Peter Doherty - Blackheath Halls, Blackheath and Palace Halls, Watford, 18/3/2025 and 21/3/2025

  by Steev Burgess

published: 17 / 4 / 2025

intro

Steev Burgess enjoys two nights at the Blackheath Halls and the Palace Theatre on Peter Doherty's latest tour.

The unusual and unique concept of Peter Doherty's ‘Felt Better Alive’ tour was to visit as many of the towns listed in one of his oldest songs, ‘Albion’, (penned years before it's release with Babyshambles) with a few more small towns thrown in for good measure as the initial shows quickly sold out. "So come away, won't you come away We could go to... Deptford, Catford, Watford, Digbeth, Mansfield, Ahh, anywhere in Albion." Blackheath Halls, one if Britain's oldest arts centres dated 1895, was as close as they could get to Catford, so it was there that I headed to hear what promised to a rendition of both songs from the forthcoming solo album out in May and others drawn from the full breadth of his career. The first thing I noticed on admission was the wide range of imaginative and well#-designed merch, as well as original art by Doherty. The logistics of hospital to venue meant that I missed a support act that I like, Evan Williams, a man of Kent who I first encountered in the Libertines’ Albion Rooms recording studio, laying down a very fine track with great lyrics. I look forward to hearing his debut album in April. Performance poet Luke Wright was next to the stage and kept the crowd warm with his clever, dissolute rhyming tales, including ‘Burt Up Pub’, which seemed to be written entirely without any vowels but ‘U’ to hilarious effect. One of the great thing about Peter Doherty gigs is the increasing informality and inclusive nature of them that is truly unique. Two regular members of the Libertines road crew, Andrew Newlove and Gary Hodgkiss, are now in the band, with the former on second guitar and the latter adding trumpet. Peter's little daughter danced around at the back of the stage in her headphones, and Gladys the dog mooched around at will. A mannequin, painted in QPR blue and white hoops with one red and black "away sock" , stared out at the sold out hall. Doherty himself also appeared between acts at the corner of the stage to push his new fanzine and meet his admirers. This was all more acoustic than a Libertines show, with Peter wearing a harmonica around his neck, sometimes playing solo, and at other times with the various musicians including his wife, film maker and musician Katia De Vidas on keys. Lesser heard solo songs of the likes of ‘Suicide in the Trenches’, ‘Empty Room’, ‘Sheepskin Tearaway’ were performed alongside new numbers like ‘Ed Belly’ and ‘Dandy Hooligan’, which was dedicated to a member of the audience. The informality continued when young Lyla Turner, named after the Oasis song, who had made herself known to Doherty at the Deptford gig, was invited up to play guitar on ‘Music When the Lights Go Out’. Trampolene front man Jack Jones turned up to see the gig but ended up duetting on their Putre Madres bromance song, ‘Paradise is Under Your Nose’ and reading an entry from his published diary. Eleven Libertines songs made up the twenty-odd song show with support artists making an improvised band for a rollicking finale of ‘Don't Look Back into the Sun’. All in all, it was more like being witness to a party in a reheasal studio than a normal gig. An illness of an audience member brought things to an abrupt end, and so, off into the night and on to Watford. The Palace Theatre announced itself in unmissable huge lights and its foyer was like a cinema, with no ticket check until you were past the merch and bars, leading to a little "oversubscription" in the sold out auditorium, which was a lovely, cosy three level, velveteen theatre, commented favourably upon by Doherty during the gig. The night opened with Peter Doherty taking the stage, child in arms,to introduce the opening support, the charismatic Max Bianco, most easily described as being a cross between a Dylan and a Doherty, wearing his customary long coat and hat with his blend of folky skiffle honed in Hartlepool and brought to the Libertines attention in Margate. A man ripe for the current times, I feel. I n the spirit the tour, the informality continued with Andrew Newlove and Dead Freights’ Charles Bueller joining him on stage, underlining the the very real notion of the Libertines extended family, that slso had former Libs tour mate Gabi Garbutt in the audience. Strap Originals signing Evan Williams and his band were next up once Peter had sold a few more fanzines, with a solid performance of songs due for release this Spring. The ushers, perhaps unused to the raucous nature of some of the dreamers of Albion, were cool and seemed like friendly souls, especially as the gig started with a fire alarm set off during Peter's opening song and later as the seated crowd sought out friends and mingled in the aisles. Peter's set included fine new y singles from the soon to be released solo album, namely ‘Felt Better Alive’, and ‘Calvados’, a song rooted firmly in the soil off his adopted home of Normandy. Just as Bowie had written ‘Kooks’ for his son Zowie, Doherty penned ‘Pot of Gold Lullaby’ for his little daughter that brought laughter from the audience as he sang "....and if this lullaby is a hit, Daddy's gonna buy you loads of cool shit." The song I feel is also something of a waving goodbye to a troubled past. The real surprise of the night then, was the encore, where icons of that era, Drew McConnell (bass) and Adam Ficek (drums) joined Newlove and Doherty on stage for a mini Babyshambles reunion. They opened to an excited crowd, some young enough to have never seen the Shambles, playing the tour's principle guiding light, ‘Albion’. Gladys the dog wasn't going to miss out on the excitement and wandered the stage giving Doherty a slobbering kiss as they performed a clutch of Libertines staples, the singalong ‘Last of the English Roses’ and a defiant ‘Fuck Forever’, that saw the crowd absolutely erupt for a fitting finale. Doherty is a man who seems to really enjoy pleasing the crowd with an undimmed enthusiasm, happy to throw the spotlight on some of the lesser known who reach out. The crowd went home delighted to see that the real spirit of folk-rock-n-roll is alive and well, and living in Albion.

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