Here she opened for Doherty, on whose recordings she has appeared, since when he has returned the favour on two tracks on her new album, Room Seven and a Half.
Her beautiful, but fragile, voice was rather lost in the cavernous dance hall, not helped by a crowd that talked louder with each song.
The hype surrounding Peter Doherty masks a simple truth. He’s bloody good. For nearly two hours he held the stage – just him, his acoustic guitar and a bloke who spent the evening painting his portrait. There were also a couple of dancers, but, essentially, it was just Doherty playing the songs his fans love. They roared every line with him from start to finish. They gave him hats. He ended the night with two brassieres dangling from his mic stand and an assortment of T-shirts and heaven knows what else arrayed about him. He played tunes from his various projects, although his solo album, Grace/Wastelands was well represented, with Arcady, Sheepskin Tearaway and the single, Last of the English Roses, sounding particularly fine. But it was the Babyshambles material which got the best reaction. F*** Forever, with its autobiographical ‘I’m so clever, but clever ain’t wise’ and, particularly, Albion, adapted to include ‘We could go to Greenock, Edinburgh, Glasgow’ were highlights. He finished with the Libertines’ Time For Heroes, which, in the circumstances, seemed particularly apt.
Star rating: ****
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