Sound cuts out at Pete Doherty’s V Festival Stafford set

Fans bottle the stage after Doherty is forced to finish early against his wishes

Pete Doherty‘s headline set at V Festival Stafford‘s Virgin Mobile Union Tent tonight (August 23) ended in chaotic style after the Babyshambles man had the sound turned off on him.

Despite coming onstage on time and playing a 17-song set, Doherty and his solo band had the sound pulled on them during their final song, a cover of The Beatles‘ version of ‘Twist And Shout’.

The band attempted to play the song with no electricity, but couldn’t be heard above the crowd, so gave up. Doherty, visibly perplexed by the decision to cut the music, then shrugged his shoulders and mouthed that he was sorry to the audience, before exiting the stage.

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Some fans then proceeded to throw bottles and glasses at the stage for a full 15 minutes, chanting for Doherty to return as they did so and lambasting festival organisers for cutting the band’s sound.

Prior to the gigs end, Doherty and his solo touring band had played an eclectic set featuring material from his entire recorded output, along with a Talking Heads cover and a shout out to his favourite football team, Queens Park Rangers.

As is usual for his UK solo gigs, Doherty was joined at various times by musicians including producer Stephen Street on electric guitar, and Babyshambles members Drew McConnell (bass) and Adam Ficek (drums), along with a string section, keyboardist and two ballerinas. Dot Alison and former Bandits singer John Robinson also made appearances during the set.

After a singalong version of ‘For Lovers’, Doherty plugged in an electric guitar for a rendition of Babyshambles‘Back From The Dead’.

“What time is it? It’s time for a second wind,” he said as he welcomed Alison onstage to sing ‘Sheepskin Tearaway’.

A seemingly unplanned version of Libertines classic ‘What Katie Did’ followed, with Doherty joined by just McConnell and Ficek, after which he played a selection of solo acoustic songs including ‘Lost Art Of Murder’ and a cover of Talking Heads‘Psycho Killer’.

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Doherty also played ‘Happy Birthday’ to two friends, Georgina and Sally. The Babyshambles man also burst into a snippet of ‘We Are QPR’ before playing a full band version of ‘Albion’.

During ‘Bollywood To Battersea’, a fan threw a Libertines T-shirt onstage, which Doherty caught and hung over his mic stand, causing frenzied cheers from the audience.

Doherty instructed his band to stop the song midway through so he could launch into an amped up version of the set’s penultimate song, The Libertines‘ 2002 single ‘Time For Heroes’.

Pete Doherty played:

‘Last Of The English Roses’
‘A Little Death Around The Eyes’
‘Salome’
‘For Lovers’
‘Back From The Dead’
‘Sheepskin Tearaway’
‘What Katie Did’
‘Lost Art Of Murder’
‘Psycho Killer’
‘What A Waster’
‘I Am The Rain’
‘Broken Love Song’
‘We Are QPR’
‘Albion’
‘Bollywood To Battersea’
‘Time For Heroes’
‘Twist And Shout’

NME.COM will be coming live from both the V Festival sites this weekend (August 22-23). Stay tuned to NME.COM/festivals/v-festival for news reports, blogs, video interviews and photos from the event. Plus get next Wednesday’s (August 26) issue of NME for the ultimate V Festival review.

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