Damon thinks a trilogy will do

BEATS: BADLY Drawn Boy is heading out on tour for the first time in three years.

The 41-year-old (aka Damon Gough) is celebrating the release of his new album, “Part 1 — Photographing Snowflakes”, the first part of trilogy “It’s What I’m Thinking”.

Penning the soundtrack to 2009 TV show “The Fattest Man in Britain” sparked a period of unprecedented creativity for Gough resulting in him crafting a wealth of new songs.

He decided the best way to give the songs the exposure they deserved was to release a trilogy of albums.

Gough — his stage name comes from the lead character of the TV show “Sam and his Magic Ball” — released 500 copies of his first single in 1997 after setting up his own label, Twisted Nerve Records, following a night out with friends in a Manchester bar.

He later released several well received EPs but mainstream success evaded him until 2000 when “The Hour of Bewilderbeast” was released.

This won Gough the Mercury Music Prize and catapulted him to the forefront of the North-West music scene. The same year, Q named Badly Drawn Boy in their list of 50 Bands To See Before You Die.

Further success was to come when he wrote the score for the film adaptation of Nick Hornby’s book “About A Boy”.

Third album “Have You Fed the Fish?” was not as well received but still led to a large scale American tour, while “One Plus One Is One”, released in 2004, was recorded in Stockport and documented Gough’s experience of losing a close friend.

Profits from the tour Gough undertook to promote “Born in the UK” in 2006 were donated to Oxfam.

Catch Badly Drawn Boy live at the Royal Northern College Of Music in Manchester on Thursday.