selected to go to the Johnson Space Centre in Texas in the US.

Chris says: “I love Glasgow. It’s an architectural gem of a city, which has turned out some of the really great thinkers. There is a thriving space industry there too.

“As long as you have a stable society, a good education system and a financial system that allows people to dare to do things, that’s how things get built. That’s how ships got built on the Clyde, and it’s how spaceships get built.”

Astronaut, test pilot, businessman, author and the man who famously performed Bowie’s Space Oddity actually IN space, Chris is coming back to Glasgow on June 19, with his new tour, A Journey Into The Cosmos.

(Image: Deacon Communications)

Does he ever get fed up being asked about Space Oddity?

He laughs. “Some of the oldest human-made things to be found are musical instruments, music is innate,” he says. “Bowie wrote a lovely, thoughtful song and he was happy to let me update the lyrics and sing it on the International Space Station, which was incredible.”

He pauses. “Hundreds of millions of people, more than the population of my own country, have seen that video and visualised spaceflight as a result,” he says. “And Bowie himself loved it, which for me was a wonderful thing.”

(Image: Chris Hadfield)

During this tour, Chris will share stories from his incredible career, as well as never-before-seen images taken from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the International Space Station (ISS), featuring breathtaking views of Earth, the moon, Mars and more.

He’ll talk about his three spaceflights, and give audiences a chance to ask him questions directly.

“A huge impetus behind this tour is to make people think - what is out there, what is possible?” he explains.

(Image: Newsquest)

“I’m just thrilled by discovery, the very edge of human possibility.

“To see the imagery of a planet so close to its sun it is melting and being torn apart, for example - we can think about that, make up science fiction stories about it, but we are now actually seeing it happen, thanks to the James Webb Telescope.

“The images coming back from Mars on a daily basis are quite thought-provoking.”

READ NEXT: Glasgow space school inspires next generation of engineers

READ NEXT: From shipbuilding to spaceship building: Glasgow at heart of industry boom

He adds: “I just do my best to share the wonder and unusual nature of what human beings are doing at the edge of our experience.”

It was comic books, full of characters “blasting around with jet packs and ray guns” that first inspired Chris’s interest in space.

“Then, science fiction – Arthur C Clarke, Bradbury, Asimov – and Star Trek on TV…" he explains.

"I was growing up on a farm where our nearest neighbour was a bicycle ride away, so those stories gave me a whole new realm to imagine myself in.

“But while my love and curiosity about the universe was driven by fiction, what really cemented it was the reality of people actually going into space.

“When I was born, no-one had been to space. The summer I turned 10 was when the first man walked on the moon.”

He adds: “I remember very clearly that moment, thinking - this is not just fantasy, this is a career choice, and I’m going to choose that. I’m going to turn myself into an astronaut.”

Shortly after his Glasgow date, Chris is heading to Australia on tour; he has just written his sixth book; and he is currently working with the House of Lords and King Charles on the Astra Carta, a set of rules for sustainability in space.

“I’m also on the board for several space companies and I tour with my band, so it’s all fun,” he says, with a grin.

Sadly, Chris will not be popping up in a pub near you during his stay in Glasgow.

“I don’t think I’ll have time,” he says, regretfully.

“I love playing in pubs, I’ve played in many – actually, in the past, raising money for the Scottish Space School, so we could take the kids over to America.”


He smiles. “But just playing a little music on stage is probably all I can muster for this trip.”

Chris Hadfield: A Journey Into The Cosmos is at the King’s Theatre on June 19.