Mystery gigs

According to rumours Peter is going to play tonight at 126 Commercial Road starting from 9 pm. Nobody has confirmed this gig yet but it seems likely to happen.

Besides, other rumours say that Peter is also playing tomorrow (Tuesday) once again at the Torriano pub, with the support of Italian singer Anto Dust. This is confirmed by Antonella herself in her Twitter page.

UPDATE: Peter will probably dedicate the Torriano gig to the memory of Jenn (see my previous post). This is his message to FDW:

Deepest sympathies from the heart and sincerest condolences to the family and many close friends of this clearly cherished soul. I feel somewhat patronizing suggesting this but don't know how else to mark my personal feelings. Tomorrow night at The Torriano I'm putting together another 'acoustic caberet' and suggest that we make the night a celebration / memorial for our lost friend.... thoughts please

Thanks a lot Peter, you rule!

For Jenn (AKA Coco Neon)

My frequentation of the FDW forum is so poor that I don't think I've ever spoken directly to her. But this beautiful girl who died a month ago was a huge Shambles fan and I'm sure I've cited bits from her posts about Peter or Babyshambles more than once. Writtlers who were much more in touch with her than I was and still remember her witty and funny messages are now asking Babybear to do something to remember this girl.

"As you know" Wolfman writes "we recently lost a girl who wasn't just a huge fan and a member of this forum, but a friend to many. She was restricted from attending gigs, but promoted and supported Babyshambles and Roses Kings Castles probably the most out of all of us. She made badges, lined-up a t-shirt range and has supported and contributed vastly. The thing is - the band does so so much more than any other would, and everybody here recognises that and is, I'm sure, eternally grateful. But I feel that the best way to honour Jenn would be to (insert idea here) with just a little support. Please don't think i'm taking the piss - I know it's cheeky to suggest, but it's not for my benefit or the benefit of anybody on here. Even if it was a line of dedication on the new album, that would mean so much to everybody who knew Jenn".

People are suggesting organising a gig in Cardiff (Jenn's hometown). That would be awesome. I join Wolfman and all the writtlers in this request. Babybear has seen the messages on FDW and he's just replied "Read and noted".

And now, waiting for some good news on the matter, and also to cheer everyone up, I suggest visiting Adrian's blog, updated with exciting photos and things from Moscow.

Peter writes to French Dog Writtles

Peter posted this message to FDW last night at 2 am:

I don't know. You give up drugs and walk headlong into a bar..an iron bar by the size of the lumplesplitskin on my bonce.

Apologies to anyone who had to witness me in tru old-school lashed-up and minging mode last night at the whatsit club in Moscow.. before it all goes blank (somewhere around wonderwall i'd wager] [dear god..] I do recall having a fine old time of it. Unusually, i wasn't even subject to my pre-gig wall-climbing and so all in all, despite myself, I had a blinding if breif little jaunt to Russia. Anyway, I was asked recently to write an article for a certain periodical about songs that influenced me in various ways. In case they edit it to fuckery I'm whacking it out on here for your amusement..

A Soldier's Son, by Peter Doherty

Funny thing about army barracks is.. the shit jokes. Contradictory, I know. Likewise, I remember hearing a lot of army related songs in those formative years. Mostly about Hitler's genitalia or lack of, the QM's stores and one perennial favourite, that went something along the lines of "left, right, left, right, left" , which I could hear belting out from the parade square even as I put on my first ever single purchase - Jive Bunny and The Master Mixers, 'Thats What I Like'. Hell seeing days. Your second to last enclaves of upwardly mobile underclass muttering disciplined salute-signalled obedience to the very last enclaves of bona fide [t]officer class ooray'Enries. The first song that made me smile behind the barbed wire and the blood pool from where one 'army brat summer activity' javelin instructor had carelessly thrust his spike through a pal of mine's head was Dereck B's 'Get Down'. It was the eighties, I was eight and the bloody tape recorder ate my tape, but not before I'd sat agog many an hour, listening repetitively to the premiere UK eighties hit pop artistes, Dereck B and Easy Q. They spoke of a long far off place called East London. The furthest east I'd been was Tottenham Court Road. They spoke of "Cuts that rumble like earthquakes", "Sticking sawn-offs up the noses of guards" and more intriguingly to my once innocent ears, some female acquaintance who had "two big things like basket balls and down below was like Niagra Falls". The tape died, but a vision was born.

To the bemusement and amusement of my school friends and probably my family, the twelve year old junkie rocker in training was an obsessive listener to The Chas and Dave Christmas Jamboree 12"s. These treasures were the North London duo's mass medleys of old school music hall songs. And I'm talking about songs, a lot of which had never even been recorded, some dating back to the Virginia Plantations. They were lyrical, often melancholy, littered with single entendres and always melodic in extremis. Even as my eyes were being drawn to the volumes of war poetry in a downstairs closet, I was mesmerised by 'Harry Was a Champion', 'A Big Fat Fly Flew by Fat Flo's Flat', 'When you go Down 'oppin' ', 'Down the Road There was a Bloomin' Riot' and countless ditties about old bald heads, sticks of celery, Chinese laundries and one that later partly popped up as a crucial verse in a popular Libertines song:"the other night I goes to a ball and they calls me Cinderella/ and upon my coat I wears a button hole and they calls me a tidy fella/ next to me comes old Mother Brown, pulling up her railway socks/ says to me come and have another dance, cos its ain't quite twelve o'clock/ so off we go, round and round, but there's gonna be some trouble I know/ cos I got no buttons on me trousers/ and me pins ain't none too strong/ hurry up Mrs Brown I can feel it coming down, and it won't take none too long".

