Gig Review: Badly Drawn Boy at Metronome

Badly Drawn Boy (real name Damon Gough) was the soundtrack to my childhood, with his big hits like Once Around The Block and You Were Right always playing in my parents’ car. I never thought I’d see him live, as his main period of popularity was in the early 2000s and since 2012 he hadn’t released any music.

But 2020 saw a revival with ninth album Banana Skin Shoes, and the 25th anniversary of the start of his career motivated him to celebrate with an intimate UK tour. I headed down to Metronome to catch an emotional, heartfelt and uplifting career-spanning set from Badly Drawn Boy.

Support came in the form of Manchester folk-rock artist Liam Frost. A friend of Gough for many years, his music fitted well with Gough’s style and I’m sure many of the crowd found a new artist to listen to. A forty-minute set is unusually long for a support set, but the introduction of 'Mandolin Pete' on the mandolin for the last few songs added some variety to the performance which kept the crowd’s interest.

After a twenty-minute break, Gough took to the stage to a very warm welcome from the sold-out crowd who’d come to see him. As it was a 25th anniversary show, he decided to start with three songs from his first three EPs. These would be pretty rare to hear live, so must have been a dream come true for a huge fan who had followed him right from the start of his career. Those songs were less well-known by much of the crowd though, and the first song of the night to get a big cheer was The Shining – one of the most popular songs from Gough’s Mercury Prize-winning debut album The Hour of Bewilderbeast.

Explaining that he felt trapped by having a certain setlist planned out, Gough took the unusual method of having eighty songs written out in front of him, then playing whatever he fancied from that list next. It made for an unpredictable gig, and also lots of crowd interaction as he was often unsure of what to play next and so accepted some crowd requests. A particularly nice touch was when he played the beautiful Magic in the Air and congratulated a couple in the audience who were celebrating their 20th anniversary and had their first wedding dance to that song.

Whilst he did seem a little out of practice at times, quite often having to restart a section due to him getting it wrong or forgetting the lyrics, this actually added to his charm and gave the gig more of the intimate feel that it was aiming for. It felt like we were watching him mess around in the studio, and that was a privilege that I think the whole crowd appreciated. The telling of stories between songs also added to the intimacy, and Gough was open and honest about his experiences with issues such as grief and mental health throughout the set.

Gough aimed for a ninety-minute set, but ended up overrunning by twenty minutes to the delight of the crowd. Alternating between acoustic guitar, piano and electric guitar kept things fresh throughout the set, and his voice was fantastic throughout. Pissing in the Wind – an old classic that he doesn’t play live often – got the crowd singing, and the set reached an emotional end with piano hit Silent Sigh, followed by a cover of Someday by The Strokes in tribute to Gough’s late brother who loved The Strokes.

Taking the time to shake hands with the audience before leaving the stage, it was clear that Gough truly appreciates the community that gathers around his music. The crowd left fully satisfied with the mammoth set they’d witnessed – let’s hope Badly Drawn Boy doesn’t leave it so long until his next visit to Nottingham!

metronome.uk.com