MaybeShambles
October 18th, 2006It’s always a lottery buying a Babyshambles ticket: will Pete be sober, will his voice last out, will he fall into a sweating heap before the end of the third song, will they even turn up? After a weekend of anticipation and silent denial, it was confirmed that Tuesday’s appearance in Basel’s Kaserne was cancelled, but we were still invited to turn up.
All ticket holders were given a choice, get 20 francs back from the 35 they paid to see the support act and hear an indy DJ afterwards, or get all the money back and go home. It was hard to tell, but it appeared that at least half those that turned up wanted to stay and hear the Veils (or ‘ve whales’ as the Swissies call them) anyway.
If that had been my party, I’d have had records on as everyone arrived. If I’d been the Veils, I’d have taken the headline opportunity, played a longer set and tried to get the crowd jumping.
As it happened, we entered to a silence which carried on for half an hour. The Veils played the least dancy set I have probably ever stood up to see, and afterwards the DJ continued the stoned out slow tunes, refusing even to play a Libertines song for the disappointed fans. I was home by 1am. Just like the AVO Sessions…