Somewhere between the pillows and the skies, amidst the stark satanic thrills of adolescent whimsy, there's a second hand record shop. Lets say its in Nuneaton. Lets imagine a wonky fringed fifteen year old striding purposefully towards it with his paper round money in his hand. He carried the money openly to make the record shop owner think he was going to buy stuff, but the week before he'd seen a strange apparition, a call to arms even: some right bramah had paraded out of the same shop, wearing a t-shirt saying 'Shoplifters of the world unite'. Later that day the earth collided with the sun, all the clocks started going backwards, even though they were melted and I didn't watch that evening's edition of Noel's House Party. I sat in a room bedecked with QPR memorabilia and stolen library books, a chewed up Derek B tape and a periscope from an Iraqi tank the old man had brought back from the Gulf... and my life changed forever. 'I started something I couldn't finish' cranked into life and something divine occurred to me. Within six months I had officially taken up residence inside Smiths songs 'Well I Wonder', 'Jeanne', 'Real Around the Fountain', 'Nowhere Fast'. I think 'The boy with the thorn in his side' made me want to pick up the guitar. 'This Charming Man' quickly made me put it down again and then 'Rubber Ring' left me in two minds.

Moving on... Its summer 1997, I'm dossing at my Nan's flat London NW2 working at Willesden Green cemetery. By now I'm in possession of Benny, a crappy old Spanish guitar that is causing serious rifts in the domestic politics of Nanna Doll's gaff. My cousin Lee Cassidy had a flat in an opposite block. I sat gobsmacked in his kitchen before work one morning as he told me that he'd never listened to guitar music just dance, rave, jungle etc. "Hang on though Pete, hold tight...." and 'Fools Gold' by the Stone Roses blasted out across the room. Bloody Hell, what the fuck is this? I looked at my cousin and then at my feet. Oh, this must be dancing.

One saturday morning, that summer it was my day off and I wasn't going to sit around at Nanna's being told to shut that bloody row up. I go up West with my little guitar, I play 'Meet me on the Corner' by Lindisfarne. I get moved on. I mooch awhile, I do my hair in lots of shop windows, the quiff just won't stick, so what can you do? You go home with your latest 'purchases', one of which is a walkman that some careless lad left on a pub bench. On his blind spot. You come out of Kilburn tube because the barriers are being mended, take the 16 up Shoot-up Hill, all the way along to the trading estates where Children's World was and you fancy a walk, so you cut through Gladstone Park. There's an old rusting metal railway bridge and daubed upon it for as long as I can remember are the words Dollis Hill Mods with Mods crossed out and replaced with the word Skins and then Skins crossed out again and replaced with the word Mods. You have a look at the walkman. Quite flash. You put it on, asteroids destroy Neasden and all the bells in all the churches in London clang like no one's business. I bounce home, trying to walk like a black kid as 'Marcus Garvey' by The Skatalites blows my tiny mind. '007' by Desmond Decker 'Rudy a message to you' by Dandy Livingstone... I felt like Saint Peter just as I passed the junction of Dollis Hill Lane and Damascus Close.

Peabody Cottages, Bruce Grove, sometime in 2001. The rain was playing havoc with my attempts to finish my novel. What with the fact that my bedroom roof had just caved in. Aside from that, my girlfriend had ended another vicious row by running down Tottenham High Road in her neglige. The car that I'd bought off a young Dole-scrounging, heroin-addicted would-be superstar Jonny Borrell didn't fancy the trip (what with it being two hundred and seventy-five quids worth of absolute shite) and I stood shaking awhile, the radio alarm came on and a sports reporter told me that QPR had just lost at home in front of a record low crowd. The phone rang, my jobseekers allowance key worker was calling to remind me I needed to come in today as they had concluded their investigations into my false claims and I was to be signed off and issued with a demand to repay two years worth of benefit fraud. The phone rang again. It was B.T. They were cutting the line. I stubbed my toe on the sideboard and stumbled down the stairs, cracking my head on the record player and spinning it into life. 'Good Morning Heartache' sang Billy Holiday at slightly the wrong speed. I made two promises to myself. I'm gonna have that chord progression one day, just see if I don't. And I'm never buying a used car off Jonny Borrell again.

