Badly Drawn Boy
Union Chapel, London
07/04/2011

Ten years ago, Manchester Aid to Kosovo released a compilation album of songs by Manchester bands, raising money for a good cause and pushing a few lesser-known artists in need of a break (Elbow, anyone?). Tonight’s show promotes the follow up release, which features Jim Noir and The Travelling Band. Although Badly Drawn Boy doesn’t appear on the album, he’s tonight’s headline act.

A cynic might complain about the smug self-satisfaction that’s palpable throughout this performance. Now The Fly isn’t cynical, but we will admit that we’d forgotten Damon Gough was still alive. When he ambles onstage in a grubby t-shirt and the same fluffy beanie he was wearing when we last saw him around 2005, it’s clear he’s been dug up for the occasion. But then he tells a few jokes and strums a handful of sweet ditties on his acoustic guitar – and it does the trick. Over ‘A to B’’s melancholic chords he whispers, “I hope that you feel I am the one”, the line draws empathy from its directness, with Gough trading on his everyman persona as usual. He plays four songs this way, every move on the fret board audible over the audience’s hush. On any other occasion, his spectral arrangements might seem insubstantial. They might be lost in the cavernous chapel. But this audience leans into every crack in his voice.

For the finale, Gough calls The Travelling Band onstage to round up the night. It’s a canny move, as their expansive sound is a welcome release from his brittle acoustics. What follows is an unlikely stage invasion and audience sing-along to the line, “Just give me something, I’ll take nothing.” Badly Drawn Boy came here to inspire a sense of community – and he’s done a fine job.

Jordan Bassett