Damon Michael Gough (born 2 October 1969), known by the stage name Badly Drawn Boy, is an English indie singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist.
Gough chose his stage name from a character in the show Sam and his Magic Ball, which he saw on TV at a party in Trafford, Greater Manchester, in 1995. Before he thought of using this name he made some business cards, each one unique, with a printed picture of a drawing by his nephew and a small collage by Gough.
A chance meeting with Andy Votel at the Generation X bar in Manchester, where Gough's friends Scott Abraham and Damon Hayhurst were contributing to an exhibition by the Space Monkey Clothing Company and Votel was DJing, led to the foundation of Twisted Nerve Records.
In 2002, Q magazine named Badly Drawn Boy in their list of the "50 Bands to See Before You Die", although this was as part of a sub-list of "5 Bands That Could Go Either Way" on account of Gough's tendency to talk and tell stories for extended periods in concert rather than play songs.
Links to Peel
Peel initially was fond of Badly Drawn Boy's work in 1997 and would play his music until the end of the 90's.
Listeners voted several tracks of Badly Drawn Boy's material in the 1998 and 1999 Festive Fifties.
In 1999, Peel mentioned on his show that he tried to book Badly Drawn Boy to do a session for the show, but the artist failed to do it, making it one of the Sessions That Never Happened.
Festive Fifty Entries
- 1998 Festive Fifty: I Need A Sign #14
- 1999 Festive Fifty: Once Around The Block #41
Shows Played
- 1997
- 13 November 1997: Shake The Rollercoaster (7" EP - EP1) Twisted Nerve
- 15 January 1998: No Point In Living (7 inch - EP1) Twisted Nerve
- 19 March 1998: I Love You All (7" - EP2) Twisted Nerve
- 19 August 1998 (& Unkle): Nursery Rhyme/Breather (LP - Psyence Fiction) Mo'Wax
- 22 September 1998: Jewel Thief (EP - All Oar Nothing) Twisted Nerve
- 30 September 1998 (BFBS): 'Jewel Thief (Compilation 10"-All Oar Nothing)' (Twisted Nerve)
- 13 October 1998: I Need A Sign (EP - EP3) Twisted Nerve
- 14 October 1998: My Friend Cubilas (7” - EP3) Twisted Nerve
- 22 October 1998: I Need A Sign (EP - EP3) Twisted Nerve
- 25 October 1998 (BFBS): 'I Need A Sign (7"-EP3)' (Twisted Nerve) (JP: 'Seems somehow incomplete, but that doesn't bother me a great deal....such a nice tune.')
- 04 November 1998: 'I Need A Sign (CDS-EP3)' (Twisted Nerve)
- 22 December 1998: 'Road Movie (Maxi CD-EP3)' (Twisted Nerve/XL Recordings)
- 29 December 1998: 'I Need A Sign (EP-EP3)' (Twisted Nerve) FF #14
- 1999
- 03 January 1999 (BFBS): 'Road Movie (7")' (Twisted Nerve / XL Recordings)
- 05 January 1999 (& Doves): Roadmovie (7") Twisted Nerve
- 22 April 1999 (Radio Eins): Outside Is A Light (EP - It Came From The Ground) Twisted Nerve
- 21 July 1999: 'Once Around The Block (CDS)' (Twisted Nerve)
- 22 July 1999 (Radio Eins): Once Around The Block (CDS) Twisted Nerve
- 01 December 1999: 'Skidding Out of Control (Compilation 10"-Modern Music For Motorcycles)' (Twisted Nerve) (JP: 'For those people who've been in touch with us to say, "Whatever happened to that Badly Drawn Boy session that you were going to have?", well, he doesn't seem to be prepared to do anything for the programme, which is disappointing, but there you go, we've tried, so we've kind of given up on that now, but we still play the records.')
- 23 December 1999: 'Once Around The Block (CD single)' (Twisted Nerve) FF #41 (JP: 'Well, he won't do stuff for the programme, but we stll play the records and you vote for them.')
