Well, there’s always a thin line between comedy and tragedy, and the life of Pete Doherty this year has been treading that line very precariously. With Doherty and his band Babyshambles due to play at the Astoria on Saturday night, somewhat bizarre reports from his gigs in Blackpool and Liverpool on Wednesday night.
According to the NME, at the former Doherty’s performance was all over the place - he frequently forgot his lines and didn’t really seem to know what was going on at all. His band mates got increasingly annoyed and eventually stormed off stage leaving Doherty all alone. He then performed some acoustic songs - including some Libertine tracks - before being escorted off stage by one of the stage crew. The whole band then returned on stage, but Doherty continued to be erratic and the band walked off again, this time followed by Pete. But that wasn’t the end of the proceedings - Pete returned again to perform some more songs, resisted attempts to remove him from the stage, then tore off his t-shirt, jumped into the crowd and started climbing the speakers! One audience member told the NME. “He was going mad. He didn’t have a clue what he was doing” (the whole episode is told by said audience member at http://www.nme.com).
Word is that Doherty’s Liverpool gig later that night, which he did without the rest of Babyshambles, was just as erratic. No word yet on how things went in Sheffield last night, or what is planned for Saturday’s Astoria gig. Presumably we can rest assured that, whatever it is, it won’t be dull.