This sense of, if not an entirely happy ending, then a far healthier one fills Brixton Academy with an extra level of meaning as the reunion bus rolls into London. “This is the all-new reliable, dependable, sober Babyshambles,” Doherty declares after a full-venue singalong of Albion. It seems as though he’s telling the truth, too. The band are tight; bassist Drew McConnell, a well-oiled machine having spent the last years playing arenas with Liam Gallagher, stalks the stage providing the more wired foil to Doherty’s wandering minstrel (complete with cane in hand). Tonight’s setlist, meanwhile, cements the fact that the ‘Shambles were always a lot more musically competent and exciting than either their name or the shadier ends of the tabloid press might have suggested.
