Live Entertainment, part 1
Dec. 6th, 2004 02:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lprovenI am just in from an evening out with ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
sparktastic, which did not go at all as planned - but not all in a bad way.
We'd planned to meet for lunch but I was feeling very ropey this morning and we had to cancel that bit. The poor lass then waited for me outside Elephant & Castle Tube for well over an hour, while I dragged myself glacially into motion, although she only lives 5min walk away. And she didn't kill me or anything. What a gal.
The revised plan was a drink, dinner and a movie, but as our long-awaited bus up to Leicester Square arrived - well, actually, three of them - yes, really - she got a phonecall from her friendkaraadora with a rumour that Babyshambles were playing tonight. This is the new band of Peter Doherty, formerly of the Libertines, for whom Sparky and Kara have a certain, ah, fascination. Let's just say that I have heard a lot about this band of late.
So we cancelled the movie and instead made our way up to Archway and Nambucca, a music bar on Holloway Road. Sunday night is Open Mic night, so it was even a free gig. Shhhplendid.
When we got there, other Pete'n'Carl fans were assembling - with one exception, a photographer called Richard, all girls. An american called Brenda joined our little party but they greeted various other mates. This band is very fortunate; one strategically-leaked rumour and it's Dial-An-Audience, with fans assembling immediately from all over London.
There was, eventually, a support act, a little local band who I think were called the Holloways. They were powered more by enthusiasm than expertise but they were pretty good, with a strong local following for what they claimed was their first ever gig. Some of the crowd were singing along so I guess they've done some playing before, at least to their mates.
Then the other members of Babyshambles gradually appeared and started pottering around, as bands are wont to, with their equipment. But no Pete. (This act's fans are on astonishingly personal terms with them - it's quite common for them to go out drinking with the band and so on, and they real hardcore fans are on first-name terms with the lads of both the Libertines and this new spinoff. Indeed, they do more than just chat to them - there's some, ah, eye-opening slash fiction about, too, but enough of that.)
After a subjective few hours - I am still pretty wobbly on my feet at the moment and I was tiring fast - I saw a chap in front of me texting "hes just got here" (sic). I looked around and a taller-than-I-expected Doherty was lunging erratically through the back of the crowd, to adulatory response.
He looked a mess. Clearly off his face - I am told his substances of choice are Heroin and crack cocaine, in true rock-star quantities, and this is the reason he got chucked out of the Libs - his skin was waxen, his eyes deepset in wet, dark sockets, and his clean but shaggy black hair standing up in all directions as if a large electric current had just been removed. That bit might be from choice, mind you. He joined the rest of the band up at the front - there was no stage to speak of - rambled an introduction and then they began.
The band are damned good: tight, together and keen. It's not searingly original stuff - it's a classic lead guitar, bass and drums line-up, although with a female drummer - and I thought I heard shades of Shed Seven and the Seahorses in the lead guitar part, but it was good stuff. I had the usual odd feeling, which I know so well, of being pretty much the one person in the place who isn't intimately familiar with the material. I was stone-cold sober, too, as I always am these days, and there was also a distinct feeling of glasgow in the air, but I'm used to that, too, and it's no problem. I rather enjoy it.
I don't know much of either the Libs' or Babyshambles' stuff - I've heard a little on Xfm and Sparky's sent me a few MP3s. It's not at all bad - good solid emo indie rock. I wasn't struck with the rendition, though. I don't think I've ever seen a performer quite this wasted on stage before - in both senses of the word. He stumbled and reeled, he mumbled and slurred, and occasionally he started with amazement as if coming to and wondering where he was and who all these people were. There were problems with the mic, too, which didn't help, but the crowd were mad for it anyway. Also bear in mind that most of fans had been at a planned gig on Friday night already, but they lapped it up. There's a real cult of personality around this man.