Times and dates are now a little vague, I really could bang on all day about the whens, the wheres and the whyfores of Immortal Technique's 'Fuck You', Arthur Lee and Love's 'Your Friend and Mine', 'I Wish' by Mick Whitnall, Wolfman's 'For Lovers', the theme tunes to Steptoe and Son, Fools and Horses, Rising Damp and Hancock's Half Hour, Donna Summer's 'Love to Love You Baby', 'Chaos in the Courtroom' by The Bandits, 'The Modern Age' by The Strokes, but instead I'm putting my flag in the ground and its staying there forever. If this article should get edited, think only this of me; there is a corner of some skanky Victorian gaol cell, that is forever Billy Bilo's and it was there that I squashed my ear up against the crack in a door and listened to 'Free as a Bird' by The Beatles coming out of the Screw's transistor radio from the landing below.

"Turn it up Guv" I begged.

He turned it down.

"Whats that Doherty?"

"Can you turn the radio up please Guv".

"Listen to him, will ya, he thinks he at the Camden Palace, this is Scrubs mate".

"It's called Koko's now you fat northern cunt" I mutterred under my breath. -

"No" came a voice from the next cell "its definitely Scrubs".

In fairness, the prison guard in question did turn the radio back up, but the song was ending, being followed on the Capital Gold playlist by 'Cool for Cats' by Squeeze. Well, you can't lose them all can you?

Москва

Good review of the Moscow gig taken from this site. The messy translation of course is from Google.

Moscow. August 28. INTERFAX.RU - When one of the popular social networking came with the announcement of the concert, Peter Doherty, the number of signatories, ie people who have declared intention of attending this event grew in her eyes. Peter Doherty, not the most famous and popular musician, successfully collected a large number of "applications" than, say cult Steven Patrick Morrissey, or Faith No More. However, in B1 Maximum club, which hosted the concert, there was no stampede. Look on the main enfant terrible of the British rock scene brought together young girls vzbudorzhaennye and colored boys, carefully tied thin ties and hats in style natyanuvshie Doherty, as well as a handful of "old" audience - thirty-year, to which Doherty is not so much a musician as hero his time, the legendary alcoholic and drug addict, the hero of the first bands of Sun and, finally, former boyfriend of Kate Moss.
While waiting out the hero in the evening on stage in the auditorium and the audience at a bar discussing the main theme - in a state whether Doherty would go on stage and play an hour, and then, as he got better. " Amusing state of general curiosity, little connected with music.

Surprisingly, Peter Doherty was able to go on stage. Along with a guitar and a bottle of vodka, which is securely installed on a table covered with a British flag ( "I have erected here this small obelisk"). Moreover, Peter Doherty was an excellent musician, although from the outset felt that he was not so clearly understands where he is and why. The question "why" was all the easier - Doherty faithfully execute the stated program, played under all sorts of acoustic "ballad without a clear melodic component. My friend, before the concert, heard only one song by Peter C. Doherty, and came to the concert because, in his own words, "wanted to see a guy who can not stand Victoria Beckham" surprise found that Doherty really knows how to sing and play guitar and not just fall into the lenses are all those reporters, Sun.
A couple of songs, cigarette, more cigarette, shot of vodka, another glass, and then a little longer and a little more. And so until there is nothing left. From the hall came flying onto the stage flowers, toys, pictures, hats, lighters, notes. Peter grinned, swayed on his feet, still drink, read the note he sang and played. An hour or two, more, more. In the second half of the concert, some songs seem to have forgotten that, though, Doherty did not upset. He noted with a joyful smile, that he had forgotten chords and began to play a new composition. The set list here was chaotic and настроенческим. Songs from the repertoire of The Libertines and The Babyshambles Peter interfered with their own, and then began to do to please the audience painfully familiar songs Beatles, Oasic. Touching sang Billy Jean "by Michael Jackson. The result - the perfect archetypal rock concert. Musician. Alcohol. Guitar. Black backdrop scenes and blue light.

Peter Doherty, the photos looked like a girl, Peter Doherty, style of dress which became the model for millions of imitators, in life was a great guy. And Russia's audience - the best for its level of sobriety. Where else raised at every stage of the glass will be met by such applause. In Doherty was unexpected drive, one that it is difficult to tell that by looking again at pictures or watching videos. Such unconditional generator razdolbayskogo great fun when you're not someone that something should be, but you should. Pete Doherty, the idol of young Hyster, in front of them broke all the modern system of youth attitude when going crazy, fun, and so not out of choice but of obligation. He simply did what he wanted. And the feeling that at times a little sad, but quickly took himself in hand.

He played more than two hours (!), Staggering, causing obvious concern guardians who tracked the movement of a drunken Pete on stage. Kills microphone stand, a couple of times he dropped his hat, finally said goodbye to the audience, generous gesture, sent in a beautiful hall Gibson. Protecting long caught the guitar.
From the concert left two sensations - donated by a sudden sense of freedom and the fact that Doherty is not a plastic doll, invented by spin-doctors and the press, but such. Such as it is. An excellent musician with a bad habit. We can only say thanks to the organizers, who nevertheless took the risk and cope with such a difficult task - to take them to Russia by Peter Doherty.

Setlist and notes by Willow:

Arcady

Don’t look back into the sun

Love you but you are green

Man who would be the king

Water Waster (oh, I love this song so much, should not write it like this)

Needle and the Damage done

Music when the lights go out

Fuck Forever

Last of the English Roses

What Katie Did

Ballad of Grimaldi (dedicated to great great grandmother, who was Russian, I suppose?)

