Peter Doherty, The Torriano, London, 20.03.08

Peter Doherty, The Torriano, Kentish Town 20.03.08 from nearer dark on Vimeo.

Absolutely brilliant, magical night. This is the whole show, so it may take a while to load, but it's worth it. The Torriano is threatened with closure due to the machinations of property developers - please go to Torriano website and sign the petition to keep it open.
There are a couple of small skips on the video, and there is some occasional background chat, and very occasionally Peter is more audible than visible, but - oh gosh, just watch it. One of the best shows, ever.

Back from the Dead, Dilly Boys, What A Waster, The Ballad of Grimaldi, Smashing, Death on the Stairs, Albion, Pipey McGraw, What Katie Did, Beg Steal or Borrow, Music When the Lights Go Out, The Whole World Is Our Playground, Can't Stand Me Now

Coco, My Name Is A Stain, Torriano, 20.03.08

Coco - My Name Is A Stain, The Torriano 20.03.08 from nearer dark on Vimeo.

Coco at The Torriano, opening for Peter Doherty. Sorry I only filmed the last song - check docile's account for the rest on vimeo.

And please sign the petition to keep The Torriano open, as it's threatened by property developers. here
and Coco's myspace is here: iblamecoco

Kid Harpoon, The Milkmaid + First We Take Manhattan, Dingwalls, London 13.03.08

Kid Harpoon - The Milkmaid + First We Take Manhattan, Dingwalls from nearer dark on Vimeo.

I definitely had a few problems with the sound at the beginning, but please do watch Kid Harpoon. We met the extremely enthusiastic stagediver/mic borrower at the next show in Brighton. Terribly nice chap, even better at sidetracking himself than I am, so me giving him a link so he could see this video on vimeo turned into him wanting the recipe for mayonnaise. But of course.

Oh and see the Kid any chance you get.

Helsinki, batterieswerentdead + Ampersand, Dingwalls, 13.03.08

Helsinki - batterieswerentdead and Ampersand, Dingwalls 13.03.08 from nearer dark on Vimeo.

Helsinki's set was beautiful, batterieswerentdead was epic, my film doesn't really do it justice.

I did temporarily know the full name of Matt's wah pedal, but I forgot to do the writing things down thing. It's the one he's using on Ampersand.

If you're reading this before Sunday 27 April, get yourself down to Victoria Park, Hackney, for the Love Music Hate Racism Carnival that day - Helsinki are playing, there's tons of other great music too, it's going to be a very special day. And also a very important day - find out more here: LMHR Carnival 2008.

Helsinki, Je t'emmene au vent + Ribtickling, Dingwalls, 13.03.08

Helsinki - Je t'emmene au vent and Ribtickling, Dingwalls 13.03.08 from nearer dark on Vimeo.

Drew McConnell and friends - see note on post below. Je t'emmene au vent is a Louise Attaque song. Sorry again for background noise, but it's the tradeoff with standing further back to avoid the reverb off the PA - although I seem to have picked some of that up too.

Helsinki played an excellent show - part of which I missed due to travel vagaries. Yes I did kick myself.

Helsinki, Delivery + Cologne Hotel, Dingwalls, 13.03.08

Helsinki - Delivery and Cologne Hotel, Dingwalls, 13.03.08 from nearer dark on Vimeo.

Helsinki have a pretty fluid line-up - Drew McConnell has a large revolving cast of wandering troubadours, and the shows are very special, whoever is up there with him. This particular night he was supporting Kid Harpoon, and had borrowed his drummer, and had Lord Large on keys. And Matt Park on guitar, who's a regular fixture.

Apologies for uber-chatty neighbours. No, I don't understand either. I tend to go to gigs to see the bands, rather than to conduct loud soirees during people's sets.

Albert Newton, Bar Sonic, Deptford 08.03.08

Albert Newton, Bar Sonic, Deptford 08.03.08 from nearer dark on Vimeo.

Albert Newton are Charles Hayward (drums), Harry Beckett (trumpet), Pat Thomas (keyboards) and John Edwards (double bass)

They play amazing experimental improvisational jazz, and if you ever get a chance to see them, you should jump at it.

