The first set sees Badly, alternating between wielding a guitar facing the audience and sitting behind a piano side-on the crowd, and backing band play latest album One Plus One in correct-track order. It's like listening to the long-player at home, but better obviously.  For one thing, there's the added bonus of hearing the ever-garrulous Gough, he's from the Lancashire moors town of Chorlton so a propensity to ramble is to be expected one would suppose, reveal inspirations behind his songs and even dedicate tracks to persons living and dead.

BDB pays his respects to cult American songsmith Elliott Smith before 'Fewer Words'.  Smith famously committed suicide last October in the home he shared with musician girlfriend Jennifer Chiba in Silverlake, Los Angeles.  He stabbed himself through his heart after Chiba, fed up with threats she'd heard so many times before, allegedly dared him to.  If only Smith had dated a Good Samaritan.  The American singer was 34 when he passed away, incidentally the same age as Badly Drawn Boy is now.

Rather closer to home, the Boy with the microphone speaks poignantly about the death of his grandfather aged, you guessed it, 34 at the Battle of Britain.  Too old to be conscripted, William H. Gough nevertheless volunteered to go to war.  The epitaph inscribed on his grave, "To live in the hearts of those he loved is not to die", forms the chorus of the elegiac 'Takes The Glory'.  There can be few more touching tributes.

It's not only people who receive recognition, places do too.  Gough waxes lyrical about hs brother's birthplace, Stockport and the place where One Plus One was recorded, before launching into the probably the first (and definitely last) ode to this unremarkable Cheshire county borough.  It's an instrumental.  Is that because a visit there leaves you lost for words?

Generally, Gough is fairly upbeat although he comes across as a tad anal and more than a mite bitter when he grumpily reveals 'The Year Of The Rat' is his "lowest charting single in five years”.  It came in at number 38.  Although he doesn't mention it, the significance of 1972 lies in it being the year in which his girlfriend Clare was born.

More typical is the Boy's playful address to the departing photographers who have been snapping away furiously for the duration of the first three songs.  "Where are you going?  Wait!  This is our best song," he mock-pleads.

The track in question is 'This Is That New Song'.  It's difficult to agree with Badly Drawn Boy, even if he is being slightly tongue in cheek.  That's not because TITNS is bad.  It is, in fact, excellent, like the rest of his set list.  Quality this uniform is rare indeed.

Despite his slightly dishevelled appearance, fading cowboy shirt and trademark Benny-from-Crossroads hat, Badly Drawn Boy is a perfectionist.  He'll start songs again from scratch if he's not happy with how they're proceeding.  And he's even bought along some potted sunflowers to bring a touch of colour to the concrete jungle that is the South Bank.  These are, however, superfluous, as his songs bring the light, even at night.

By watching and, indeed, listening to Gough play the piano, you can just about safely assume he's classically trained.  There's less doubt about the musical education of Chris Worsey and Oliver Heath on cello and violin respectively, even though they are given, like BDB himself, to puff on the occasional fag between tracks.  Worsey and Heath belong to an impressive backing band reminiscent of an Eastern European folk troupe in their joie-de-vivre approach to performing.

The same cannot be said of the Royal Festival Hall audience.  They're as lively as a well-behaved school assembly, although after some light-hearted cajoling from Boy and band, they start to get into the concert a bit more.  Well, they tap their feet and clap their hands rather more enthusiastically. Their slight apathy is not entirely all their own fault.  The venue, despite the excellent acoustics, doesn't exactly help.  After all, you can only move so much if you're sitting down.

To promote the release of One Plus One, Badly Drawn Boy played a succession of gigs at pubs up and down the country.  Catching one of these would assuredly have been a more convivial experience.  For a start, smokers in the audience would have been able to enjoy a cigarette as well as members of the band.
(4/5)

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