For Lovers (with a note about the cruelty of Russian authorities and man called P.Wolfe)

Beg Steal or Borrow

Delivery

Back from the Dead

Hired Gun

Blowing Bu-uu-bbles

Death on the Stairs

Up the Bracket

Lady Don’t Fall Backwards

UnBiloTitled

Can’t Stand Me Now (with audience singing half of song)

Curfew warning

New Love Grows on Trees

Vertigo

Last Post On The Bugle (with slightly slower tempo)

Suicide in the Trenches

Albion (with Georgia (why?), Moscow and St. Petersburg among others)

Broken Love Song

I wanna be Adored - He hesitated playing it after the first verse, but the crowd chanted “keep going” so he smiled and did

Wonderwall – with us singing half the song a capella and him listening and smiling and nodding

Then Babyshambling started!!! I don’t even know some of the songs, but we had Jackson’s Billy Jean, Killamangiro (which is great but first two lines are a kind of brick in the face when at gigs), There She Goes, Oasis’s Hello which he wanted us to sing but we did not manage, so it was aborted, Palace of Bone, Twist and Shout (where he sang half the lines and we sang the others), Time for Heroes (he started to sing, then decided first to put on the red jacket that was thrown onstage and asked if to sing Salome, and went back to Time for Heroes).

Something about Carlos

Dee-jaying at Frequency Festival

Q magazine is out with a short interview with Barat. He repeats the old stories about Peter's incontinence etc and talks about the musical influence he's had from his dad. Thanks to Epiphany for writing it down:

From The Libertines to Dirty Pretty Things, freewheeling guitarist and singer-songwriter Carl Barat has found inspiration in a whole raft of bands, experiences and friends…
The influences of an artist can be found in a variety of locations: people, places, life-changing records. For the past two months, Q has teamed up with Orange to bring you This Is Who I Am - a series of intimate interviews with a number of heavyweight artists. Kasabian’s Tom Meighan and The Enemy’s Tom Clarke have previously explained how their music influences have impacted on their lives, and which people and relationships made them who they are today. In the third and final part of the series, it’s the turn of Carl Barat - former frontman with Dirty Pretty Things and one-time Libertine - to take the confessional…
Q: Who was the most influential person on your musical career?

C: I guess my dad. He introduced me to music. I remember he used to drive around in a Reliant Robin, which was kind of embarrassing in lafter life. But I remember sitting in the back and listening to The Jam and David Bowie, so I had that drummed into me from an early age.
Q: What were some of your earliest musical developments?

C: I remember watching Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged show and copying it on a guitar. That’s how I spent most evenings. Then I guess I went ‘strictly metal’ for a few years.
Q: How did that happen?

C: I went with the attitude. But then eventually, I think I got into rap metal - bands such as Rage Against The Machine. From that I went on to hip hop, acts like Cypress Hill. Then I got into some weird English stuff like Gun Shop, and then there was that band Sensor…
Q: So who was the person that introduced you to playing music yourself?

C: Well, my dad had a guitar, which I wasn’t allowed to touch, so that in itself was an incentive, really. I secretly learned how to play it. I got caught a couple of times and got a bit of a drubbing, but that was the inspiration to learn. Then the second you can play Sweet Child O’ Mine to your friends - and you see the look on their face - it just snowballs from there, really.
Q: How did you meet Pete Doherty?

C: Through his sister. She mentioned she had a brother and always spoke very highly of him. Then one day she said he was finally coming up to London. She had to go and do something and he was in her room in [university] halls, so could I go and look after him? I went in and the room just stank of urine and there was this guy sitting on the bed - he was much bigger than I expected - wearing this plastic jacket and I thought “Oh God, he’s incontinent.” It was a bit awkward.
Q: What happened next?

C: I just thought, “Jesus, I’ve been lumbered with babysitting.” But he did have wily, electric eyes and a really fascinating curiosity about everything. I found myself wanting to impress him, for some reason. It turned out the pee smell was from the river - the window was open, it was right on the Thames. That was an interesting start to an interesting friendship.
Q: Why did you not want to meet him?

C: I just couldn’t be bothered, really. But then when I did meet him, he was just like the kind of person I’d like to meet anyway. He cared about words and language, history, culture and poetry. He was quite an inspirational fellow.
Q: When did you decide to write music together?

C: Pete had the idea pretty much straight away. He harangued me for about a year to get on with it, but I wasn’t sure what I was doing. I thought I was going to be an actor. But then eventually we got together and spent a long time doing it.
Q: You both have wonderful romanticism about England or Albion, as you call it. Where did that idea come from?

C: Albion was just a word we used as an embodiment; it means England, it means the white cliffs of Dover… We just used that to symbolise the vessel, the journey that we embarked on, because after a while, especially after I left Brunel Univeristy, I realised that this was almost like our destiny. I had to heed the call and throw myself face first into it. As soon as I realised this, it was like, “About time, let’s do it.” That was when we came up with the idea of Albion meaning England, which is something we both hold dear to our hearts. And then the voyage began, really.
Q: Do you think that your love/hate relationship with Pete Doherty will ever go away?

