Babyshambles
Bristol Academy (21.02.06)

So this gig finally happened after it was cancelled first time due to Pete's continued problems with drug possession and therefore getting himself arrested. There was a lot of talk before Babyshambles took to the stage that Pete wasn't going to show up for the gig, rumours where that he was on a train which was on the other side of the country, and believe me, at the time people were not ruling this rumour out.

I think it got to about 9:30/10pm when they eventually graced the stage as the complete 4 piece. With the previous gig's having no Patrick Walden on guitar, the crowd where not sure if they were going to be getting the treat of Pete on guitar or not. As it was the gig kicked off and the crowd were really going for it. From the start though my biggest problem with this gig were the number of really young kids there, and to be honest, it took me by surprise. It seemed that during all the songs that the majority of people just wanted to try and get to Pete and not actually listen to the music. Being on the front barrier dead-central meant that we took the most pain of people trying to get to the front.

This aside though, the music was pretty good with the obvious stand out tracks being 'Fuck Forever', 'Killamanjiro', 'Gang of Gin' and the more calmer song 'Albion'. I recall the set ending on 'Fuck Forever' and 'Killamangiro', and the crowd was absolutely heaving at this point, I think it was the first point during the gig where people were really getting into the music instead of trying to get to Pete. It was just a shame that it came at the end. Overall a decent performance, but you just don't get that closeness within the band that you got from The Libertines, but lets be honest, that was never going to happen again.


+ Review by Ryan

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