Badly Drawn Boy’s gig is gloriously shambolic

According to the reports the first night of Badly Drawn Boy’s final two tour dates was plagued with technical problems. Damon Gough’s issue tonight is his audience and in particular during a moment when they respond with gestural-language which prompts the behatted one to deliver a two minute tirade that lashed at our PM-wifette Cherie Blair and everything, peppered with enough f-words to last any football crowd a couple of minutes!

Then, he finishes it off with a rhetorical enquiry, “Do I think my kids are safe?”, followed by the punch-line of, “No, with such c**ts around!” He then apologies to his parents, who are present tonight, because he usually doesn’t swear in front of them. Well, it’s understandable, the world is not a nice place and it is getting s**ttier by a nano-second but not many of us get a platform to address it from.

Gough would also beret a group of fans who are going either to the toilet/bar for “leaving”! Soon afterwards he walks off stage with a seemingly finite wave for the evening… Proving once again that no two BDB shows are ever the same. Thank Whomever for it because there is a huge army of people doing the same thing year-in-year-out. (Imagine how The Rolling Stones might feel when they have to perform ‘Come On’ for the 30th year!)

Damon and the band, one member being ex-Smiths’ bassie Andy Rourke, return to deliver another part of the show with less temper. The problem with artists is that public usually elevates to deities-without-feelings position and a reminder is needed that Gough’s a family man: pictures of his children and wife get projected on the replica of his current album’s artwork, ‘Have You Fed The Fish?’, that decorates the background. But, the rebellious being at one moment suggests (in no uncertain terms) that we all should get his new single, ‘Born Again’, issued on 06 Jan., and make it No. 1 to spite the pop-crap chart-monopoly! A worthwhile cause; so, kids – go out and buy, buy it!

Resplendent in his Oxfam-chic with hallmark hat on, longish hairs reaching bearded chin, he looks like the last Brit-eccentric. His behaviour compliments music he creates: eclectic, spirited, touching, spacious, swirling, big and experimental. His three albums, including the ‘About The Boy’ OST, contain more music to cause demonstrations against the pariah-pop that provides hope for humanity. A hefty 2-½ hours show is filled with huge selection of his opus – ‘Golden Days’, ‘You Were Right’, ‘I Was Wrong’ (every married man knows this one only too well!), ‘Another Pearl’, ‘Something To Talk About’, ‘Donna And Blitzen’, ‘Once Around The Block’, ‘Pissing In The Wind’…

The Mercury-winning artist, for his debut platter ‘Hour Of Bewilderbeast’, can hardly affect the salvage of popular culture single-handedly because it is beyond any damage control but he certainly provides a valuable, intelligent and alternative take on it. Long live the woolly-hat!

If I could have a choice of a band to welcome me at the Christmas-decorated doors of Hell, I’d seriously consider either the BDB lot, Can (if they all were alive) or The Residents. Mick Jagger should be stripped of his knighthood and this man ennobled… But, what’s the likelihood when he spoke against the ‘First Wife’ publicly?