Venue:
St Mary’s Church Stockport
Date: 20/09/2026
Quite a watch.
The audience:
As you’d expect. I’m 61.
It made me think..
I hope he’s going to be ok
He’s written some great songs, he actually has.
A night out with Badly Drawn Boy.
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Is he back on the sauce? I’ve have three or four of his albums but only seen him once (20+ years ago).
Brevity is the soul of wit, indeed: but it certainly doesn’t convey much – er – detail…
My knowledge of BDB more or less begins and ends with the fact he had serious issues with drink. A quick Google for this gig proves no more enlightening than this review. But it did tell me that he’s been sober ten years so if he has fallen off the wagon and is back to his chaotic ways, that’s very sad indeed and as a fellow one-day-at-a-time now-sober alcoholic I wish him well.
He’s not back on the sauce, no. Fräu Steady , who accompanied me and is really worried about him, has done her research and tells me he’s been sober since 2016 when he went into rehab.
It was late when I got home and I didn’t have the recall of all the songs. Suffice to say, it was a bit of a struggle at times, stop start, rambling. A lot of talk about his mum who he lost recently. I don’t really think he wanted to be there but the audience(including his daughter and her friends who were whooping their way, inappropriately I thought, through the set) did. He was quite short with the crowd a few times when they were encouraging him so a bit of a difficult watch at times.
I’d forgotten he played the piano and he plays it well. Silent Sigh was lovely with a bit of an audience singalong. A fair few other songs I recognised (Hour of the Bewilderbeast IS a very good album but I’m not good with the song titles) including Once Around the Block.
Should have mentioned, it was just him on stage and it was a lovely venue, part of a week long festival.
Does he still wear that huge woolly hat?
Yep! Looks exactly like he did last time I saw him about 23 years ago
I’ve seen him a couple of times live over the years, once he was spellbindingly good and the other time he was rambling, semi-incoherent, and dismissive verging on arrogant. I never heard enough in the later albums to make me want to go again, but I hope he’s OK as there is definitely talent in there.
How was the sound @Freddy Steady? We were at The Twilight Sad gig on the Saturday night & although very enjoyable, i’m not sure the venue is great for gigs
The sound was excellent, crystal clear but it was just him with his acoustic, electric and piano. Not all st the same time before anyone starts…
My thoughts echo @nick-l
I forget how many BDB songs I love. I hope he finds his equilibrium and can find some happiness.