Babyshambles

Babyshambles are an English indie rock band established in London. The band was formed by Pete Doherty during a hiatus from his former band The Libertines, but Babyshambles has since become his main project (although recently he has been focusing on his solo work). Babyshambles has released two albums, three EP's and a number of singles. The band has received a great deal of attention from the British tabloid press as a result of interest in Doherty's personal life.

Babyshambles announced four small club shows in London, Liverpool, Sheffield and Stoke in January, 2006. To the surprise of his fans, the band performed without guitarist Patrick Walden, with Doherty on guitar instead. Walden returned for a gig in Cambridge on January 23 and a UK tour in February. He played his last gig with the band at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire during that tour, and has not appeared with Babyshambles since. He has, however, appeared on stage independently and in the company of Drew McConnell and Seb Rochford, playing two Babyshambles songs which he co-wrote with Pete Doherty, in July 2007.

In February 2006, Babyshambles won the Naomi Award for Worst Live Act, and were nominated for several NME awards. The band performed "Albion" at the NME Awards show, and Doherty won the "Sexiest Man" award.

In August, 2006, Babyshambles signed to major record label Parlophone for the release of an EP, and headlined the Get Loaded in the Park festival. The band released the limited edition single "Beg, Steal or Borrow", which was exclusively available to those who had attended the festival. A free copy of "The Blinding" was released in the street magazine The Big Issue.

A cover version of the Clash song "Janie Jones" was released through B-Unique Records in October. The single was released to raise money for Joe Strummer's charity foundation Strummerville and features contributions from others bands such as Dirty Pretty Things, Larrikin Love, We Are Scientists, The Kooks, and Guillemots. This release marked the first time that Carl Barât and Pete Doherty had worked together since The Libertines parted, although they never met during the recording process.

On December 4, 2006, The Blinding EP was released to critical acclaim. The release was promoted with music videos for "The Blinding" and "Love You But You're Green", and an acoustic performance of the latter on The Culture Show. The single was not eligible for the singles chart because it contained too many tracks; however, the band claimed on its MySpace page that it would have made number four in the Christmas Day 2006 UK chart had it been eligible.

On January 18, 2007, it was announced that the band had signed a long-term record deal with Parlophone. The contract was reportedly for three albums. In Summer 2007, Babyshambles played Oxegen, Glastonbury Festival, the V Festival, T in the Park and Paredes de Coura Festival.

In January and February 2008, Babyshambles played their biggest European tour to date. Babyshambles are due to play at a lot of festivals this Spring and this Summer, especially in France. In June they played at Hove Festival in Norway. In August they headlined the RadioOne/NME Stage of the Reading and Leeds Festivals. However, a large amount of their scheduled tours were cancelled due to Doherty's recent imprisonment. On April 8, it was announced that Babyshambles was going to release A CD/DVD live untitled "Oh! What A Lovely Tour" on June 2. The concert was recorded during the winter leg of the UK arena tour at the SECC Glasgow on the 2nd of December. On May 22 2008 Babyshambles performed at the Saturday Night Fiber, a new music festival in Madrid, Spain with other artists such as Morrissey. Growing speculation suggested that Babyshambles would be unable to make all tour dates for 2008, but in a recent interview with NME "Doherty added that he will honour all his booked live commitments with Babyshambles, but will not book further gigs until his solo album is finished". The band is heading into studios to record 9 demos for their third upcoming album. On 12 January 2009, along with Roger Daltrey, Babyshambles played a one-off gig at the O2 Academy Bristol in aid of Teenage Cancer Trust.

In April 2010, it was announced that the band were set to play the T in the park 2010 festival, and are due to play on the radio one/NME stage on the sunday