You know that weed factory the toffs run in 'Lock, Stock And Two Smoking Barrels'? With the jail rails surrounding the door, the cut-price security camera trained on the entrance and the constant stream of undesirables? It was a bit like that at the Pete Doherty gig in a distinctly dodgy Whitechapel flat I went to last night.

We heard the strumming from the road.

continued...

Working on the assumption that Pete shows generally don't begin before the kind of hour at which most people are sound asleep dreaming of a Libertines reunion (OK, maybe that's just some of us), myself and snapper James Quinton arrived at the flat after an internet tip-off at about 10:30pm.

Just after I turned the video camera off for the above shot we had to part company with £20 each to allow the jail doors to swing open.

Inside was a large, bare flat with a makeshift bar at one end and a huddled crowd of around 100 people at the other. A trilby was bobbing up and down somewhere in the middle, and what sounded a bit like the rock classic 'Twist And Shout', famously covered by The Beatles, could be heard through the fuzz-box amp.

Somewhere in the melee was Pete, backed by 'Shambles' Adam and Mick, leading the singalong. Smoke filled the air in a way that has become unfamiliar since the ol' smoking ban.

After 'Twist And Shout', during which Pete bizarrely mounted a huge globe, he tore through the crowd and bolted himself in a back room while Mick and Adam slammed out 'I Wish' between signing autographs and posing for fans.

We didn't see Pete again, but according to fans we chatted to he'd been playing for a couple of hours before we arrived. £20 for two songs isn't much of a deal for us, really, but the beers were quite cheap.

Until the next one!