Bar Sonic is lovely but quite dark, particularly around the parts of the stage where the drums and keyboard were, so I had to do rather a lot of fidgeting with the video, and then used the filter that looks like a succession of Blue Note covers. Well, it does to me...

Charles Hayward has a myspace here. He's a bit of a genius.

The Johnsons, Afraid Of The Dark, Death By Stereo, New Cross Inn, 06.03.08

The Johnsons - Afraid Of The Dark from nearer dark on Vimeo.

The Johnsons are amazing live. Pussycat has an incredible voice, Spoony supplies rumbling bass (which he's also playing on the soundtrack to the new Joe Meek film - cool or what), there are razorsharp quiffs n' riffs from Jake, and thundering drummingness from Antz with the hair. This song is Afraid Of The Dark, and you may well be.

Peter Doherty, The Man Who Would Be King, There She Goes + Fuck Forever, Rhythm Factory 28.02.08

Peter Doherty Rhythm Factory 28.02.08 The Man Who Would Be King, There She Goes and FF from nearer dark on Vimeo.

"...twisting and turning to northern soul..." that's a beautifully evocative lyric, and there's some really nice guitar going on here, too.

That was a wonderful night, and for all that we looked as though we'd gone 10 rounds with a sauna and lost, I think most of us would do it pretty much every night of the week if we could. Well, if he played Sheepskin Tearaway and Breck Road Lover a bit more often, like...

Peter Doherty, Hooray For The 21st Century, Rhythm Factory, 28.02.08

Peter Doherty Rhythm Factory 28.02.08 Hooray For The 21st Century from nearer dark on Vimeo.

Peter Doherty, For Lovers, Rhythm Factory, 28.02.08

Peter Doherty Rhythm Factory 28.02.08 For Lovers from nearer dark on Vimeo.

One day I'm going to put the wrong embed code in one of these posts, and I'll be waffling on about something completely different from what you're watching. Ah, it's the juxtaposition.

There's a lighterless lighter salute from the crowd, and for some reason I started filming the two shadowmen on the back wall. It was very very hot in there.

Enjoy anyway - it's a beautiful song, despite the vagaries of the lens, and I really prefer the stripped-down acoustic to the released version myself.

Peter Doherty, The Delaney + Death On The Stairs, Rhythm Factory, 28.02.08

Peter Doherty Rhythm Factory 28.02.08 The Delaney, Death On The Stairs from nearer dark on Vimeo.

Viddy well all the little screens capturing The Delaney. I have definitely been the paying the cab fare over type in the past. Theoretically I'm comparatively sensible these days. Right.

It was baking hot in there too - Peter looks as though he's melting a bit, so were the rest of us. Particularly people with thick jackets on and one arm stuck up in the air. And a small bottle of water wedged between their knees to avoid passing out. I did say "comparatively sensible".

Peter Doherty, Clementine, Rhythm Factory, 28.02.08

Peter Doherty Rhythm Factory 28.02.08 Clementine from nearer dark on Vimeo.

He doesn't play Clementine very often either. I seriously love RF shows.

Peter Doherty, Pipedown, Rhythm Factory, 28.02.08

Peter Doherty Rhythm Factory 28.02.08 Pipedown from nearer dark on Vimeo.

Pipedown - so crowd go nuts, camera goes nuts, yadda yadda. This song always gets a full-throttled and full-throated response wherever it's played. And he did the No Fun bit.

A friend of mine said that the result of this sort of filming was a perfect illustration of Brownian motion, or something along those lines. I know what he means.

Oh, and if you hadn't noticed, there's a button in the bottom right corner of the little film screen that lets you go full screen. Yes. It works for all the vimeo vids, but I don't think there's an option to do that with youtube ones. Maybe.

Peter Doherty, Dilly Boys, Rhythm Factory, 28.02.08

Peter Doherty, Rhythm Factory 28.02.08 Dilly Boys from nearer dark on Vimeo.

"She's the sweetest girl oh, the swee-... Oh shit! You know what, I was supposed to pick someone up on the way to the gig..." Exits stage right to make phone call. Bless.

Peter Doherty, Merry Go Round, Rhythm Factory, 28.02.08

Peter Doherty Rhythm Factory 28.02.08 Merry Go Round from nearer dark on Vimeo.

