GIG REVIEWS

Badly Drawn Boy
@ L2, Liverpool
14th October 2002
www.vanguard-online.co.uk

 Bad jokes, confusion, slagging off journalists, cover versions, shout outs to his folks… .Oh yeah, and some cracking songs. All in a night's work for Damon Gough a.k.a. Badly Drawn Boy. A performance of blood, sweat and tears combined with a bottle of Jack Daniels is possibly a recipe for disaster. But what a disaster. To label Gough as an enigma would be a terrible understatement. One minute he's poetically laying into Finley Quaye for being a poor mans Bob Marley ("Finley, how do you like your donuts? With jammin'. I like jammin' too), then he's arseing around doing the intro to The Smith's "Oscillate Now". Occasionally he manages to slip in moments of sheer beauty, like a heartfelt rendition of "Magic in the Air". But then he'll return to genuinely reprimanding his band for playing too loud or stopping halfway through recent single "Disillusion" because he's missed the chorus. Erratic and eccentric, this has been the Badly Drawn Boy manifesto from day one. Add to that some of the finest, idiosyncratic songs you'll hear this year or any year ("Once Round the Block" and "The Shining" to name but two), you end up with the consummate entertainer. Why should winning the Mercury Music Prize change that. The crudest way to describe Gough's philosophy is that he wants to put on a show. Make 'em laugh, make 'em cry. Shambolic, perplexing and at times a little self-indulgent, rather then simply regurgitating an album note perfectly and a little predictably (a la Coldplay), the tea cosy adorning Mancunian leaves you with something to talk about. For once a live performance where you really don't know what's going to happen next. Terribly exciting.

Graeme Demianyk