BADLY DRAWN Boy, aka Manchester singer and composer Damon Gough, will play the Radisson Live Lounge on Saturday July 17 at 9pm as part of the Galway Arts Festival.
Damon originally burst onto the British alternative/pop scene in 2000 with his acclaimed debut album The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast. Its accompanying single, the wah-wah drenched ‘Once Around The Block’, was seemingly never off the radio.
In 2002 Damon consolidated his success by writing the soundtrack to the film version of Nick Hornby’s About A Boy, which starred Hugh Grant. It reached number six in the British charts that year and remains his best selling album. That same year Q named Badly Drawn Boy in its list of the ‘50 Bands to See Before You Die’.
Since then the Mancunian has released four further albums, all of which have gone Top 10 or Top 20, including 2006’s Born In The UK, where the artist pondered on Englishness and identity after a number of years living in the US.
Damon’s most recent album, Is There Nothing We Could Do, released late last year, saw him return to soundtrack work.
The album was the soundtrack to the ITV film The Fattest Man In Britain which was written by Caroline Aherne and Jeff Pope. It stars Timothy Spall in the lead role and Bobby Ball as his agent and sidekick Morris Morrisey.
Pitchfork praised Is There Nothing We Could Do as “ a return to form” for the artist. “While only time will tell if Gough can keep up the good work,” Pitchfork’s Joshua Klein wrote, “fans waiting for a sign of [Damon’s] former self can rest assured the qualities that made his music so appealing the first time around remain pleasantly intact and, thankfully, no longer dormant.”
Tickets are on sale at www.galwayartsfestival.com The Festival Box Office opens at 10am next Monday at the Tourist Office, Forster Street.