It's the classic rock star thing - the tortured genius, prone to moodiness or depression, who finds the only solace in hard drugs and who gets so used to it that it's a permanent state of being - so the fans are used to it. (I heard some folks lightly discussing what he was on tonight; apparently, his mood indicated it was just H, so he was, they hoped, staying off the crack still. I confess to being somewhat boggled by this being an improvement for anyone, but hey, I guess just H is better than H and crack. 8-o )
He seems to me to be on the standard self-destructive spiral - he needs the gear to stay functioning, but the success and the atmosphere reinforces him so that he thinks it's OK. I would not sell this man life insurance.
Doherty left The Libertines because of the drugs use. The other lead singer/guitarist, Carl Barât*, continued touring for a while as The Libertines, but has recently announced that they're going to stop doing so. I believe they want Pete back, just as soon as he gets clean. From what I saw tonight, and have read recently, that's not going to happen any time soon. Babyshambles peform some Libs tracks as part of their sets and want to include some unused Libs material on their next album. Doherty has said that if the next single, Kilimanjaro (IIRC), charts in the top ten, he'll give up the stuff. I'll believe that when I see it. Troublingly though, it looks like Babyshambles might achieve more commercial success than the Libs did, who were on the edge of greatness and the big time when the split happened. (I'm going from what I'm told and have read - I didn't follow them myself.) It's all rather tragic - it seems both guys want to be back together, but Pete can't stay off the bad things.
So: a mixed bag. Good material, from what I could tell, with a fair variety, from bouncy acoustic-guitar led numbers to some real power chord stuff, from ballads to singalong numbers, but for me, much spoiled by the tragic condition of the lead singer. If he was straight, he could be utterly brilliant - but as he was, only a fan could really love this messy and flawed performance. I was, sadly, completely unsurprised to be told afterwards that actually tonight he was in pretty good nick and he often appears very much the worse for wear compared to this.
The band gigs endlessly; the girls left me at Oxford Circus to go off to another club where the band were going to play a second set later in the evening. I remember when I was 25 and had just moved to London and I could do this on a school night, too, and still make work the following day.
It wasn't bad. I'll get some more of their stuff and I'll certainly give another gig or two a go - especially at this kind of price! I'm told that whilst one night it might be a free gig, another it might be £25.
* Once again, Sparky is my sub-editrix. Cheers!
sparktastic, which did not go at all as planned - but not all in a bad way.We'd planned to meet for lunch but I was feeling very ropey this morning and we had to cancel that bit. The poor lass then waited for me outside Elephant & Castle Tube for well over an hour, while I dragged myself glacially into motion, although she only lives 5min walk away. And she didn't kill me or anything. What a gal.
The revised plan was a drink, dinner and a movie, but as our long-awaited bus up to Leicester Square arrived - well, actually, three of them - yes, really - she got a phonecall from her friend
karaadora with a rumour that Babyshambles were playing tonight. This is the new band of Peter Doherty, formerly of the Libertines, for whom Sparky and Kara have a certain, ah, fascination. Let's just say that I have heard a lot about this band of late.So we cancelled the movie and instead made our way up to Archway and Nambucca, a music bar on Holloway Road. Sunday night is Open Mic night, so it was even a free gig. Shhhplendid.
When we got there, other Pete'n'Carl fans were assembling - with one exception, a photographer called Richard, all girls. An american called Brenda joined our little party but they greeted various other mates. This band is very fortunate; one strategically-leaked rumour and it's Dial-An-Audience, with fans assembling immediately from all over London.
There was, eventually, a support act, a little local band who I think were called the Holloways. They were powered more by enthusiasm than expertise but they were pretty good, with a strong local following for what they claimed was their first ever gig. Some of the crowd were singing along so I guess they've done some playing before, at least to their mates.
Then the other members of Babyshambles gradually appeared and started pottering around, as bands are wont to, with their equipment. But no Pete. (This act's fans are on astonishingly personal terms with them - it's quite common for them to go out drinking with the band and so on, and they real hardcore fans are on first-name terms with the lads of both the Libertines and this new spinoff. Indeed, they do more than just chat to them - there's some, ah, eye-opening slash fiction about, too, but enough of that.)
