Pete Doherty - Gloucester Guildhall

Thursday 11th June 2009

This is a Crackerjack review of Pete Doherty. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.

Crackerjack rating: 6 / 10.

When the Guildhall announced they had done it again and pulled another big name out of the bag to perform at the Gloucester venue, there was no doubt it would be a sell out.

The hype that surrounds Pete Doherty, not only for his music but also his chequered personal life, has fans snapping up tickets just to catch a glimpse of him in person.

Maybe Doherty should take heed to the old adage though – don’t believe your own hype.

With a line-up of four support acts you would hope it would give Pete enough time to ready himself. Apparently not. The last support band left the stage at around 8.30pm and then we had a very long wait. It wasn’t until 10:45pm before we saw the star of the show.

I’m all for being fashionably late but there are limits.

We had all started to wonder if he would actually turn up so when he did finally arrive on stage a huge cheer erupted for the man dressed in his typically casual manner.

It was an entirely acoustic set, just one man and a guitar and a back-catalogue of Libertines and Babyshambles hits. Unfortunately he's not the most accomplished of players and could have done with cutting a few of the guitar solos.

His instantly recognisable voice was on form though and he strummed away for almost one-and-a-half hours pausing between songs to sign autographs and have a chat.

Apparently he had encountered lots of mad people in Gloucester but it was his visit to Stroud which was particularly memorable, where he encountered a resident who shouted “there’s Pete Doherty, let’s spit on him” – in his words, a true story, but he seemed to find it quite amusing.

He even sang Happy Birthday to Audrey who had called out from the floor, before realising they were actually called Torville, but I’m sure it will be something they will never forget none-the-less.

Taking requests for most of the evening, in the end he had to be told by his stage crew that it was time to go, so he gave us a couple more songs for the road, including Can’t Stand Me Now which put everyone on a high for the journey home.

After possibly the longest wait you will ever have to see a show, it could have been a disaster but the majority appeared to enjoy themselves and with Pete Doherty you have to be grateful he even turned up at all.

Jamie Ross

This is a Crackerjack review of Pete Doherty. Do you agree? Rate and review this event.