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BELLE & SEBASTIAN
+ Badly Drawn Boy
@ Hindley St Music Hall, Adelaide,
25th August, 2024
(Live Review)

Review by Colin Reid

Photos by Elise De Simoni (@elisedphoto)

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Belle & Sebastian / Photo – @elisedphoto

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The down side of a combination of jetlag from an early morning flight from Europe and a concert that started at 7pm was that I didn’t get to this gig until Badly Drawn Boy, the stage name of Bolton raised singer songwriter Damon Gough, was into his fifth number.  As his support slot only ran to 11 songs, I knew that I’d missed out. He was really very good and the sizeable, near to full house, crowd were connecting both with his music and with his affable nature and genuinely funny and endearing banter. Each number was received with generous applause.

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Badly Drawn Boy / Photo – @elisedphoto

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With his trademark beanie covering his head Damon switched between guitars and keyboard and held the audience enthralled throughout his set.  He talked about Belle & Sebastian and how that he had met lead singer Stuart at a London premiere of a Bob Dylan bio pic some 15 years ago. How he thought that Stuart Murdoch, with his cool yet warm, funny and nicest nature, reminded him of his own brother and that they would run into each other often on the scene but in fact he hadn’t really caught up with him until this tour.  This led into Damon sharing that today was both Stuart’s and also would have been Damon’s brother’s birthday.  He then played ‘Minor Incident’ with its heartfelt and poignant lyric “And if the chance should happen that I never see you again, Just remember that I’ll always love you” drawing really big applause. Next was ‘Something To Talk About’ which is probably his most well-known number and it got the crowd appreciatively swaying and singing along. Switching to the piano bought woops of approval from some members of the crowd as they recognised the introduction on ‘Silent Sigh’ that completed three numbers in a row from the ‘About A Boy’ soundtrack.

Damon then dedicated ‘Born in The UK’ to Stuart for his birthday. He then made some more understated but deeply funny gags about the regret of missing Woodstock because his mum wouldn’t have him early and getting looping lessons from Ed Sheran before closing out his set on the keyboard with a wonderful version of The Strokes ‘Someday’ which had been one of his brother’s favourites. I can honestly say it was one of the loudest and longest send offs that I can remember a support act ever receiving, fans were clapping hands above heads long after the song finished.  The crowd knew just how special his performance had been.

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Belle & Sebastian / Photo – @elisedphoto

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In total contrast to the striped down, one man band of Badly Drawn Boy, Belle & Sebastian take to the take on mass.  There are nine of them and coupled with the number of instruments and keyboards it is almost like they need a bigger stage! “Happy Birthday” calls come from the crowd and Stuart acknowledges them with a smile and a tip of his hat. It is hard for me to image that Stuart wears anything but a hat and a striped top ever and he doesn’t disappoint tonight.

“The State I Am In” is the perfect way to start the gig with its simple beginnings featuring Stuart alone before ending with all the band in full swing. Immediately they move into another classic ‘I’m a Cuckoo’ with Stuart discarding his guitar and jacket to dance around the stage, weaving between fellow band members whenever there is a free space.  Live Belle & Sebastian are a joyous, positive life affirming thing to see and hear.

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Belle & Sebastian / Photo – @elisedphoto

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Whilst most of the crowd are perhaps around the 40-ish age bracket, mature but still hip dressed casually cool and in some cases are enjoying rounds of sparkling wine to demonstrate their refinement, there are also a number of much younger fans.  Stuart picks up on this as he apologises for not having been back to Adelaide for a long time. “It’s been 13 years” someone shouts from the audience “were you all here then” Stuart replies before pointing out some of the younger crowd members “you weren’t even born then!” follow by “I’m glad to have you here now, second and third generation fans who first listened to us on the tape deck of your grandpas car”.  He has an easy way about him; warm, generous and comfortable with the crowd.

The band are multi-instrumental often swapping between bass and lead guitars, keyboards percussion and the vocals are also shared out too with guitarist Stevie Jackson or violinist Sarah Martin sometimes taking lead relegating Stuart to either playing an additional set keyboards or simply dancing to songs he doesn’t sing.  The crowd vary between silently mouthing the words of song verses to fully joining in with the refrains whilst shifting our feet and swaying on mass whilst all the while a giant screen behind the band plays suitably cool images. Everyone is happy, there really is a feeling of genuine joy in the room.  Often songs are decided at the last moment, the band look at each other and a call of one or two is made, Stuart shares that they have alternative set lists and choose on the fly what they think is the mood of the audience “you’ll never know the ones you missed out on” he teases.

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Belle & Sebastian / Photo – @elisedphoto

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Midway into the set there is the birthday celebration. Stevie leads the way. It is heartfelt and genuine and it is clear that after almost 30 years together as a band there is a lot of love and respect between them. The screen behind them now switches to embarrassing photos of a much younger Stuart. The one of him in his teens on his British Rail pass and one as a toddler playing the piano stick in the mind.

‘Another Sunny Day’ is another great crowd favourite. I apologise to anyone near to me for inflicting my tone deaf and flat vocals onto. I couldn’t help it; it is the kind of song you have to sing and dance along to.  The crowd get their chance to join in with the band for real when they play ‘Boy with The Arab Strap’. “You’d better come up on stage and dance with us Adelaide, take your chance you don’t know how long before we are back again”. Many take the chance, how they fit and dance the way they do is beyond me; there wasn’t any room left on that stage to begin with!  Stuart has done his research. He talks about South Australia having good wine and no convict settlements. He jokes about stealing cigarettes growing up in Glasgow and that the band’s presence might be impacting SA’s pristine record on crime before letting on that he knows SA is the murder capital on Australia. It is all tongue in cheek and we love him more for knowing this stuff.

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Belle & Sebastian / Photo – @elisedphoto

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They close with ‘Judy and the Dream of Horses’.  It was a 1 or 2 song but thankfully someone who had been dancing on stage took the time to read the set list and made the call for the band. It is wonderful, I never thought I’d get to hear it live.

After a short break they return beers and wines, hopefully South Australian, in hand for the encore. Stuart asks for requests and while he is trying to pick from audience suggestions Stevie breaks into an impromptu snippet of The Beatles ‘Ticket to Ride’ and we are sing along. Like I said before it was joyous.  A song is picked, the trumpet player is asked if he is willing to play something he has never played before and they launch into ‘The Fox in the Snow’ before closing with ‘Me and the Major’.  If time was no object, then I’m sure they could have just kept pulling songs from the back catalogue all night, it is simply incredible that they can be such a tight unit across enough material that they could easily play for hours. In the end we waived them off happy and no one who was there was disappointed.

5 Stars

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Belle & Sebastian / Photo – @elisedphoto

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Check out Elise De Simoni’s (@elisedphoto) full gallery of this event HERE

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Belle & Sebastian / Photo – @elisedphoto

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AMNPLIFY – DB