Saturday 7 September 2019

Shabambly

Somerset House. Babyshambles were playing. It was weird, the band squashed over to the left-hand side of the stage, performing listlessly in front of no definable backdrop, but under the dominating presence of a huge video screen. Peter Doherty invited a girl, dressed as a 2 x life size Stan Laurel, from the crowd and up on to the stage. He was remarkably humorous as she made her way to join him, entertaining the audience even further by exchanging witty banter with her for a good few minutes upon her arrival. I thought of how charming he was off of drugs. They then played 'F*ck Forever'-
Later and the Stan Laurel girl – now out of costume – and myself are in the "Babyvanbles", having been promised a tour of London. The driver of said van seems to be the actor Paul McGann. Peter Doherty seems in good health and spirits and I'm a little taken aback by his looming physical presence, which is intimidating without being threatening. My friend Jay Gee offers everyone some biscuits and I take one before declining, passing it to Paul in the front, the reasoning being I have 6 Empire Biscuits in my bag that I have yet to share-

The architecture we view is astounding, like no London as I recall it; this modern concoction of structures that twist, contort, fan and tower – often all at once! At the end Paul takes to reversing the van backwards into a cross junction, causing some associated traffic chaos-

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