Libertines and Babyshambles rocker Peter Doherty announces solo tour

Peter Doherty has announced his first solo acoustic tour in a decade.

The indie legend will be performing solo tracks alongside classics from The Libertines and Babyshambles as part of ‘The Battered Songbook Tour’.

The UK and Ireland run will kick off in Belfast – where he grew up – at the Limelight on April 13, and wrap at the legendary Royal Albert Hall in London on May 5.

Gig-goers can expect “an unforgettable ride into his strange and fascinating world.”

Peter’s most recent albums include 2019’s ‘Peter Doherty and The Puta Madres’ and last year’s collaboration with Frederic Lo ‘The Fantasy Life of Poetry and Crime’.

He’s released three albums with The Libertines – 2002’s ‘Up The Bracket’, 2004’s ‘The Libertines’ and 2015’s ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth’ – and three with Babyshambles (2005’s ‘Down In Albion, 2007’s ‘Shotters Nation’ and 2013’s ‘Sequel To The Prequel’).

As well as, the solo albums ‘Grace/Wastelands’ in 2009 and 2017’s ‘Hamburg Demonstrations’.

Former addict Peter has completely overhauled his lifestyle and hasn’t touched heroin since 2019.

And he revealed last year that he penned a song while he was “white-knuckling it with drugs.”

The Libertines and Babyshambles rocker released the track ‘You Can’t Keep It From Me Forever’ from his album with French musician and composer Frederic, which is inspired by his bid to beat his addictions and the “self-sabotaging” feeling that it wouldn’t be long before he would be back to his old ways.

On what inspired the lyrics, he told NME: “I suppose it’s a not-even subconscious yearning for things.

“I’ve been clean since December 2019, so at the time of writing this I was really white-knuckling it with the drugs and feeling like it would only be a matter of time before I went back to it.

“It hasn’t turned out to be that way, but there was that kind of kicking out at the new way of being clean and feeling like it was temporary.

“You can apply that to any kind of yearning, but to me it was specifically about that. Time passed, and I’ve managed to somehow keep on the straight and narrow, if it is indeed straight and narrow.

“That’s the honest answer, but it seems silly to give that answer now, though. If it really was such a necessity then I would have just gone out and used. I suppose this is just a smarmy, self-sabotaging sort of thing, but just in the role of a narrator.”

Tickets for the UK shows will go on sale on Friday (24.02.23) at 10am and are available from: https://linktr.ee/peterdohertyofficial.

‘The Battered Songbook Tour’ dates:

APRIL

13th THU Belfast – Limelight

14th FRI Dublin – Opium Rooms

15th SAT Cork – Cyprus Avenue

18th TUE Glasgow – SWG3

19th WED Stockton – KU Bar

21st FRI Newcastle – Riverside

22nd SAT Lancaster – Kanteena

23rd SUN Hull – The Welly Club

24th MON Norwich – The Waterfront

26th WED Manchester – O2 Ritz

27th THU Liverpool (Anfield) – The Church

29th SAT Bristol – O2 Academy

30th SUN Falmouth – Princess Pavilion

MAY

2nd TUE Oxford – O2 Academy

3rd WED Sheffield – O2 Academy

4th THU Birmingham – O2 Institute

5th FRI London – Royal Albert Hall