This year, Badly Drawn Boy is celebrating 25 years of his Mercury-winning debut album, ‘The Hour Of Bewilderbeast’.
After a sold out run of shows in Spring, where the album was played with a full band in its entirety, five dates were added for December.
Badly Drawn Boy – AKA Damon Gough – performed in Liverpool last night, and will play Cardiff, Sheffield, Edinburgh, and Sunderland this month to sign off the landmark year.
We caught up with the revered British singer-songwriter ahead of the final leg of his tour, as he reflected on the breakthrough success 25 years ago, and what to expect from the anniversary performances.
Badly Drawn Boy told Northern Chorus: “For the last 30 years, it’s been mainly solo gigs. I get a band together when there’s a new album to launch or for an anniversary like this. So I spend most of my time playing the songs the way I’m comfortable with and paying no attention to the arrangements. With the band we’ve tried to recreate or reimagine what’s on the album, and it’s been like starting from scratch.
“It’s been a trial and error process, but probably the best versions of the album I’ve ever done. Certain songs lend themselves to being reimagined. You can’t possibly do justice to the original mix so there’s no point trying to replicate it. And when I started making music, it was never with the intention of ever playing it live anyway. I was just a bedroom artist.
“I’m amazed I’ve even sustained a career for this long, especially playing live because people used to slag me off for being rubbish. I’m actually pretty damn brilliant these days! My ability to play songs on stage has improved over the years, and my stagecraft has improved. But in essence, I’m the same I was the first day I ever did a gig. I only know how to be me on stage and be honest and that’s what people misunderstood about me in the first place.”
While he may have had his critics, it was this raw and honest live stage persona that endeared Badly Drawn Boy to many fans from the start.
A genuine artist that followed his own direction, his discography now spans nine studio albums, including the acclaimed soundtrack to Nick Hornby’s “About a Boy” and his most recent release, “Banana Skin Shoes”, which landed five years ago.
Reflecting on the beginning of his career and the build-up to the debut release, Damon commented “Looking back, from the late ’90s when I first put out four EPs through to finishing and releasing the first album, everything felt quite slow and very organic. It developed naturally over time. By the time it came out, I didn’t really feel nervous about it anymore, because I’d already lived with it for so long. It’s kind of inevitable, really. You spend so much time with a record while you’re recording it that you often end up despising it. You’re so close to it that all the excitement disappears.
“I’ve heard stories about Born to Run, that Springsteen thought it was amazing at one point, but after spending so long on it, he ended up loathing it. How could you not? You’re trapped in it, under pretty horrible, excessive circumstances a lot of the time. So when the record finally comes out and other people start reacting to it, they give you a new perspective. That’s when it starts to feel good again.”
It was this first offering that landed him the coveted Mercury Prize back in 2000.
Badly Drawn Boy fended off competition from the likes of Coldplay, Doves, and Richard Ashcroft to claim the top prize with his debut release.
He says: “Musicians have a complicated relationship with journalists—we love them and we hate them. When they’re on your side, it’s great; when they’re critical, it hurts. But when good journalism works properly, it really matters. I used to experience that all the time in the ’90s. I’d read the NME or Melody Maker or other music magazines, trust certain writers’ opinions, and go out and buy a record because of a review.
“When the critics and fans reception happened to me for the first time with my own record, it was a real thrill. Seeing a positive review, or seeing someone write about a particular song and put a spin on it that I’d never even thought of, comparing it to something else, suddenly the record felt more three-dimensional again. You can lose sight of what you originally put into something, and other people help you rediscover that. That’s a really powerful thing.
“The Mercury Prize nomination was really the icing on the cake after all that feedback. It was a massive thrill for all of us nominees. I remember hanging out with Doves that day; we were sitting next to each other at the tables. Winning it, I found that a bit embarrassing, to be honest. My speech was basically pure embarrassment. I still cringe when I think about it, because I just didn’t know what to say really.
“What I don’t remember is it feeling the way awards seem to feel now. Like someone wins and their career suddenly shoots off in a stratospheric direction. It didn’t feel like that for me. It was more that it put me on the map in a more serious way, I suppose.”
And the Mercury Prize victory led to an interesting next move in Badly Drawn Boy‘s career, as his attention turned to creating a film soundtrack.
He was approached to write and perform the music for “About A Boy”, starring Hugh Grant and Nicholas Hoult, which included festive favourite, ‘Donna & Blitzen’.
Damon told us about that change in direction: “That whole period came straight after winning the Mercury Prize. Whatever you think of the Mercury now, back then it had a much bigger reach. Even being nominated could expose your work to a much wider audience. In those days it was on mainstream TV, a live event, a prominent moment in the music calendar. That’s changed now, not because the prize is less valid, but because there’s so much more going on with social media and the way music is covered. The landscape is just different.
“The Weitz brothers, who directed About a Boy, and Nick Hornby, who wrote the book, were both fans of The Hour Of Bewilderbeast. They had this idea that I could do the music for the film. The story I was told is that Nick Hornby loved the album but knew he had no real power over the film makers – Working Title and Universal were making those decisions. Nick went into a meeting with the Weitz brothers and asked what they were doing about the music, it turned out they’d all been thinking the same thing independently.
“That really sealed it for them. When I was told that story, I believed it, maybe foolishly. It could have been made up, but it made me take the project seriously. At first, I wasn’t that interested. I wanted to get on with my own next album, whatever that was going to be. It felt like a bit of an intrusion. They sent me the script, but I found it hard to read with all the directions and character names – it’s not an easy way to absorb a story. So I read the book instead, and that clicked with me. I thought, okay, let’s give this a go.
“I had this idea about working with Tom Rothrock. I’d seen his name on records by Beck and Elliott Smith and he’d been on my wish list of producers for a long time. We managed to track him down, and it turned out he was living in LA. The Weitz brothers were there too, and that’s where the film was being edited, so it all made sense. I flew out to LA with only two half-written songs, just enough to start a conversation. After that, we were literally in the studio watching scenes, responding to what was needed musically, coming up with ideas on the spot. Writing as you go on a project that big is pretty mad but that’s how it happened.”
Badly Drawn Boy’s continues his final dates of the 25th anniversary celebration shows for “The Hour Of Bewilderbeast”.
The show will also feature another set of classics and fan favourites from his extensive back catalogue.
Head to Badly Drawn Boy for more information.
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