And so, 2020 in concerts is underway.
Badly Drawn Boy arrived in Belfast as part of Out To Lunch Festival. Although, this wasn’t a lunchtime engagement, taking place in the evening, as most concerts do.
It was an evening that was very cold. Hat and coat weather in fact. I got very comfortable with the headgear, it looked liked I was cosplaying as Badly Drawn Boy, but it was basically just practicality. I can see why him and The Edge always wear a hat.
Support came from Duke Special, which was a pleasant surprise as it wasn’t on the original announcement for the concert.
When speaking to the crowd, Mr Drawn Boy spoke glowingly of Duke Special.
I got into Badly Drawn Boy back in 2000, with the release of his album The Hour Of Bewilderbeast, and the singles Pissing In The Wind, Disillusion and Once Around The Block.
That interest continued over the coming years with singles such as Silent Sigh, Something To Talk About, All Possibilities and You Were Right.
As a result of that early interest, I was straight to get a ticket when this was announced.
Our paths did cross previously, as he was doing a concert in Waterford when I was there in November 2018, but I wasn’t able to get a ticket for it.
Notoriously grumpy, you never know what you are going to get with him.
The previous time I saw him in Belfast, at Mandela Hall in 2007, he stormed off halfway through his set. He returned a few minutes later and finished his set, the second half being a lot better than the first.
To use a football analogy, it’s like being 3-0 down at half-time and coming back to win 4-3.
Looking up his previous appearances in Belfast online, it appears this would be the third time I will have seen him.
Seemingly, he was one of the support acts for Primal Scream when I saw them perform in a tent in the very first first Tennent’s Vital in 2002. I genuinely can’t remember seeing him at all, but seemingly it happened.
There was one thing that we would be sure of, that it would just be him on stage, solo with no backing band.
He was loaded with the cold, and his cure was unconventional, a bottle of J2O. It seemed to work, having said that he sounded horrible in the soundcheck.
Inbetween the songs, he gave us stories about them, or just stories in general.
Stories included swearing at Movie Executives through an intercom, being excited at one of his songs being featured in Gossip Girl, even though he doesn’t watch it, his excitement at meeting Bobby Ball, Caroline Aherne and George Best (not at the same time), his meeting with Best, at a TV show in Belfast, saw him getting a lend of George’s private jet.
One downside was that the place was full of Banter Bores. You know the sort, shout out random shit thinking they’re funny, act as if they’re best mates with the performer. We’re not here to listen to you, and never forget that.
There’s a high possibility that they probably share and retweet posts by LAD. Definite Jeans and Sheux behaviour.
Why can’t we just be a normal city with normal people?
We got a lot of hits, so there wasn’t much to complain about apart from the Banter Bores, even getting some covers such as Sexual Healing and I Wanna Be Adored.
Up next, is Ash doing an instore gig at HMV in mid February.
Remember when I was complaining that Linfield’s trip to Ballymena not being moved to Saturday afternoon? Scrap that, the Friday night game suits me now.
After that, a busy March with two trips to The Limelight to see Blossoms and The Lightning Seeds.
Analogue Boy In A Digital World 
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