C: I doubt it very much. It’s never going to turn into indifference. Certainly not on my part, anyway.

And of course, we've all seen this video showing Carlos playing two versions of himself, the yankee and the brit. Mind you, I like the yank more.

Carl was hanging in NY in the last days (I guess he came back last night), and before that he played a dj set at the Frequency Festival in Austria (see photo above). As for his participation to the Instigate Debate roundtable at the Reading Festival, it seems he won't be there. The debate will involve Stephen Street instead (and of course Jon McClure).

Torriano's last summer wine

Or maybe lager ha ha!

Place impossibly packed. People crawling on the ceiling. A few fucked-up hooligans on E (and H, and C, and of course B). Peter in good form, running through old repertoire and some covers, with the appropriate support from the legendary Mr Razzcocks on maracas, plus Dot Cotton, sorry Allison, the ever lovely Drew and Mikonos, and Joe Fox. Drew played a little set on his own, mainly Helsinki. It finished quite early.

Photos at Getty Images.

Gig tomorrow at the Torriano!!!

Ah-ha! Thanks to Babybear for this:
Just off the Batphone to Peter.
Show tomorrow, lovely, tiny venue.
I'll post full details shortly.
Moscow warm up.
At my (London) local so all's ticketyboo there!

(The Torriano Pub is at 71-73, Torriano Avenue, London, NW5 2SG)

And then off to Moscow!
Thursday 27 August 2009 at 9:00pm
Б1
ул. Орджоникидзе, 11Москва, Moscow
Russian Federation

I'm back in the USSR! You don't know how lucky you are boy!

Oh and one more thing: the Queen of Hoxton show has been scheduled on September 10 (not 9 as previously said).

Queen of Hoxton gig rescheduled

This just in from Facebook:

Dear all,

Thank you for you patience!

Peter Doherty's gig is rescheduled for 9th of September @ The Queen Of Hoxton.

If you still have your tickets then you can use them for the rescheduled show and tickets are still on sale as well!

More information about the support bands fallowing shortly...

Much love,

Time For Heroes

V festival part 2

I didn't attend the Staffordshire event, but it seems Peter's set was cut off. From NME.com:

Pete Doherty's headline set at V Festival Stafford's VMU Tent tonight (August 23) ended in chaotic style after the Babyshambles man had the sound turned off on him.

Despite coming onstage on time and playing a 17-song set, Doherty and his solo band had the sound pulled on them during their final song, a cover of The Beatles' version of 'Twist And Shout'. The band attempted to play the song with no electricity, but couldn't be heard above the crowd so gave up. Doherty, visibly perplexed by the decision to cut the music, then shrugged his shoulders and mouthed that he was sorry to the audience, before exiting the stage.

Some fans then proceeded to throw bottles and glasses at the stage for a full 15 minutes, chanting for Doherty to return as they did so and lambasting festival organisers for cutting the band’s sound.

Prior to the gigs end, Doherty and his solo touring band had played an eclectic set featuring material from his entire recorded output, along with a Talking Heads cover and a shout out to his favourite football team, Queens Park Rangers.

As is usual for his UK solo gigs, Doherty was joined at various times by musicians including producer Stephen Street on electric guitar, and Babyshambles members Drew McConnell (bass) and Adam Ficek (drums), along with a string section, keyboardist and two ballerinas. Dot Alison and former Bandits singer John Robinson also made appearances during the set.

After a singalong version of 'For Lovers', Doherty plugged in an electric guitar for a rendition of Babyshambles' 'Back From The Dead'.

"What time is it? It's time for a second wind," he said as he welcomed Alison onstage to sing 'Sheepskin Tearaway'. A seemingly unplanned version of Libertines classic 'What Katie Did' followed, with Doherty joined by just McConnell and Ficek, after which he played a selection of solo acoustic songs including 'Lost Art Of Murder' and a cover of Talking Heads' 'Psycho Killer'. Doherty also played 'Happy Birthday' to two friends, Georgina and Sally. The Babyshambles man also burst into a snippet of 'We Are QPR' before playing a full band version of 'Albion'.During 'Bollywood To Battersea', a fan threw a Libertines t-shirt onstage, which Doherty caught and hung over his mic stand, causing frenzied cheers from the audience.

Doherty instructed his band to stop the song midway through so he could launch into an amped up version of the set's penultimate song, 'Time For Heroes'.

Pete Doherty played: 'Last Of The English Roses', 'A Little Death Around The Eyes', 'Salome', 'For Lovers', 'Back From The Dead', 'Sheepskin Tearaway', 'What Katie Did', 'Lost Art Of Murder', 'Psycho Killer', 'What A Waster', 'I Am The Rain', 'Broken Love Song', 'We Are QPR', 'Albion', 'Bollywood To Battersea', 'Time For Heroes', 'Twist And Shout'.

Photos by Steve Baker

V Festival

Mixed reactions greeted Peter's appearance at the V Festival (in Chelmsford) last night. Frankly I didn't expect Miss Winehouse to bounce back on the scene like that. Many people really hated their duet (somebody said Time for Heroes was a proper massacre).

