According to the LA Weekly, things started badly for Gough and got worse from there when his set was immediately greeted with sound problems, prompting the opening remark: “I’m never playing here again. If I’m playing in LA, it won’t be at the Troubadour.”
As the problems persisted, Gough then responded to some apparent encouragement from a member of the crowd by shouting: “Shut up, you stupid bitch! I’m going to ruin my career tonight! I don’t give a fuck [I’m] ready to fight.”
Things came to a head not long into ‘The Shining‘, when Gough is said to have branded his fans as ‘LA twats’, before leaving the stage for a cigarette. He returned 20 minutes later to find much of the audience had already departed. “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?”
The remainder of the gig was then played with an air of desperation, as Gough told the crowd he will ‘never play live again’, dedicating his closing number to those who had stuck around with: “I wish I could turn back the clock and start over. I should just open a shop somewhere.”
Badly Drawn Boy’s seventh studio album ‘It’s What I’m Thinking Part I – Photographing Snowflakes‘ was released in October.
Badly Drawn Boy presents…the art of audience banter: