On a Sunday night (or bath night, as it was called in 1970s Glasgow), it was a time for celebration and remembrance, as two of novelist Nick Hornby's favourite "sad bastard" acts, Belle and Sebastian and Badly Drawn Boy, delivered an all-time-desert-island Top 5 concert to an Adelaide audience that had scarcely glimpsed them in 25 years.
While sipping a Diet Coke, instead of his customary onstage OJ (because he hadn't slept in the week since switching hemispheres, and he needed the caffeine), Mercury Award-winning troubadour Damon Gough, better known as Badly Drawn Boy, recounted meeting Belle and Sebastian frontman Stuart Murdoch at a London premiere of Martin Scorsese's Bob Dylan doco 'No Direction Home' in 2005.They had a good chat, perhaps bonding over their recent prominent roles on soundtracks to screen adaptations of Nick Hornsby's 'High Fidelity' and 'About A Boy'. Damon thought they'd bump into each other again but didn't reunite until this tour, which is his first visit ever to Adelaide.
On a night (25 August) that celebrated Stuart's birthday (replete with cake, candles, and chubby legged childhood photographs), and remembered Damon's late older brother Simon, who shared this birthdate, there was a keen awareness of the passage of time, of things not always going to plan, and the need to cherish the moments where they do.
Badly Drawn Boy opened the night with a solo acoustic guitar. To say he doesn't tour often, or far and wide, is an understatement. Being away from home, he said, is never easy. In his absence, though, his music has found a home in the lives of so many.
The joy was palpable as he fingerpicked his way through classics from 'The Hour Of The Bewilderbeast', the 'About A Boy' Soundtrack, 'Born In The UK' and 'Have You Fed The Fish?'. You could see goosebumps and shivers ripple through the crowd as potentially a once-in-a-lifetime gig unfurled.
Damon is notorious for his onstage between-track banter, which was warm, comedic and endearing: he reflected on his pinnacle, recording albums in LA and hanging with The Strokes, being featured in ads for whitegoods, and not being able to maintain the success and output.
Aside from a minor looping redo on 'Once Around The Block', the set was an immaculate recreation of songs that had only ever existed in the stereos, computers and minds of Adelaide fans. He'd be welcomed back again next week, or whenever he likes. He closed with a tribute to his brother, a cover of The Strokes' 'Someday' on the piano.
A solo opening set was juxtaposed with Belle and Sebastian's Scottish soccer team worth of musicians: guitar, bass, drums, percussion, keys, violin, trumpet, organ and more.
For a band that has been perhaps unfairly characterised by Jack Black's record-store snob character in 'High Fidelity' as "sad bastard" music, or even just as headphone hipster tunes, Belle and Sebastian live are a joyous cacophony.
Like The Smiths, the lyrics are morose, the frontman is flamboyant, the musicianship is tight and accomplished; there's no pretension, though, or grumpiness. The band, like many of the fans, have successfully navigated the turmoil of youth, of stealing cigarettes and forming identity and friendships, arriving at a prosperous and well-earned middle age.
The band still resonates with the youth, though: Stuart spotted young girls in the front row who he joked weren't born when they toured last. These girls, along with a conga line worth of others who were camped out at the barrier, were invited onstage for a rollicking version of 'The Boy With The Arab Strap', 'To Be Myself Completely' and 'Judy And The Dream Horses'.
The band used a choose-your-own-adventure, sliding-doors numbering system to navigate the set list. They'd pick number one or number two, depending on the mood of the crowd. It seemed to be always number one, but Stuart, a fan of American baseball, may have been signalling number two to the catcher while we weren't watching sometimes.
Of course, tracks from classics 'If You're Feeling Sinister' and 'Arab Strap' were prominent, but so were newer offerings like 'Unnecessary Drama' from 2022's 'A Bit Of Previous', with Stevie Jackson's wailing mouth organ, where Sarah Martin and others on backing vocals reminded: this is your life, this is your only life.
If we only have one life, it needs to be spent ticking off bucket list items like this gig. We can only hope this will not be the only Belle and Sebastian & Badly Drawn Boy tour, but Adelaide danced as though it would be.