Anyway, that's what Jamie Fullerton writes in his blog:

"The rumour sprouted up in the hospitality area mid-afternoon yesterday (August 22). Pete Doherty and Amy Winehouse would definitely be collaborating at V Festival. Definitely. They would 100 percent definitely be making cameo appearances on Happy Mondays' Arena tent early evening set.
Really. Professional diligence, of course, had me traipsing over to the Arena to confirm my belief that this was as likely to happen as would be to see Liam and Noel Gallagher sharing the same dressing room.
As predicted, the only spectacle to be witnessed at the show was Shaun Ryder explaining that Bez had quit the band, meaning a maraca-free show, and this his teenage nephew was playing drums. You can't really knock the likes of 'God's Cop' and 'Step On', but really, it was hardly a festival 'moment'. The still-beehived jazz warbler failed to make an appearance with Mr Ryder and his depleted gang, but as you will no doubt have read on NME.COM already, she did find time to get on with The Specials to sing a couple of numbers, then use her lips for a very different purpose with Pete Doherty during his headline Virgin Media Union tent show.

The initial stumble on stage induced Beatle-fan cheers from the crowd, camera-phones flaring up to capture the appearance on wobble-vision. A few words in the Babyshambler's ear, a bit of a smooch, then off. And that was that – a bit of a bonus.
Until 'Time For Heroes', near the end of the show, when she ambled back on in a bit of a state, plonking herself down on Adam Ficek's drum riser, seemingly oblivious to the surely eardrum-stretching thump-thump going on a foot to her right.

Then up again, hugging Pete and pawing at him, urging him to play a guitar solo. "Guitar solo!" she exclaimed. He didn't play a guitar solo, eventually clasping his palm over her gob to muffle her then ship her off stage.
She looked pretty pissed, but then again, the rest of us were too. I guess the difference is if we YouTube search our own names the morning after we don't get the privilege of re-living it over 90 different angles. Thank the lord for small mercies. A festival moment! At V!".

This way to see the video.

"Aside from the impromptu appearance from the jazz-pop singer" NME.com writes "Doherty was joined onstage by Stephen Street, who produced his 'Grace/Wastelands' solo album, on guitar, plus Babyshambles duo Drew McConnell and Adam Ficek on bass and drums respectively. The set also saw appearances from singer Dot Allison to duet on 'Sheepskin Tearaway' and John Bandit, formerly of The Bandits, for 'I Am The Rain' – a song he co-wrote.Doherty also covered Talking Heads' 'Psycho Killer' and Chas & Dave's West Ham football anthem 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles'.

Pete Doherty (with a cameo from Amy Winehouse) played:

'Last Of The English Roses', 'A Little Death Around The Eyes', '1939 Returning', 'For Lovers', 'Back From The Dead', 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles', 'Arcady', 'Psycho Killer', 'What A waster', 'I Am The Rain', 'Sheepskin Tearaway', 'Palace Of Bone', 'Music When The Lights Go Out', 'Time For Heroes', 'Albion'.

And after all this, many congrats to The Ficek who's just become a dad!

Post-hols round-up

Scan by Zegia

So, we are back. And while waiting for Peter's headlining stint at V Festival, let's have a look at the last shenanigans:

Peter gave an interview at the Lokerse Festival in Belgium (part 1 and part 2)

And another video-interview was shot in Colmar, France (here)

Peter is also in the new NME, interviewed by Jamie Fullerton. He doesn't seem to take the Libertines reunion too seriously though... (click on the image above to read the article, and thanks to Zegia for the scan)

Following the interview, a horde of articles have been published worldwide in the last 2 days, all screaming "DOHERTY WILL REFORM THE LIBERTINES WITHOUT BARAT!!!". Very funny, Bilo, but also predictable.

Of course, Biggles wasn't available for comment.

Adam spoke instead, not about Libertines but about Shambles and other things. To the Daily Star.

Going back to serious things, tickets for Babyshambles' December tour go on sale at 9am tomorrow, Friday 21st August.

Their tour dates are as follows:

• Thu 10 December O2 Academy, Sheffield
• Sat 12 December Cardiff University SU, Cardiff
• Sun 13 December The Pavilion, Bath
• Mon 14 December O2 Academy, Liverpool
• Tue 15 December Guildhall, Southampton
• Sat 19 December O2 Academy, Birmingham
• Sun 20 December Rock City, Nottingham

Holidays

Breck Road Lovers is on holiday where the skies are blue and the sea is deep and internet is hardly available.

We'll be back next week.

Carl for Jack

Daniels, of course.

