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Babyshambles, Roundhouse - music review

A generally coherent performance from Pete Doherty was followed by a curfew-busting encore
Nothing Comes to Nothing: Babyshambles' comeback single showed Pete Doherty at his most melodic and affecting
Andre Paine
13 March 2014

He's infamous for cancelling concerts but last night Pete Doherty refused to leave the stage – even after the sound was cut. He reluctantly departed at 11.30pm, having ignored the 11pm finish time and the lights that lit up the venue.

The curfew-busting encore was a chaotic finale to a generally coherent performance from Doherty, who still commands a devoted following. Perhaps his self-imposed exile in Paris has made fans' hearts grow fonder.

Last year's decent Babyshambles album, Sequel to the Prequel, seemed to have given Doherty a renewed sense of purpose. He appeared a mere 15 minutes late and was dapper in a three-piece suit for Delivery, which featured the familiar mumbling vocals, as well as the band's wayward harmonies and stroppy guitars.

Their comeback single, Nothing Comes to Nothing, was even better with Doherty at his most melodic and affecting.

As the music grew rowdier, he became more dishevelled and threw his trilby into the crowd, which exposed his greying, cropped hair.

Despite the signs of age creeping up on the 35-year-old singer, Doherty still dived from the stage, and he was capable of inducing mass pogoing during the jagged rhythms of French Dog Blues and Killamangiro. He also held a QPR scarf aloft with pride.

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However, there were spells when Doherty seemed to lose focus and drift off into languid jamming sessions.

He roused himself for the ragged Pipedown and bleary anthem F*** Forever, then returned for a surprise encore.

“That was a bit difficult because I lost my hat in the second song,” he said, an admission that his missing trilby may have deprived him of his mojo.

A sprawling Albion in a half-empty, lit-up venue was a bonus, though Doherty's standoff after the sound was cut became irritating.

Perhaps starting half an hour earlier is too obvious a solution for this mercurial musician.