'I'm going to ruin my career tonight' ... Damon Gough aka Badly Drawn Boy. Photograph: Christopher Thomond for the Guardian
Badly Drawn Boy has ended his North American tour with an onstage meltdown. Damon Gough shouted, cursed and threatened his audience at a gig in Los Angeles last week, saying he would "never play live again". When the singer finished the concert, he told the crowd he was "ruining his career".
It should have been a great night for Gough. Two months after releasing the first album in his It's What I'm Thinking trilogy, the former Mercury prize winner was finishing a tour of the US and Canada, playing his second date at LA's Troubadour club. But when Gough walked on stage on Thursday night, not even his jaunty tea-cosy hat could cheer him up. The sound, he explained, was "swampy" and terrible. "I'm never playing here again," Gough said. "If I'm playing in LA, it won't be at the Troubadour."
From there it got worse. The sound problems persisted, according to the LA Weekly, and Gough became more angry. "I just can't do it!" he yelled. Before long, Gough wasn't just berating the sound engineer – he was screaming at the crowd. After an audience member told Gough he "sound[ed] great", the singer shouted: "Shut up, you stupid bitch! ... I'm going to ruin my career tonight! I don't give a fuck ... [I'm] ready to fight."
Gough stopped and started one song after another, calling his audience "LA twats". One verse into The Shining, Gough snapped, throwing his harmonica to the floor and yelling, "You cunts can shut the fuck up!". With that, he went for a cigarette, claiming he "might be back".
Most of the crowd didn't wait. Although Gough returned about 20 minutes later, about half the crowd had already left. "This is a fucking disaster," he said. "I just want the world to swallow me up ... Why tour America when nobody's buying the record?"
Switching from guitar to piano, Gough's mood shifted from rage to despair. "After tonight I'm never playing live again. Seriously, do you think I want to be here? ... This night has been a complete disaster for me." He dedicated one of his last songs, a cover of Madonna's Like a Virgin, to the fans who had remained. "I wish I could turn back the clock and start over," he said. "I should just open a shop somewhere."
Badly Drawn Boy's seventh studio album, Photographing Snowflakes, was released in October. It spent one week on the UK charts, at No 63.
Monday 20 December 2010
Badly Drawn Boy has onstage meltdown in LA | Music | guardian.co.uk
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