"Carl Barat, Brett Anderson and Jon McClure of Reverend And The Makers are to perform at a special gig celebrating the birthday of Jack Daniel's.
The trio will each perform a number of their own tracks as well as covers selected for the occasion at the exclusive Jack Daniel's Birthday JD Set, which will be held at London's Village Underground on Thursday October 8.
Carl will premiere new, unheard material and all three will perform a special finale together.
Brett said: "It's going to be fantastic playing on the same stage as with Carl and John and all the other great musicians."
The Birthday JD Set is the culmination of a month of celebrations that take place throughout September to celebrate the drink and its founder.
Founder of the Tennessee whiskey Jasper Newton "Jack" Daniel was born in September 1850, although no one knows the exact date because the birth records were destroyed in a courthouse fire.
So at the Jack Daniel's distillery they celebrate on all 30 days to honour the man who created the drink, culminating in an almighty gig of rock royalty.
An intimate audience of just 400 music fans will attend the party.
Tickets are available www.thejdset.co.uk".

Source: Virginmedia.com

Phew

Peter has just left the Cheltenham Magistrates Court where he attended a hearing related to his arrest in Gloucester of last June. Peter has been ordered to go to Cheltenham Crown Court on October 2 to enter official pleas for a drink-driving offence.

From NME.com: "The Babyshambles frontman was appearing at Cheltenham Magistrates Court this morning (August 11) for committal proceedings for the case. He was arrested on June 11 after being stopped for driving erratically in Gloucester in the early hours.Doherty had admitted to drug possession and driving without a license or insurance, but denied dangerous driving. Judge Joti Boparai said that as well as entering a plea for the drink-driving charge on October 2, a provisional trial date for the case would be decided then. The singer and guitarist may also be sentenced for other charges. Doherty confessed to an unrelated driving offence at today's hearing. He was fined a total of £515 for failing to inform police of who was driving the Jaguar he was in when an offence was committed last November. His curfew, which had restricted him from leaving his Wiltshire home between 7pm (BST) and 7am was lifted. However, under new rules he is now not permitted to travel in the front seat of any vehicle".

Phew. Now we can think of going to V Festival and stuff. And for now...

GIGS OF THE WEEK

Babyshambles a Colmar

Saturday 15 August 2009 at 8:00pm

Théâtre de Plein Air
Avenue de la Foire aux Vins, Colmar, France

Plus! (Warning: this is still to be confirmed!!!)

"PETE DOHERTY BABYSHAMBLES, THE SKUZZIES, ALAN WASS LIPSTICK MELODIES, THE GENERALS ARK OF THE COVENANT BAND WILL BE APPEARING AT THE WOODBERRY TAVERN. 618 SEVEN SISTERS ROAD. 16TH AUGUST £20 AT THE DOOR".

PETE DOHERTY IN BERLIN

Short interview from The Bild.
Drugs? Marvin Gaye.
Scandals? My mum.
Peter? My dad.
The Libertines? Carl.

Peter's latest shenanigans

In Berlin

Peter landed in Berlin on Friday afternoon, with his little family and usual crew in tow. He looked fine, if a bit "overweight". He played at the Templehof Festival late at night (see my previous post) with a "beautiful acoustic gig, including solo, libertines and babyshambles songs" (Cris).

Setlist by Christian Ihle, who also wrote an interesting review (in German) in his blog:

For Lovers* Arcady* Back From The Dead* Hired Gun (Cover of Lefthand)* Do not Look Back Into The Sun* Music When The Lights Go Out* Killamangiro* What Katie Did* Delivery* The Last Of The English Roses* Lady Do not Fall Backwards* Palace Of Bone* I Love You But You're Green* Time For Heroes* What A Waste* Can not Stand Me Now* 1939 Returning* The Man Who Would Be King * Salome *

Other reviews from the German press are generally quite positive.

Last night Peter played at the "Le Nuits Secretes" festival in France. Niki spotted him running to a fun fair earlier in the afternoon: "He later said the peeps from the fair were thieves cause he didnt manage to win anything". Anyway, the gig was cool. "Peter looked fine" Niki writes "I loved the setlist, the crowd was pretty good (there was a bloody moshpit on Fuck Forever lol, I liked to see everyone go a little madder than usual despite the fact it was an acoustic set). So yes, a very nice gig".

Setlist: For Lovers / Can’t stand me now/ Fuck Forever / Delivery / Beg Steal or Borrow / What a waster / LOTER / Salome / Sheepskin tearaway / New Love grows on Trees / Lady don’t you fall backwards / Love Rain o’er me / The man who would be king / Music when the lights go out / Needle and Damage done / Mockin Bird / Breck Road Lover/ Time for Heroes.

Videos:

Bollywood to Battersea

What Katie did

Hired gun + Back from the dead

Forever blowing bubbles

Peter Doherty - Music when the lights go out

Last night in Berlin. A very good quality video, thanks to Elajonesy.

