First up were THE VAULTS who are a London based band who were chosen to occupy the slightly annoyed crowd and to be honest they didn’t do a bad job at all. Their similar sound to THE MACCABEES warmed me to the band quite quickly and their intense live performance was another box ticked. I think the lads did well especially considering they were supporting a man who a lot of people deem a legend.

Next up were NEW EDUCATION, a local band who managed to raise some eyebrows. Their simple style was effective instantly giving the audience songs to jump around to. Even though the band’s songs weren’t entirely definitive, some sounding very similar, they were still entertaining and the band’s charisma shone through giving a good lasting impression.

Then it was time for the man himself to take the stage, armed with nothing more than his acoustic guitar, a bottle of Morgan’s Spiced rum, a table and a green battered wingback armchair. The stage looked more like a living room and given that the venue was such a small one, this just added to the atmosphere. Initially I didn’t have any clues to what would happen tonight, would Pete even turn up was debatable considering that he didn’t turn up to a BABYSHAMBLES gig at the same venue a couple of years earlier because of court issues. But he did so and actually looked to be in very good health, the next thing to pontificate was what the ex-LIBERTINE would play, would it be a set consisting of his new album out in March of this year or a mixture of LIBERTINES, BABYSHAMBLES and solo material. It was the latter, a set filled of predominantly LIBERTINES and BABYSHAMBLES songs which stormed the crowd and made the night truly unforgettable.

The set seemed to be a very spontaneous experience with the only person knowing what came next being Pete. The entire night was extremely intimate with the crowd at the front only being a couple of feet away from Peter. Given the amount of press surrounding him some may have thought that he would be either shy or detached from the audience, however he was constantly involved with the audience, accepting fags off certain members and items of jewellery and clothing off others. In deference to his audience the lyrics to ‘Albion’ were changed to Newcastle-under-Lyme and Stoke in certain places, much to the delight of the crowd. ‘Albion’ happened to be one of the great moments of the night with most of the crowd singing along to every single word; other early appearances ‘Up The Bracket’ and opener ‘What A Waster’ were also brilliant. But when these moments of mass hysteria calmed down it was songs like ‘Lost Art Of Murder’ and ‘Music When The Lights Go Out’ which showed off Doherty’s true genius, he isn’t just that bloke who took drugs and went out with that model, Pete is making some of the most monumental songs that our current society has ever heard and you could argue that he isn’t appreciated as much as he should be.

It could also be argued that the BABYSHAMBLES’ songs of the set wouldn’t be able to stand up against the old LIBERTINES material however tracks like ‘Killamangiro’, ‘Albion’ and ‘Beg Steal or Borrow’ of BABYSHAMBLES were greeted with equal, if not greater, praise. But then again LIBERTINES tracks like ‘Up The Bracket’, ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’, ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’ and ‘Time For Heroes’ were anthemic.

To conclude the night with the ultimate cherry on top was ‘Fuck Forever’ the popular BABYSHAMBLES track which was attacked with a chorus from every mouth in the room; who else but Pete Doherty could have pulled the drama of the night together and finish with something so beautiful. When the night was all done and dusted I left with the thought that that was the greatest gig I had ever been to in my life and maybe it will remain to be for years to come.

Ratings:

Photography by Alexander Shaw(click here)