Badly Drawn Boy at Aylesbury Waterside Theatre (Nov 5th 2024)

Our night started with ‘This New Song’ which happened to be 40 years old, but that fairly reflected the age demographic – it was hard to spot anyone under 40! 

We must have had a 40 minute set from the opener for the night – Badly Drawn Boy is Damon Gough born in Dunstable – so with some local connections, though he was brough up in the North West of England. His peak was around the millennium – and was named as a ‘band’ to see before you die by Q magazine back in the day: band is overstating it as he took the stage on his own – though he does have a vast repertoire of musical instruments that he can turn his hand to.

His set was melancholy, reflective, with bits of added humour and a seemingly genuine gratefulness for the audience being there and wanting to enjoy his music.

It felt like a walk through his musical career journey so far with thoughts on where he might have had turning points and big moments, but didn't quite! Like “You Were Right” his top 10 single (well it got to no. 9), his contribution to the soundtrack of About a Boy with a time in Hollywood writing a song in after being shown preview clips (only for his song’s scene to be deleted from the final cut as the movie was running too long), and he recounted the feeling of driving away from a recording session at the Radiohead studio in Sutton Courtney thinking it was a significant moment in his career (but it never quite became the turning point he hoped for). 

The night's music was great, relaxed, easy to get into and a tuneful expression - emanating from his voice and either acoustic or electric guitar, or keyboard (he had set it up, so needed to use it at least once). He was great fun in a self-depreciating way!

Everyone was there for headliners Squeeze, but I hope and think we all made him feel he was more than just a support : he was truly part of our night.

Reviewed by Bjarne Thelin for Trend Radio