Jamie Fullerton blogs on Peter's new videos

From NME blogs:

Long before Little Boots started filling YouTube with bedroom melodies, a certain Mr. Peter Doherty was regularly hurling up home vids of his bizarre existence for all to see, comment on and rate.
Blair Witch-shaky, cobbled together by quick afternoon Mac edits in tru 'Shamblin' ramshackle style, they offered an intriguing insight into Pete's Lord-of-the-manor life in his Wiltshire pile.
Most were sketchy beginnings of new acoustic songs accompanied by images of his army of kittens, various model types lounging around his bedroom quarters in states of advance undress and (my favourite) an amateur sleuth drama starring Pete and two foreign models on a quest to recover a chicken-shaped glass bong.
Sadly, Pete recently dragged them all into the desktop trash bin, leaving his YouTube account as barren the crowd at Keane's T In The Park headline slot.
But yesterday (August 6) and today (7) Pete rebooted, posting up nine new efforts. Kittens chasing lamp-shades, a topless Pete strumming away on the battered acoustic, zooming in on scrawled-on diary entries – we're getting a looksy through Pete's key hole again.
Aside from old Libs song 'What Katy Did' all feature versions of new efforts – seemingly titled 'Raise The Kaboose', 'Cheap Shot' and 'Stranger In My Own Skin'. We're hardly dealing with a 'Freewheeling Bob Dylan'-matching collection of ditties yet, but as newly-birthed sketches of new Pete material, they're worth a listen.

Jamie also posted this message to FDW: "Hi all, please spare me the NME cynicism for a second - heads up for a new interview coming in the mag soon, just spoke to Peter on the phone from Belgium, interview going in V Festival preview issue with new pics we're hopefully nailing this weekend - he sounded in tip top form, easily one of my favourite Peter interviews, keep an eye out for it later this month. Cheers. JF.x"

Peter on a youtube roll

The man woke up early today, and started uploading home made videos on his youtube channel.

The quality of the clips is still a bit questionable but it's great to see this sudden surge of creativity. Keep checking the channel cause it looks like it's going to be a busy day in Wiltshire.

Peter in Belgium

Rave reviews are following Peter's appearance at the Lorekse Festival in Belgium last night. "Peter played for half an hour" says Knack.be "with the best from his last album (Salome and the great The Last of the English Roses) Babyshambles (The Lost Art of Murder) and the Libertines (Music When The Lights Go Out and the wonderful Can't Stand Me Now) showing what a gifted songwriter he is".

"I thought it was a very nice little festival" Niki wrote to FDW "Crowd was pretty relaxed, you could move easily, there was loads of space at the front, and the audience was reacting pretty well. Pete looked in great form and joked a bit".

Two Neil Young citations ("Out on a Weekend" and "The Needle and Damage Done") and funny banter with the crowd ("Everyone who has drugs on them, please think twice about using them. Leave them to me, and I'll dispose of them properly") completed the show.

Niki also shot a handful of beautiful videos (follow the link to his youtube channel).

Setlist by Dillyboys:

Up the Bracket, Tell the King, East of Eden, Dilly Boys, Fuck Forever, Delivery, Killamangiro, Music when the lights go out, Can't stand me now, Suicide in the Trenches, What a Waster, Time for Heroes, A cover of The Specials, Don't look back into the sun, Arcady, Ballad of Grimaldi, Last of the english roses, 1939 Returning, Love reign over me, Beg Steal or Borrow, Lost art of Murder, Salome, Needle and Damage done.

Summer gossip

We need a bit of relax every now and then don't we.

1. Peter is in Brussels, waiting to play at the Lokersee Festival. Babybear wrote: "What A Lovely Day It Is Here In Brussels! Lovely weather". Peter is on at 23.45, after The Hickey Underworld and Manic Street Preachers. For the record, the DJ set will be by The Hindu Nights, i.e. Paul Gallagher, Phil Smith... and guests (OMG reunionz innit).

2. The Ficek is launching his new EP tonight in a secret location (people got texted, so no way I can tell you). "Tonight is accoustic," he twittered "so no amps etc, if you come make sure you shut your mouths or people will get angry and hurt you probably". Support is Edward Elgar. Afterparty at Ogidans. "be there from 10.30-ish,voluntary contributions if your not banded up. will play a few ding dongs".

3. The lovely Drusillo (it's been a while, love, innit) did launch something else last Sunday, i.e. (hear hear) Lee Mavers' borfday party! Funktastic night with many guests like Carlos Baratos, Joe Lean and the wonderful Ladyhawke. They all played at some point (videos will surface one day).

4. Speaking of Carlito, it seems the Glasgow gig of 8 August is not going to happen because Barat was not even booked in the first place.

Somebody pulled a General then.

Kidding.

Innit.

Gigsters

PETER

• Tuesday Aug 4 - Lokerse Feesten LOKEREN, Belgium - h. 23.45
• Friday Aug 7 - Berlinfestival, Berlin, Germany - Main Stage, from 00.30 to 1.30
• Saturday Aug 8 - Les Nuits Secretes at Centre-Ville, Aulnoye Aymeries, France - La Grande Scene, h. 21.00

Warning: Carl Barat's gig at the Queen Margaret Union in Glasgow for The Sound of Summer (scheduled on Aug 8) is very very very likely to have been cancelled (see also QMU's site).

In the meantime, thanks to Tor Johan for signalling this photo gallery showing Peter hanging around by the fire after his gig at Storas in Norway (last Saturday).

Peter Spielberg is back!

Apparently the man has re-opened his youtube channel, re-christened it "1waytikt2tickletown" and put up his first effort. Still a bit on the dark (and short) side but impressive. Enjoy!