Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Rock City, Nottingham

 Supported By Night Beats

Tonight Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are back in Nottingham to mark the 20th anniversary of their third studio album ‘Howl’ but first, from Texas, we have Night Beats who sadly do little for me. 

I find them quite repetitive and tedious playing some form of Country and Western garage music. The crowd reaction isn’t helped by them not being very talkative. In fact, no one speak to us at all until half an hour in when the lead singer announces a song he wrote with BRMC’s Robert Been. 

Been comes on stage to play piano on it, at first standing up and then occasionally kneeling. After that he picks up the bass guitar and stays until the end of their set as they play another three songs. He even contributes on vocals and suddenly their set gets a lot better. 

So, to BRMC who tonight become the latest one of my favourite bands to play one of my least favourite albums in full and in this case not in order but I clearly shouldn’t be selfish. Everyone else, including the band, clearly rate the record as one of their best. 

We kick off with ‘Devil’s Waitin’ played in the dark by someone dressed as a monk, with the hood over their head. It’s all very atmospheric. This is Peter Hayes while presumably Robert Been is still getting his breath back from his sojourn with Night Beats. 

Then they’re both on stage for ‘Shuffle Your Feet’ with Leah Shapiro joining them on drums before Been takes the lead on ‘Howl’. As usual, from there onwards, they share the spotlight on guitars and vocals. 

The show features, as you would expect, almost every track from ‘Howl’ along with many other non-Howl crowd favourites such as the likes of ‘Red Eyes and Tears’, ‘Beat the Devil's Tattoo’, 'Spread Your Love', 'Whatever Happened to My Rock 'n' Roll' and 'Berlin'. All more my sort of thing.

They also slot in an impromptu performance of ‘Windows’ from the ‘Baby 81’ album which they admit they haven’t played in a long while but then run out of time and have to truncate the rest of the Howl section. 

 They finish with ‘Shadow’s Keeper’ and head back into the shadows. 

Babyshambles, Rock City, Nottingham

Supported by Sweet Return, Another Day & Max Bianco

Utter chaos is how we used to describe any Peter Doherty gig and to a point that’s how I would describe tonight but its all to do with trying to cram as many bands onto the roster as possible. 

 On the bill tonight we have Another Day who are preceded by a guy reading a rather long poem which I’m not sure was an effective use of their stage time. He then gets to play tambourine and maracas while the rest of the band get lively. Notably they don’t let him near the microphone again. The actual lead singer finishes the set with a back flip, which is impressive and a much better exit than their entrance. 

There's also Sweet Return who are pretty decent and do a song with the Babyshambles Drew McConnell on vocals. They leave a very good impression on the crowd. 

There was also Max Bianco, who apparently was on earlier but no one was here then. So, they invite him back for one more song before the Shambles come on. 

So, chaos so far but the chaos that once accompanied Doherty’s bands is now long gone. Tonight Peter Doherty describes his own band as dependable and he’d be right. We are thoroughly entertained by the grown-up version of the Babyshambles we last saw over ten years ago. They even look, whisper it, rehearsed. 

They kick things off in an energetic manner with ‘Killamangiro’ and ‘Delivery’ for what is the liveliest crowd I’ve seen at Rock City for a long, long time. It’s totally brutal down the front. 

Doherty himself is in fine form and, much as he was with the Libertines here last year, having the time of his life. Looking better and slimmer than for a long time. He’s even drinking orange juice. Between songs he keeps referring to the massive folder of Rock City gigs that he’s pinched from the dressing room where they have it on display. He shows it the crowd as he namechecks many of the great artists to have played here. 

The set includes everything you’d expect from the band, working through the albums 'Down in Albion' and 'Shotter's Nation' alongside 'The Blinding' EP but totally forgets the totally forgettable 'Sequel to the Prequel', their third ‘might have been more of a solo’ album from 2013. 

They close the main set with the new single ‘Dandy Hooligan’ with his wife Katia on a blow keyboard thingy (is that called a melodica?) and the whole thing with a raucous ‘Fuck Forever’, which Doherty dedicates to someone who should have been here tonight, founding member Patrick Walden who tragically died earlier this year.