Drawn to the Irish Stage

In the course of a telephone conversation, I get the impression that it must be quite something to live with Damon Gough. “You goin’ out? Will you get me something?” he asks Claire, his wife, cheekily.

“Like what?”
“Ehhh…a surprise,” he says, sounding all of five. “Maybe a telly. I chucked mine out the window last night,” he explains to Hot Press, referring to England’s Euro 2004 defeat at the hands of France. It seems as though football is a sore subject at present.
“It was a bad start,” he says balefully of England’s tournament debut. “We’d loads of people round, about 20 or more, there were kids running round, and we had a barbeque. We had the telly out the back on an extension lead. The last two minutes of that match were a nightmare. I forgot all about it until I went to get a paper this morning and saw the pictures on the front page…uuuhhh…”
As it goes, Damon started the week off on a high note, supporting the Pixies at Brixton Academy.
“I’ve never really done support slots in my short career, apart from my very first gig and this one for the Pixies,” he muses. “It was a bit of lukewarm reaction so I really pity support acts now. Nobody is really there for you. There’s people at the front are waiting for the band after, and a few people there who came to check you out. They’re not as euphoric as me own gigs”.
Badly Drawn Boy’s festival appearances are much more gratifying – just as well really, seeing as he is set to play not only Bud Rising here in Ireland, but also Glastonbury and V2004.
“You get to see all the other bands for free, get your gig-going out of the way in one swoop,” he laughs.
“I hope it’s not gone unnoticed, I do mention in the sleeve notes for the new album the Witnness gig I did in Ireland,” he continues. “I was one of the nicest reactions I ever had; the Irish never let you down. I played several new songs from One Plus One Is One. I distinctly remember getting applause when I sang a lyric from a new song there; it was an amazing reaction that I don’t recall getting elsewhere. The line was “I don’t know where all the tears are flowing to/ I’ll guide them to a river where I’ll swim with you downstream”. See, the Irish know what song-writing is all about.
It seems as though Gough is finally easing into a career, which at first seemed an odd, uncomfortable fit, not least in the wake of winning the 2000 Mercury Prize.
“I think there have been things in my head to battle against, and one of them was winning the Mercury prize,” he confesses. “For me, it was too convenient for an audience to pick up that record, and I began to get worried about who was coming to see me. It was the same with About A Boy when another new audience started coming to see me. Four years on I’m not bothered, but at the beginning of my career, you’ve all these concerns about whether people get who you are. Thousands don’t really get who I am, I’m misrepresented all over the place. There are people who understand the difference between me and Britney Spears, that there’s an attempt to do something with a bit of integrity and a certain spirit”.
There’s certainly a sense of spirit imbued in Gough’s music. As his sweetly shambolic live performances might suggest, Damon is part funny-man, part introspective thinker. Though known for his wonderfully comedic onstage turns, it seems as though fatherhood has brought out a softer, more reflective side to Gough.
“With Have You Fed The Fish, I was away from home, and that strange time was where those songs came from”, he explains. “I was concerned about my own mentality. Having kids is like a menopause; you end up questioning your own mortality. We just bought a caravan in Wales, and we’re taking my kids there and showing them the Castle in Conway as we drive past, just like my dad did with me. It just makes you realise, it’s a short life span we’ve been granted. Some of those concerns definitely come out in song-writing”.
Despite the mini-existential crisis, Gough recently took time out to debate a rather unlikely notion at the Oxford Union.
“I chose to oppose the motion “Are TV talent shows killing real music?” he recalls. “Paul McGuinness (U2 manager) was on the opposition, siding with the motion. I didn’t want to get involved initially, as I felt I didn’t have much to say other than blatantly slagging it off. Actually, it was really rewarding on a personal level, getting up and speaking to a room of learned people.
“By accident I was last to speak, so when I heard what everyone had said, I threw my notes away and said to them, ‘I have forged a living in this country by making music. When I signed my deal I was skint as a bollock, went down to London and came back with a giant cheque under my arm, like on the telly. I’m still here, so how can it be killing real music if that’s what I stand for?’.
“That (TV pop) genre inadvertently provides the target to kick against for kids…hopefully kids who grow up making real music will do it ‘cos they had this to fight against. Still, I can’t fault the genre for entertainment. The music is crass and boring, and people take it too seriously – but the auditions are bloody priceless!”

Badly Drawn Boy plays The Village on Sunday July 25 as part of the Bud Rising festival. Watch out for more interviews with Bud Rising stars in the next issue of Hot Press