"It was the first one of the day/It was the last one of the night..."

Beautiful song, and a real treat to hear it live, as it doesn't happen as often as one might like. Unfortunately some people near me thought it was perfect fodder for talking loudly over. You'd think they could just go off to the bar or something if they don't know a song, or they don't like it, or they've got terribly important things to say that are louder than the artist that everyone else has paid to see. And if they really prefer to chat, why in f**kery have they paid £20 each to do so? See that poor kid freezing on the pavement outside a sold out RF? That's his place you've taken, chatty person.

Meanwhile my camera seems to be going nuts, which was probably me trying to avoid chatty persons. Bah.

That aside, it's very beautiful. Enjoy.

Peter Doherty, Vertigo, Up The Bracket, What A Waster, Albion, Rhythm Factory 28.02.08

Peter Doherty Rhythm Factory 28.02.08 Vertigo, Up The Bracket, What A Waster, Albion from nearer dark on Vimeo.

The mass crowd singalong to Vertigo and continuing guitar lead weirdness provokes a broad grin and a mock hissy fit, and a "f-ckin' Rhythm Factory". And you can see how nuts everyone was going at the start of Up The Bracket by the amount of exciting ceiling footage. Oh, it was a brilliant night, it really was. And it's quite a nice characterful ceiling, really. And at least the audio doesn't vanish when Peter does. And there are occasionally two shadow men on the wall behind him, which is rather nice. And What A Waster - looks like I was getting knocked for six rather a lot there, but it was so worth it. And Albion - fascinating fact: there's a teacup being held aloft, which belonged to one of Red Roots, who were supporting, and the guy who's holding it up is called Lascaux Man. And that, and the high-pitched "Liverpyool!" aside - Albion is still one of the most beautiful songs ever written.

This was the third night of that particular stint at the Rhythm Factory, and it was pretty much right after the European dates finished, which were either side of the Arena tour and that other run of Rhythm Factory dates in December where everyone got flu, and Brixton was only a couple of weeks before this lot of RF dates, and there were other NME dates around that, probably followed by the last set of Euro dates (yes, I could look it up, but I'm busy writing this), so you'd have forgiven Peter if he was feeling a bit knackered by the time of this show, really, and wanted a bit of a quiet one. Except he's revelling in it, thoroughly enjoying it, and it's a brilliant night.

Peter Doherty, Ha Ha Wall + Baddies Boogie, Rhythm Factory 28.02.08

Peter Doherty Rhythm Factory 28.02.08 Ha Ha Wall and Baddies Boogie from nearer dark on Vimeo.

That guitar lead was still causing a few problems, but the Ha Ha Wall is still such a beautiful song. There's this forest of arms and hands and heads and phones and occasional faces, and it's like this giant mobile picture frame at times. And there's a huge singalong to Baddies Boogie.

Peter Doherty, Pipey McGraw, Rhythm Factory 28.02.08

Peter Doherty Rhythm Factory 28.02.08 Pipey McGraw from nearer dark on Vimeo.

It's all heads and arms and cameras and hands and ceiling - and then Peter appears in the middle of it all. And has some problems with his guitar lead, hence the odd static noise and his expression when they happen. And "there's not one single thing I'd change... except maybe the lead". This was a fantastic show, and I was really glad I took my camera and kept filming.

Peter Doherty, Last Post On The Bugle, Rhythm Factory 28.02.08

Peter Doherty Last Post On The Bugle, Rhythm Factory 28.02.08 from nearer dark on Vimeo.

I went out with my camera again two nights later - I'd been kicking myself for not going on the Wednesday as well, as by all reports it was even better than the Tuesday show, but I'd attempted to be sensible and had stayed in. Which was fairly unproductive, as I mainly spent the time sulking. It's possibly slightly undignified when adults get into the mindset that goes "but all my friends are going and I'm not and it's not fair!", particularly when it's a blatant fib. But heck, adults can still sulk.

I had also kicked myself for missing songs and bits of songs on the Tuesday, so this time I pretty much kept the camera running, apart from cutting it briefly between songs sometimes to save the battery. I was still very much learning how to do this, and there will be hands, heads and hats between the lens and the stage, because - heck, there were other people there, innit?