Babyshambles
have just put out there third studio album ‘Sequel
to The Prequel’ which also happens to be
their first studio album in 6 years thanks to
an unplanned hiatus due to a mad run of bad luck
within the band which consisted of visits to rehab,
bike accidents, court appearances and also Pete
Doherty doing his own solo stuff.
To coincide with the release of ‘Sequel
To The Prequel’ Babyshambles kicked off
a 20 date UK tour on the 4th September in Glasgow
and by the time the band hit the fourth date of
their UK tour in Manchester there was already
bad reports
of how the band only managed to play half the
set due to Pete Doherty being a bit worse for
wear slurring his words and trashing the bands
equipment before then trying to drive their tour
bus away dressed only in his boxers whilst it
was still connected to the venues electric supply
and all this left me with a bit of doubt for the
show I was attending tonight in Bristol.
I got to the venue moments before the one and
only support act, everyone’s favourite Bristol
based Glaswegian solo singer songwriter Lonely
Tourist took to the stage and from the start he
interacts with the crowd building up a friendly
bit of banter and this is pretty much how the
next 30minutes progress
with Paul Tierney as he interacts with the crowd
before each and every song that he plays and his
fast paced guitar playing and whitty story telling
warms the crowd up nicely as he plays through
the likes of ‘Trojan Box Calypso’,
‘The Ballad Of Paul Tierney’, ‘Sick
Of This Winter’, ‘Rattling’
and set closer ‘I Live Where You Are’
which all leave a lasting impression.
After Lonely Tourist left the stage I had a lot
of Babyshambles fans coming up to me asking if
they were still playing tonight as they had heard
they had pulled out, I reinsured the fans that
Babyshambles were defiantly playing and due on
at 9pm and in true Babyshambles style they took
the stage 15 minutes late and got a great reaction
from the busy but not sold out venue tonight.
The
whole of Babyshambles are great musicians but
from the start all eyes were on Pete as he took
to the stage in his usual smart looking suit but
it was only a few songs into the set when Pete
bent over and we realised that he wasn’t
as smart looking as we originally thought as the
arse creases on his trousers were cut out giving
everyone an interesting view from time to time.
Pete quickly greeted the crowd before the band
smashed straight into fan favourite ‘Delivery’
and the band were on top form smashing though
this classic song like they had never been away
from the live scene, and soon after they went
into latest single ‘Nothing Comes To Nothing’
which the crowd sang along to word for word.
As
the set progressed Pete Babyshambles played a
good selection of songs from their new album such
as ‘Fireman’, ‘Dr No’,
‘Farmer’s Daughter’, ‘Fall
from Grace’, ‘Penguins’ and
‘Picture Me In A Hospital’ and the
good thing was that their fans knew pretty much
every word for these songs as well as the classics.
The likes of ‘Seven Shades’, ‘Killamangiro’
and ‘Fuck Forever’ pleased the crowd
the most with the later of the three even featuring
a super fast guy run from the back of the stage
to do a stage dive and then crowd surf towards
the back of the venue, for the majority of the
night the
security had their work cut out as fans were climbing
poles to try and get to the top tier of the venue
which put themselves and others around them in
danger, Pete Doherty was having a party downing
around 7pints during the course of the show, smoking
numerous amounts of cigarettes , taking the head
sets off the security’s head and throwing
them into the middle of the crowd and by the end
of the set he had drunkenly stumbled into the
drum kick and nearly stumbled off the stage after
trying to stand on a speaker.
After
‘Fuck Forever’ Babyshambles left the
stage but Pete Doherty refused to leave and continued
to play for the next 40minutes and in that time
Pete got guitarist Mik Whitnall to come on and
jam with him for a bit and also got Mik Whitnall
and the drum roadie to drum for him and when he
had no drummer he spent the time himself drunkenly
smacking the drum kick with his microphone, over
the course of 40minutes Pete looked worse for
wear but put on a great unpredictable show as
he covered various songs from The Smiths, The
Beatles, Libertines and Oasis and the highlight
was hearing Pete cover ‘Can’t Stand
Me Now’ which had the crowd singing at the
top of their voice and also his cover of ‘Cigarettes
And Alcohol’ which he cheekily changed the
lyrics to “Crack cocaine and alcohol”.
Pete was having the time of his life tonight and
only left the stage when the plug was finally
pulled on him at 11.05pm when the venue lights
all got turned on and the sound got cut which
Pete responded by doing a one man protest of laying
on the floor until his band mates finally come
on to get him up minutes later.
Whenever you pay money to see a show that features
Pete Doherty you are always taking a big gamble
and will never really know what you are going
to get until the show is in motion and tonight
I can guarantee that the crowd left with a big
smile on their face after getting their money’s
worth and more as Babyshambles played a full set
before Pete treated the crowd to an 40minutes
unexpected solo unplugged show.
Lonley Tourist 4/5
Babyshambles 4/5
Review By Trigger
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