Live: Babyshambles

Manchester Academy 1

7th September

8/10

The air is thick with sweat and hope at Manchester’s Academy 1. Few bands arouse such diverse feelings of anxiety and excitement in their fans, (see Guns N’ Roses’ recent live stints… actually, don’t), but Babyshambles are truly one of them, recently causing controversy after arriving onstage 90 minutes late for their album launch at Brixton.

Pete Doherty’s post-Libertines project has been a tumultuous affair, a freewheeling, schizophrenic trilby-wearing soiree whose moments of magic are sadly overlooked by Doherty’s personal life. Doherty’s off-stage antics can be as chaotic and as unpredictable as his live performances. In an interview with NME, the former Libertine declared that he would have to ‘lose a hand’ in order to quit his relationship with drugs, a confession which destabilized his apparent aversion to such substances in recent years and could even shatter the faith of his most loyal fans.

Fortunately for tonight’s crowd, most of the tension is deflated by an early entrance and a sprightly-looking Pete bounding across the stage and soaking up the admiration of his audience. The band waste no time in kicking off the proceedings with the rapturous ‘Delivery’ from their 2007 album Shotter’s Nation followed by their latest single ‘Nothing Comes to Nothing’. After 10 years, 3 studio albums and countless bootlegs, their setlist is a solid and eclectic showcase of classics and rarities interspersed by cuts from their new album ‘Sequel to the Prequel’, the fruits of which are mature and necessary ventures into new terrain for the band. ‘Picture Me in a Hospital’, written about bassist Drew McConnell’s car accident, manages to combine gut-wrenching lyricism with life-affirming pop music whilst the reggae-influenced ‘Dr. No’ excites the crowd into bopping and cheering along. Album track ‘Fall from Grace’ translated surprisingly well into the live medium, eschewing its country-and-western dynamics in favour of a hearty indie anthem.

Doherty injects (no pun intended) a great deal of showmanship into his performance. What he lacks in professionalism, he more than makes up for with an abundance of charming and charismatic manoeuvres, stage-diving, microphone-swinging and rodeo-dancing with fans to name but a few. A lesser performer would make falling into the drum kit look pathetic but he pulls it off with great finesse! There are times during the show where his raw performing style comes at the expense of the fans’ patience, such as inexplicably slinking offstage during live-favourite ‘Killamangiro’ which provokes bemusement and jeering from the crowd.

It is the vibe that he inspires that allows him to be messy, declaring at one point, “We’re in Manchester, it doesn’t matter how we play!”, and he’s absolutely right. However, this isn’t to say that the band don’t deliver a unique and thrilling live performance, from the melodic sing-along chorus of ‘Farmer’s Daughter’ to the dark and thunderous ‘The Man Who Came To Stay’. A great deal of credit has to go to his band mates Mick Whitnall and Drew McConnell whose talents are greatly underrated, no doubt overlooked by their enigmatic frontman, but are responsible for keeping the good ship Doherty afloat and producing the goods.

Whilst the outfit may never match the flair and originality of The Libertines, Babyshambles are unarguably a tremendous band in their own right. I defy anyone not to be impressed by the force and creativity of their standard closer ‘Fuck Forever’, a punk anthem up there with The Clash’s ‘I Fought the Law’ and The Jam’s ‘In the City’. The song’s chant of ‘They’ll never play this on the radio’ seems to represent the band’s necessity in today’s music scene where too many artists play it safe. The risks of a band like Babyshambles are obvious, but the rewards are completely worth it.