SUNDAY 30TH AUGUST 2026

Sunday night was filled with nothing short of magic and mayhem as we saw Peter Doherty return to Margate in particular to the 1,400 capacity Hall By The Sea at Dreamland Margate with his band Babyshambles.

The gig served as more as a homecoming for the front man as he was surrounded by family, friends and fans alike. His presence being prevalent throughout the whole event seeing him introducing his packed line up of support acts as well as even perfoming alongside one of the earlier support acts to selling his self produced fan zine to the adoring crowd. It was an immersive experience from start to finish and Peter Doherty was clearly in his element.

The stacked line-up started off with Pregoblin who were sadly hit with a few techinal issues at the start which meant they were a little late in going on, but they were up and running only some half an hour after their advertised start time and handled it all with total professionalism.

Jessica Winter and Alex Sebley seemed unfazed by the early mishap however, and interacted readily with the crowd asking them if they were enjoying themselves. It was pure joy from the crowd when Peter came out to join Jessica on stage taking over the male vocals on “These Hands – aka Danny Knife”. Together they made a great duet and a sure crowd pleaser. When given a time nearly over warning, Alex made the executive decision to “Let’s do Wimpy” citing it as the bands best song and it certianly did not disappoint.

Next up was another of the Strap Originals Roster this time the energetic and fierce brum trio GANS.

Together they owned the stage with their frenzied, high octane performance. From Euan Woodman on drums playing them like his life depended on it to bassist Thomas Rhodes on the opposite side of the stage – the lyrical content being hurled at each other like a war zone with Tommy Lawther on Sax/Flute in the middle of it all somehow holding it together and making it come together in unison with his unique and accomplished playing.

At one point during the set. Woodman stopped and stood up addressing the crowd. He thanked them for coming down early but noted that they weren’t moving much. He then posed the question “can anybody here fucking jump?” and the crowd willingingly obliged before the band launched into a frenetic and infectious version of their track ‘I Think I Like You’. The band finished their set with an absolute climax of rousing sound that shook not only the walls, but the very foundations of the heritage building.

The interlude was palpable before Warmduscher took to the stage. Unfortunately the set started as a bit of an anti-climax with them also experiencing some technical difficultities at the start of their set which was not helped further by their lead singer getting himself tangled up in all the wires as well! Due to these difficulties it felt like the band weren’t really given a fair shot at the title and the set never really seemed to build up in momentum from that point forward sadly.

The evening was then saved by the arrival of Big Special on stage in thier matching ‘Jolly Boys Outing’ t-shirts in a nod to the legendary Only Fools and Horses Classic when Del, Rodney and Co take a trip to Margate.

Big Special performed an out and out high octane, full throttle set that nicely got the crowd energised and ready to go once again. With hits such as ‘Hug A Bastard’ and new track ‘Shithouse’ as well as crowd pleaser ‘Black Dog/White Horse’, the set was impeccable music wise and interspersed with the band’s well known spoken word poetry and commentary, it was a delight to witness seeing them leaving the stage to maximum appreciation.

In additonal to the scheduled acts, no Peter Doherty local Margate gig would be complete without our own Morag also taking to the stage at some point during the proceedings! Morag Butler is a well known Maragte legend who came on stage welcomed by Peter himself. She was joined this time by a back up guitarist and backing vocalist and proceeded to delight fans with a cover version of The Libertines track ‘Night Of The Hunter’ before leaving as swiftly as she had arrived.

Then the moment we’d all been waiting for finally arrived to the strains of ‘Jolene’ by Dolly Parton, Peter and the rest of The Babyshambles crew; Mick Whitnall, Drew McConnell, and Adam Ficek, took to the stage amidst rapturous cheers and applause. It felt like a moment that had been a long time coming and everyone was ready and 100% in the moment for it.

‘UnBilo Titled’ and ‘Side of the Road’ eased the band into their set before they turned the excitement factor up further with fan favoutires, ‘Killamangiro’ and ‘Delivery’.

A mere four songs into what would prove to be a ‘value for money’ extended set time, and the crowd were already going wild with joyous abandonment of mosh pits and flying pints.

The lesser known track of ‘I Wish’ provided a short moment of breathing space before the attacking on-slaught of ‘Sedative’ and ‘Beg, Borrow and Steal’ had the crowd whipped back up into a frenzied fever pitch once more.

The crazy pace continued into ‘8 Dead Boys’ and Baddies Boogie’ before another quiet moment of ‘the calm before the storm’ as the melodic harmonies of ‘Albion’ filled the historic building with Al White coming on stage adding in his sublime saxophone and flute playing.

Peter took a moment to interact with the adoring crowd asking them “is anyone from round here? how do you do?” – a bit of audienece participation revealed that there were indeed a few folks who had travelled from afar to be there and as such Peter used the lyrics of the song to change some the place names into a local reccomendations section for the travellers giving mention to local destinations such as Ramsgate, Margate, Broadstairs, Dover and Chatham.

As the set inevitably started to draw to a close, the energy certainly did not as the intensity conitued to increase both on and off stage with the mosh pit getting ever more raucous with each and every track and the ever continuing flow of crowd surfers being carried out of the pit by security staff.

With blistering renditions of ‘You Talk’, French Dog Blues’, ‘Pipe Down’ and the absolutely incendiary delivery of ‘Fuck Forever’ as the closing track. The room was under the total control of the pulsating rhythm and skilled musicianship on display.

This was so much more than just another gig, this was a moment in history, this was a lesson of how it should be done. Considering that Peter had played to a 40,000 strong crowd with The Libertines just the night before, you could be forgiven for thinking that he may of been somewhat subdued for this set, but that could not be further from the truth. Peter played this gig like his life depended on it. He played with passion and pure unadultered joy which filtered through to the rest of the band and out into the crowd.

Babyshambles may have been off the mainsteam circuit for a while, but tonight they proved that they are still entirely relevant, wanted and very much needed. Babyshambles were always cited to be a ‘must see’ live band and tonight they solidified that notion. Every single member of that crowd was in a state of eurphoria not wanting the night to end.

From myself and everyone else who was there to witness the magic on Sunday night; Thank you Babyshambles for restoring the faith – long may it continue x

THE SONGBIRD HQ

All Photograpy courtesy ANNA BURNETT