Baby Shambles – Up The Shambles: Live In Manchester (DTS DVD/Eagle)

 

Picture: C+     Sound: B-     Extras: C     Concert: C+

 

 

It is with some anticipation we looked forward to any material by Pete Doherty as he has had some impressed press and even wrote a song for the soundtrack of the underrated film Children Of Men (see the HD-DVD elsewhere on this site), so when a concert DVD arrived, we had to hear it.  Baby Shambles (sometimes written as one word) is the second band after The Libertines the singer/songwriter has been a member of and in between has had drug troubles.

 

Unfortunately, they (and/or their aftermath) too often affect his work in Baby Shambles – Up The Shambles: Live In Manchester, a 2005 concert where he sings lead on most of the 17 songs as follows:

 

1)     The Man Who Came To Stay

2)     Do You Know Me

3)     In Love With A Feeling

4)     Babyshambles

5)     Gang of Gin

6)     F*!k Forever

7)     I Mean You No Harm*

8)     Sheepskin

9)     Tearaway*

10)  Don't Look Back Into the Sun*

11)  Time For Heroes*

12)  Albion*

13)  I Wanna Break Your Heart*

14)  What Katy Did

15)  Killamangiro

16)  My Darling Clementine

17)  Blackboy Lane

18)  Wolfman

 

 

Tracks with a * feature Dot Allison on guest lead vocal.  As for Doherty, he seems out of it, is not at his best and even his vocals are often off.  Fans might enjoy this, but others, they will scratch their heads and wonder what the big fuss was about.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 image looks like it was shot in lower definition digital video, with detail issues throughout and color often on the pale side.  The DTS 5.1 mix is better here than the Dolby Digital 5.1 version, but not by much since the sound was not recorded with multi-channel in mind.  You also will not get much in the way of bass.  Extras include a four part look behind the scenes at the concert.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo