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

Peter Doherty, Powers Acoustic Room, Kilburn, 19.03.08

There will be some footage here later. This was a last minute show, so it was posted on Peter's forum and everyone who could get there dropped everything and rushed out of the door to do so. Unfortunately a radio station apparently got wind of it and announced it on air, so there was a crew of paparazzi outside, and a lot of people who seemed thoroughly unfamiliar with his music inside, but who appeared to be keen on rubbernecking at "that bloke out of the tabloids".

Which was a colossal shame, as it's a very nice venue, and it was only a fiver in, and could have been a really lovely night. One of my friends got kicked in the head by a crowdsurfer - at an acoustic show. I give up sometimes. She's alright, mercifully, but that just shouldn't happen.

Peter asked the audience several times to step back, as one of our friends is a wheelchair user and was in danger of being crushed at the front. Unfortunately a lot of people took that as a cue to push forwards. He tried again, and the same thing happened. Meanwhile the venue security had to get onstage to keep people back. Gah. The regulars at these last minute shows all know how to behave appropriately, and when these things don't get publicised on air they are far more civilised.

So I really need to go through my footage and see if I can rescue anything - he played Breck Road Lover, which is very beautiful, and rarely played, and if that's at all usable I'll post it. Unfortunately a lot of what I filmed has loud chatter from people around me talking about needing to be in the office early for meetings. Or people just going "PeeePeeePeee!". And sometimes it's very hard to see Peter due to the bouncers having to be onstage around him. Anyway, I'll post anything that works later on.

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?

Peter Doherty, Ha Ha Wall + Fuck Forever, Rhythm Factory 26.02.08

On FF, every cameraphone in the place seems to magically appear, crowd goes nuts, I go sideways, my lens goes roofwards. I'm clinging to "atmospheric" as a descriptive, it works for me. And at some point Peter's mic stand temporarily vanishes, and a kid appears next to him and makes off with his flag.

"Yeah I know, this is the original..."

There are many things I love about FF, the only thing that I don't is that it tends to signify the end of the set. Except for the time when he played it first, which was a little alarming until he carried on and played something else.

Peter Doherty, Killamangiro + Beg Steal Or Borrow, Rhythm Factory, 26.02.08

At the point during Killamangiro where Peter starts chatting, my arm looks as though it's got the DT's. It hadn't, but I think it was finding this standing like the Statue Of Liberty business a slightly unwelcome novelty. My friends have come up with some interesting solutions ("just buy a monopod - they're only £100-ish..."(advice from a proper cameraman, who apparently has one of those disposable income-type things, and also presumably has never filmed from the middle of a bouncy crowd)), and an exciting contraption involving a sling and a neckbrace - that could be good for the sympathy vote, actually, and might possibly stop people banging into the camera, although I doubt it. I thought I might just try a bit of weight training, although I guess I'd have to do both arms, or I'll look like Popeye...

Back to the music, and "in the eyes of the cruel and unwise" has a lot of resonance at the moment. Everyone has an opinion, very few have a clue.

Beg Steal Or Borrow will always remind me of the summer of 06 - well, from the Paradiso recording onwards - and Get Loaded and running around after Big Issue sellers. Oh, and Jonathan Ross and Harry Potter. Oh, and you know what I said about staying mute during filming? It is really, really hard during the "get youuuu in the caaaarrrr" bit.

Peter Doherty, Carry On Up The Morning, Rhythm Factory 26.02.08

You see the complete lack of picture at the very beginning of this clip? That would be the aforementioned forest of tall people. Peter does start to make an appearance a few seconds in, though. Unfortunately there's a small sound cut, which I think may have been due to me temporarily giving up on being able to film anything at all, and then thinking that this song is so beautiful that any footage is better than no footage, right?

Carry On Up The Morning first saw the earlight of day on the Stookie + Jim demos, also known as Bumfest, which surfaced in November 2006, and were put up for free download on Peter's official website, frenchdogblues.com. A full band version later appeared on Shotter's Nation, the second Babyshambles album. Whenever an acoustic demo is translated to full band, it tends to engender heated debate on the forums. My personal take on it is that we have so many different versions of songs available that we can each choose to listen to whichever one we each personally prefer. As long as we also buy the released versions, as the band need to eat, right?

Peter Doherty, Death On The Stairs, Rhythm Factory, 26.02.08

Actually one of the strangest things about filming like this is having to detach - you might be watching one of your favourite artists, but you have to concentrate on what your camera's doing and make sure it's following what's happening onstage, and you really can't start forgetting what you're doing and singing along when the rest of the crowd does. Or sort of jigging around a bit - dancing would really be stretching a descriptive point - or turning round and forgetting that you're filming if someone starts trying to have a conversation with your back.

So you try to avoid standing near any of your friends who might get a bit chatty or start dancing into you enthusiastically. Or bellowing. It's really quite a disciplined art, if you can call it that.

Peter Doherty, Unbilotitled, Rhythm Factory 26.02.08

Unbilotitled has remained an incredibly beautiful song throughout all its many incarnations.

Stronger than the walls...

Peter Doherty, Rhythm Factory 26.02.08 Back From The Dead

... and sometimes he has trouble reading his own writing, too. Ek Rom The Dod it is, then.

See previous post for excuses for imperfect filming, and this really was the first time I'd attempted to use my camera. It's a Sony Handycam by the way, I may not have mentioned that.

And this really was a great gig, despite my mithering over attempting to film it. I hope I did mention that.