The View rocker's partner shares her struggle

Scottish rocker Kyle Falconer has been making headlines for years, often for the wrong reasons, but now it is his fiancée Laura Wilde who is claiming the limelight.

She has co-written a musical inspired by her experience as a new mum with a rock star partner, which has premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe.

His band The View had formed in the city and hit the big time in 2007 with the single Same Jeans, before Kyle was even 20.

Their album Hats off to the Buskers was an international success and the band toured the world for years.

Laura initially followed Kyle on tour and shared his lifestyle.

"We were in this drink-fuelled thing which was so good when we first met," says Laura.

"But then it got chaotic and I didn't know if this was the life for me. Everything revolved around drinking."

Kyle says: "I'd been in the band since I was 18. I didn't know any other life. I suppose I just wanted to live up to the name."

In 2016 Kyle was arrested and charged after a drunken air rage incident on a plane.

He was fined £25,000 and banned from the airline for life.

"I was meant to be at Martin Compston's wedding the next day and he sent me a message to say you're on the front pages of all the papers," says Kyle.

"When I think about it, I get quite sad about it."

Laura saw it as a catalyst for change.

"I think that's the universe's wake-up call to say stop acting like you're in a fantasy world where you're untouchable," she says.

"It became quite real after that."

Kyle checked into a rehab centre in Thailand and Laura gave up her job and rented a house to be near him.

She used the time to keep an eye on Kyle and concentrate on her own writing.

"I was using the free time to write and I wrote a horror story," she says. "It was a little bit of confirmation that I could write."

At the end of the three-month stay, Laura discovered she was pregnant.

Their first daughter was born in 2017, a second child came two years later.

But although The View announced a break, Kyle was still travelling to promote his solo work.

Laura was left at home with two babies and post-natal depression.

"It was very isolating but I never sat down and said 'I'm really struggling I need your help'," she says.

"I realised my own stuff was on hold. I was writing but it was really unfocused.

"Being on my own, I started feeling really down, I wasn't eating or looking after myself, I would have panic attacks before I left the house.

"I didn't want to be a failure. I didn't have a career. I'm a woman, I'm meant to be able to be a mum so I didn't tell anyone."

Now she is sharing that experience in a new show No Love Songs.

It is written with Johnny McKnight and based around songs from Kyle's second album No Love Songs For Laura.

The musical previewed at Dundee Rep in May, and has now opened at the Traverse in Edinburgh as part of the Fringe.

But it wasn't without further offstage drama.

Two days before the show opened in Dundee, The View's comeback tour was halted in Manchester after a fight onstage involving Kyle and bassist Kieran Webster.

A further concert was cancelled while the band had to issue an apology online.

Kyle was only partially repentant.

He says everyone always has their own opinion of him already anyway.

With the incident still being discussed in the media, Dundee Rep asked Kyle not to attend the preview.

The documentary shows Laura attending alone, while Kyle stays at home with the children.

"It feels like a kick to the stomach that he's not here," she says.

"It hurts a little bit. I was very sceptical when I started out and Kyle gave me the shove I needed.

"I know I'm a good mum but I also wanted to do something that I'm passionate about. And I want him to be here on opening night."

Kyle did get to see the show - which stars Dawn Sievewright and John McLarnon - in Dundee and in Edinburgh.

"It brought us closer," she says.

"I've found myself in a way. I feel like I've got something under my belt and it's the start of a new career.

"It's an exciting stage of my life. I'd like to see us settled with the kids, travelling and me having my own thing, whether that's my writing or whatever."

"I'd like to be the stay-at-home dad, and see the roles reversed," he says.