In less important Live 8 news, Bob Geldof has defended Pete Doherty's shambolic performance at the London protest-fest last weekend. As previously reported, Doherty's duet with Elton John on a cover of T Rex's 'Children Of The Revolution' has been rated by most somewhere between 'rubbish' and 'embarrassing'. But Geldof has told the Daily Mirror: "I think Doherty and Elton were fantastic. I know there's been a lot of criticism about Pete forgetting his words and stumbling around the stage, but it was undoubtedly a very memorable performance."
Memorable indeed. Of course most have assumed that Doherty's glazed expression and bumbling movements on the Live 8 stage were because he was all drugged up. But Doherty has denied that, saying he was high on only "adrenalin and nerves". He told reporters: "It is the biggest crowd I have ever performed in front of. I enjoyed it, but everybody has been knocking me and that's put the dampers on it a bit. I didn't turn up late at all and I wasn't all over the place on drugs. I may have been slightly agitated, but I wasn't on drugs."
Doherty, of course, will soon head on a UK tour to promote the new Babyshambles single 'Fuck Forever'. It will be interesting to see how Doherty's gig promoters now go about selling his live shows. Babyshambles have a modest but devoted dedicated fan base of course, but have always relied on curious onlookers to buy tickets - people who aren't really interested in the band, but who want to see the 'will-he-show-or-won't-he' Pete Doherty freak show. With so many festival dates under their belts, most of those curious onlookers have now seen a Babyshambles set and, from what we can see, few of them are interested in repeating the experience (it's one thing seeing their shambolic show as part of a festival, but would you pay to specifically see it?). With the bad press around Doherty's Live 8 performance, it is hard to see how promoters will shift too many tickets to Babyshambles headlined shows. Unless, of course, that debut album does turn out to be something special.
But perhaps Pete doesn't care. After all, there are too many parties to attend to be worrying about how the hell you're going to market your band. Or at least there should be now that Tatler have put Doherty and girlfriend Kate Moss at the top of their 'most invited' list. The couple top the 'people to have at your party' list, which also includes Bob Geldof's daughter Peaches who came third and Hugh Grant and Jemima Khan who came seventh.