Babyshambles in Leeds

At the beginning of December my friend Courtney came to stay and we saw Babyshambles together! I met her through The Libertines online like twenty years ago. She lives in Texas. She came over for some Libertines shows in maybe 2011, I can't remember, and spent a few days with me. We went to Helmsley which is on of my favourite places ever. I hadn't seen her in person since then right up until last August when she was in Halifax to see the Libs there like I was. We didn't have much of a chance to catch up then, so when Babyshambles reunited to play some gigs and she said she would come over for a few gigs and I invited her to stay with me and see them in Leeds. She arranged to come from Glasgow where she had seen them twice in two nights, so she arrived about 5pm in to Penistone. Lee was out at a gig so I went to pick her up and we went to Tesco to get snacks, and then went to an Indian restaurant to order food. It was a bit of a faff but we finally got back to mine to eat, and then we sat and watched TV. 

On the Sunday we just chileld until the gig. Courtney watched some of the Formula 1 which she's really into. We eventually set off to Leeds about 6pm I guess. I managed to get to the car park that I wanted to get to, which for me is a miracle because I hate getting into Leeds. As we walked out of the car park we went past some of the Christmas markets, so we decided to go for a drink in Thor's tipi as we weren't bothered about seeing the support bands, and we had specific seats in the balcony. 

I had a hot chocolate with Cointreau which was lush, I would definitely drink it again. We finally went into the venue and got our seats which were in the middle, just a few rows up, so there was a pretty good view. The support acts we did see weren't great but Drew from Babyshambles did come out and sing Blitzkrieg Bop with one of them which was fun. Then Babyshambles! I didn't see them back in the day because Peter couldn't be relied on to turn up all the time, and then they split up. Peter is in a much better place and it's genuinely nice to see them back together. I'm excited to see if they release any new music in 2026! 

The gig was great. They sounded good and it was nice to hear Peter's chat. The video in the background paid homage to Amy Winehouse and also to Patrick, Babyshambles' guitarist, who died last year. They played a bunch of songs I love so I really liked it. When they had finished we went to the lift to go down and had to wait, and while we were waiting, Peter came back onstage and started playing Twist and Shout! The microphones had been turned off but his guitar was still on so the crowd was just singing instead. It was really lovely! I'm so glad we caught it! Drew and Adam came back on and joined in, and then Mik did too although his guitar wasn't plugged in. They played What Katie Did and again the (thinning) crowd sang every word. Just lovely!

After the gig we finally got home and to bed. I took Courtney back to the train station the next morning, but it had been nice to spend so much time with her! 

In Thor's Tipi while Courtney was at the bar

I could drink that hot chocolate right now

We also took some photo booth pictures in there which are cute!

Outside the venue, I love it when they still have marquees

Drew singing with one of the support bands, who were Italian I think

Various shots of the band, including where you can see the videos of Amy and Pat in the background

Andfinally when they came back on after the encore, just randomly!