|
Pete Doherty rocks jazz fest
16/07/2008 19:08 - (SA)
Montreux - British rocker Pete Doherty cast off a troubled past of drug abuse, cancelled shows and prison spells to play a compelling set at the Montreux Jazz Festival on Tuesday night.
Coming on stage at the Miles Davis Hall after a medley of classic British numbers from Beatles songs to Joy Division and Oasis, Doherty mumbled "Bonsoir, Guten Abend" before his band Babyshambles launched into their first song, Delivery, to a packed and rapturous crowd.
Doherty, 29, first came to prominence in 2002 with his then-band the Libertines who won popular and critical acclaim for their punky vignettes of love and life in bohemian London.
But his ongoing battles with crack and heroin addiction have seen him fail to turn up at many concerts. On-stage performances have often been shambolic leading many fans to vow never to return.
He was briefly jailed in 2003 for breaking into fellow Libertine Carl Barat's flat and stealing items including a guitar and computer after being kicked out of the band.
Doherty formed his latest band, Babyshambles, in 2005, and shot to tabloid notoriety after starting a relationship with supermodel Kate Moss.
No sign of turmoil
Earlier this year he was jailed for 14 weeks at London's Wormwood Scrubs prison after a string of drugs and motoring offences, though he was released after serving just over one month.
But there was no sign of this turmoil at Montreux, where he and the band played a taut and focused set featuring hits off the two Babyshambles albums, Down in Albion and Shotter's Nation.
His lyrics make frequent allusion to his personal life, not least What Katy Did Next ("There's a lesson I have learned, if you play with fire you will get burned") and Put the Pipe Down ("They make you out to be a tearaway").
On Tuesday Doherty also served up terrace stompers like Kilamangiro which saw the usually sedate jazz crowd jump, chant and throw beer at the stage.
A notable highlight was the slower Albion, which marries the spirits of Indie icon Morrissey, punk filmmaker Derek Jarman and suburban poet John Betjeman in a vision of an England filled with "gin in tea cups, leaves on the lawn, violence at bus stops and the pale thin girl with eyes forlorn".
The gig ended on a riotous note, with Doherty spraying the front rows of the audience with champagne before dedicating the final song to a teenage fan who had recently died of cancer.
"This was his favourite," said Doherty before playing an early Babyshambles hit single - the typically provocative and raucous Fuck Forever.
|
South Africa
