{"id":754673,"date":"2026-08-30T15:12:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T15:12:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/754673\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T15:12:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T15:12:14","slug":"pete-doherty-tells-us-about-the-babyshambles-reunion-the-libertines-next-album-and-plans-to-open-a-second-hand-shop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/754673\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Doherty tells us about the Babyshambles reunion, The Libertines’ next album, and plans to open a second-hand shop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pete Doherty<\/a> has spoken to NME about the success of the Babyshambles<\/a> reunion, as well as plans afoot for a new album from The Libertines<\/a> and his dream of opening a second-hand shop.<\/p>\n

After reuniting for their first shows together in over a decade last year <\/a>and since the sad death of original guitarist Patrick Walden,\u00a0<\/a>the returning indie heroes played a closing show of the tour at London\u2019s KOKO back in December \u2013 where they brought out Carl Bar\u00e2t<\/a> to also play The Libertines\u2019 \u2018What Katie Did\u2019 and played \u2018Wolfman\u2019 for the first time in 20 years. Babyshambles then announced the release of \u2018Live At KOKO<\/a>\u2018 through Doherty\u2019s label Strap Originals<\/a>, arriving on October 9.<\/p>\n

Asked about how the tour went down, Doherty told NME:\u00a0\u201cCompared to our expectations, it was a roaring success. I was a little bit concerned. I don\u2019t know why. My main worry was that people just weren\u2019t going to come. I didn\u2019t know if there was an appetite for it and I didn\u2019t realise how much this band meant to so many people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe did a few little warm-ups, and we did the first night of the tour proper at the Norwich UEA, it was beautiful. People were singing every word, the energy was really strong, and it was a nice, bright clear sound. It was ace, and it just went from there, really. I don\u2019t think we had any real stinkers. There weren\u2019t any old proper messy disasters, which some people used to like for the mythology and the chaos of it. But for us it was important to play well and do justice to the songs. That\u2019s hard work when you\u2019re trying to do justice to Pat and his songs.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Speaking about the incoming live album, Doherty shared: \u201cIf anything, KOKO was probably the worst one to record! It was the end of the four weeks [of touring] and we get a little bit frayed around the edges.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve got very happy memories of that \u2018Shambles tour. We haven\u2019t done any tours since, but we\u2019ve got festivals, a run in Ireland and Margate. The \u2018Shambles seem to be chugging along nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n

To pick up the celebrations, Babyshambles will be headlining Dreamland in Margate tonight<\/a> (Sunday August 30), with a support line-up featuring Big Special, Warmduscher and \u201ca beano\u00a0 guaranteed for all\u201d.<\/p>\n

Check out the rest of our interview with Doherty below, where he tells us about playing in memory of Pat, the chances of more new Babyshambles material, an mysterious plan for The Libertines\u2019 follow-up to \u2018All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade<\/a>\u2018, and ambitions to sell all his \u201ctat\u201d in his own French second-hand shop\u2026<\/p>\n

NME: Hello Pete. How has it been playing these Babyshambles shows with Pat no longer with us?<\/p>\n

Pete Doherty: \u201cNot every night, but I tend to mention him before the set maybe before \u2018Fuck Forever\u2019 or \u2018Pipedown\u2019. Whenever I say something about Pat I turn to Drew [McConnell, bassist] and he turns away emotionally. It\u2019s not something that\u2019s always there. It\u2019s not like you\u2019re constantly sad, but then sometimes it just hits you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"Babyshambles (Credit: Barnaby Fairley)<\/p>\n