After a subjective few hours - I am still pretty wobbly on my feet at the moment and I was tiring fast - I saw a chap in front of me texting "hes just got here" (sic). I looked around and a taller-than-I-expected Doherty was lunging erratically through the back of the crowd, to adulatory response.
He looked a mess. Clearly off his face - I am told his substances of choice are Heroin and crack cocaine, in true rock-star quantities, and this is the reason he got chucked out of the Libs - his skin was waxen, his eyes deepset in wet, dark sockets, and his clean but shaggy black hair standing up in all directions as if a large electric current had just been removed. That bit might be from choice, mind you. He joined the rest of the band up at the front - there was no stage to speak of - rambled an introduction and then they began.
The band are damned good: tight, together and keen. It's not searingly original stuff - it's a classic lead guitar, bass and drums line-up, although with a female drummer - and I thought I heard shades of Shed Seven and the Seahorses in the lead guitar part, but it was good stuff. I had the usual odd feeling, which I know so well, of being pretty much the one person in the place who isn't intimately familiar with the material. I was stone-cold sober, too, as I always am these days, and there was also a distinct feeling of glasgow in the air, but I'm used to that, too, and it's no problem. I rather enjoy it.
I don't know much of either the Libs' or Babyshambles' stuff - I've heard a little on Xfm and Sparky's sent me a few MP3s. It's not at all bad - good solid emo indie rock. I wasn't struck with the rendition, though. I don't think I've ever seen a performer quite this wasted on stage before - in both senses of the word. He stumbled and reeled, he mumbled and slurred, and occasionally he started with amazement as if coming to and wondering where he was and who all these people were. There were problems with the mic, too, which didn't help, but the crowd were mad for it anyway. Also bear in mind that most of fans had been at a planned gig on Friday night already, but they lapped it up. There's a real cult of personality around this man.
It's the classic rock star thing - the tortured genius, prone to moodiness or depression, who finds the only solace in hard drugs and who gets so used to it that it's a permanent state of being - so the fans are used to it. (I heard some folks lightly discussing what he was on tonight; apparently, his mood indicated it was just H, so he was, they hoped, staying off the crack still. I confess to being somewhat boggled by this being an improvement for anyone, but hey, I guess just H is better than H and crack. 8-o )
He seems to me to be on the standard self-destructive spiral - he needs the gear to stay functioning, but the success and the atmosphere reinforces him so that he thinks it's OK. I would not sell this man life insurance.
Doherty left The Libertines because of the drugs use. The other lead singer/guitarist, Carl Barât*, continued touring for a while as The Libertines, but has recently announced that they're going to stop doing so. I believe they want Pete back, just as soon as he gets clean. From what I saw tonight, and have read recently, that's not going to happen any time soon. Babyshambles peform some Libs tracks as part of their sets and want to include some unused Libs material on their next album. Doherty has said that if the next single, Kilimanjaro (IIRC), charts in the top ten, he'll give up the stuff. I'll believe that when I see it. Troublingly though, it looks like Babyshambles might achieve more commercial success than the Libs did, who were on the edge of greatness and the big time when the split happened. (I'm going from what I'm told and have read - I didn't follow them myself.) It's all rather tragic - it seems both guys want to be back together, but Pete can't stay off the bad things.
So: a mixed bag. Good material, from what I could tell, with a fair variety, from bouncy acoustic-guitar led numbers to some real power chord stuff, from ballads to singalong numbers, but for me, much spoiled by the tragic condition of the lead singer. If he was straight, he could be utterly brilliant - but as he was, only a fan could really love this messy and flawed performance. I was, sadly, completely unsurprised to be told afterwards that actually tonight he was in pretty good nick and he often appears very much the worse for wear compared to this.
The band gigs endlessly; the girls left me at Oxford Circus to go off to another club where the band were going to play a second set later in the evening. I remember when I was 25 and had just moved to London and I could do this on a school night, too, and still make work the following day.
It wasn't bad. I'll get some more of their stuff and I'll certainly give another gig or two a go - especially at this kind of price! I'm told that whilst one night it might be a free gig, another it might be £25.
* Once again, Sparky is my sub-editrix. Cheers!
