22 February 2009 (gig)
26 February 2009
Things that briefly fleet through your mind when attending a gig by the, one day to be infamous, Pete Doherty; Will he stumble around and fall over on stage? Will there be a string of illegible, tuneless, slurring that is masquerading as a set? Or indeed, will he turn up at all?! Well, the fact that he is now billed as 'Peter’ Doherty may be some clue as to what we were to expect at Shepherds Bush on Sunday night.
He walked coolly out on stage, full of confidence, wearing a smart black suit complete with black tie and wide brimmed black trilby, almost in the guise of some preacher from the Deep South about to address his congregation. He began acoustically with The Libertines’ sublime, 'MUSIC WHEN THE LIGHTS GO OUT’. What then followed was surprisingly very controlled and professional, no bum notes or dodgy chords, just a delightful blend of musical poetry delivered with an innocence and charm that Doherty just oozes, I don’t care what anyone else says!
Whether the crowd is ready for this more subdued version of Peter is somewhat debatable. People around us and others I have talked to since seemed to get a bit bored and longed for the old Libertines and Babyshambles classics. Of course when they were played, the crowd went loopy and sang every word back to him. Graham Coxon joined Doherty on stage to be part of the band for the night which also included Babyshambles bassist Drew McConnell. It all had a rather Jazz/Blues jam session feel to it, with even those wire tap brushy things being used on the drums at one point!
The new stuff from his forthcoming debut solo album 'GRACE/WASTELANDS' seems to show that Doherty is maybe heading in a different direction which I personally thought sounded refreshingly new and original. Do we miss the old Pete, off his face, stumbling around wailing out of tune???, well, maybe a little bit.