Beyond recent single \u2018Dandy Hooligan<\/a>\u2018, are Babyshambles working on more new stuff?<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are bits and bobs, as there always tends to be with Babyshambles. You\u2019ve got four creative people and there are some good ideas. When I wrote \u2018Dandy Hooligan\u2019, I knew straight away that it was going to be a Babyshambles song. There are some good ideas knocking about but I don\u2019t know whether to do them with \u2018Shambles or offer them to The Libertines. It\u2019s all a bit wide open, which is a good position to be in. There\u2019s no pressure. We\u2019re not contracted to anyone or signed to anyone as a band. We just exist as this autonomous collective in the midst of the music industry. I like it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not like being young and in your only band and you\u2019re desperate to get somewhere with it. I don\u2019t think we could ever recreate what we did before. It\u2019s quite a precious space we\u2019re in at the moment. We\u2019re kind of armed and dangerous, Babyshambles. We\u2019ve got these amazing songs and some amazing characters. We\u2019ll keep it as it is for now. Obviously if we write 12 amazing songs all together then we\u2019d have to make a record.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do you decide if a song is going to be for Babyshambles, Libertines or a solo record?<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel as if I\u2019m struggling a little bit with knowing how to do that. It used to be that I\u2019d just play it to Carl [Bar\u00e2t<\/a>, frontman] and if he didn\u2019t think it was good enough for The Libertines then I\u2019d do it on my own. That\u2019s still kind of how I do it, but I need another litmus test.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PetePete Doherty and Babyshambles perform at Vicar Street in Dublin, Ireland. (Photo by Debbie Hickey\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Does Carl ever get annoyed when you record a banger without him?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had all them years when we were apart, so it has happened. He does it to me as well: I thought that \u2018Glory Days\u2019 [by The Jackals<\/a>] could have been an amazing Libertines song. I\u2019ve told him that a few times, so he\u2019s written all these \u2018Glory Days\u2019 rip-offs now!\u201d<\/p>\n

It was nice to see a regeneration of younger fans at The Libertines shows for the last decade or so. Have you seen that with Babyshambles too?<\/p>\n

\u201cYes, and that was a major part of it for me \u2013 the joy of people coming with their kids, and some of them named after songs or nicknames. There are a few Peters, Micks and Drews out there. There are as many young faces as there ever were. I like it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does that give you more impetus to make a new Babyshambles album?<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t really feel the need to make a record right this second. I don\u2019t feel it\u2019s in my list of things to do immediately. I really want to open a second-hand shop. I\u2019ve got so much stuff. I finally got it all out of Margate to Normandy and I\u2019ve got this big warehouse of records, clothes, typewriters, mannequins, books, trunks.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to make it a venue as well. It wouldn\u2019t be a museum, it would be a living, breathing organism in France. I know a few people on the local council and I\u2019d like to think I could tie in to a lot of the work I do for the local dogs refuge. Maybe they could overlook a few of the licences and let me have a little bit of cafe or acoustic venue. Get a few of the bands from the label [Strap Originals] to come and play. People can potter about, they can have a chat, they can buy a book.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now you just need a decent name\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWell I live in a town called \u00c9tretat, so I was thinking of calling it \u2018\u00c9tre Tat\u2019 with the emphasis on the \u2018tat\u2019, or \u2018\u00c9tre Tatty\u2019. Or the French word for a second-hand shop is \u2018Brocante\u2019, so maybe \u2018Brocante Roll\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PetePete Doherty and Babyshambles perform at Vicar Street in Dublin, Ireland. (Photo by Debbie Hickey\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n

But before you become a shopkeeper, Babyshambles are headlining Dreamland in Margate\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019ll be special to go down there as the \u2018Shambles, at last. Plus all of the bands that are playing that day: Warmduscher, Pregoblin, Real Farmer, Gans. It\u2019s just exciting. It\u2019ll be cool if it\u2019s a nice sunny day, but we could do with a bit of rain.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anything you can tell us about progress on the new Libertines album? When we spoke at Glastonbury last year<\/a> you told us you had a \u2018tantalisingly gorgeous plan\u2019\u2026<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, we didn\u2019t actually. That was a lie, but we do now. We had an emergency band meeting when we were in a hotel in Manchester before we played Kendal Calling. I was a bit late so I sat down and John [Hassall, bass] says to me, \u2018Listen Pete, we\u2019ve been talking\u2026\u2019 really ominously. I said, \u2018Are you kicking out of the band again?\u2019 He said no, and then told me the plan. I can\u2019t really say what it is. I\u2019ve always hated the idea of \u2018concept albums\u2019 or even \u2018concept songs\u2019. There are certain people \u2013 mentioning no names \u2013 who like that approach. I\u2019ve always held off, but democracy has finally had its way in the band and we finally have a general idea about something before we\u2019ve started writing. That\u2019s all I can say. I really want to tell you, because it\u2019s a really interesting idea but I\u2019ll get in trouble\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Babyshambles headline Dreamland in Margate tonight (Sunday August 30). \u2018Live At KOKO\u2019 will arrive on October 9.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pete Doherty has spoken to NME about the success of the Babyshambles reunion, as well as plans afoot…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":754674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[96,3583,128,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-754673","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-music","tag-entertainment","tag-indie","tag-music","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754673","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=754673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/754673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/754674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=754673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=754673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=754673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}