Eleven Years Later Babyshambles Come Back Swinging at Victoria Warehouse
- Desh Kapur
- 1 day ago
- 3 min read
O2 Victoria Warehouse, Manchester 30th November 2025
WORDS AND IMAGES DESH KAPUR
It’s biblical weather in Stretford—wind howling, rain coming in sideways—like the city itself is trying to wash off the eleven long years since Babyshambles last tore up a stage. The O2 Victoria Warehouse looms through the downpour, that red-brick monolith forever looking like it was built for nights just like this: sweaty, noisy, and absolutely feral.
The warm-up acts do their jobs with a grin and a bootprint. Trampolene arrive like they’ve been shot out of a cannon, Jack Jones pogoing around as if he’s trying to outrun his own songs. Their short, sharp set is indie rock played with surgical accuracy and the kind of wild-eyed charm you can’t fake.
Then Ellis Murphy takes the stage solo, a harmonica, a guitar and a presence that hushes the chatter instantly. There’s a dusty, early-Dylan energy to it—earnest, wandering, surprisingly magnetic. Ten minutes is all he gets, and somehow it’s enough to feel like the start of something.
While the crew flips the stage, Pete Doherty wanders down to the pit to flog zines by hand. Only he could turn a merch moment into performance art. They sell out instantly, as if the crowd thinks they’re competing for them.
Shambles Time
When Babyshambles finally walk on, there’s no easing in. They smash straight into “Killamangiro”, and the room detonates. Pints take flight. Necks snap forward. Every dormant Shambles fan cell in the building jolts awake. “Delivery” follows without a pause, sending the place into full, grinning carnage.
For a band with a reputation for chaos, they sound dangerously tight. Mick Whitnall and Drew McConnell lock in with machine-like instinct, Adam Ficek drives everything with crisp, unfussy force, and Doherty—wiry, focused, voice strong—conducts the whole thing with that familiar poetic intensity.
But there’s weight in the air too. Patrick Walden’s absence shadows the night. His recent passing hangs especially heavy over songs built around his fingerprints. “Killamangiro” and “Fuck Forever” still roar, but there’s a phantom chord in the mix now.
Doherty fires off a dedication to Amy Winehouse—introducing “There She Goes” as “Is There Crisps in It”, naturally—and there are two quiet nods to the Stone Roses, almost certainly in honour of Mani’s passing. It’s messy, heartfelt, and strangely perfect.
Meanwhile, the new single “Dandy Hooligan” earns its stripes live, slotting in like it’s always been part of the arsenal. And the Down in Albion staples? They sound reborn, like songs that have slept a decade and woken up hungry.
They end, inevitably, with “Fuck Forever”, and the crowd completely loses its mind. Bodies collide, voices crack, and the whole warehouse feels like it might levitate. It’s chaos in widescreen, the beautiful kind that people will lie about later to make themselves sound braver.
Pete hangs around for a beat, arms open to the roar, before slipping backstage with a small salute. His Epiphone chimes behind him—a tone fans could pick out of a hundred guitars in the dark.
After eleven years off the grid, Babyshambles don’t just return, tonight is loud, raw, and wired with emotion. It’s a reminder that beneath the folklore, the headlines and the mythology, this band always had the songs, the guts and the talent.
The Shambles are back.
And they’re still a glorious, beautiful mess.
SET LIST
Killamangiro
Delivery
I Wish
Sedative
Beg, Steal or Borrow
(With Waterfall verse spliced in)
There She Goes
(Dedicated to Amy Winehouse)
La Belle et la Bête
Back From the Dead
Unstookie Titled
Carry On Up the Morning
8 Dead Boys
Baddie's Boogie
(With What Katie Did intro verse)
À rebours
(With Love Will Tear Us Apart intro)
Albion
Dandy Hooligan
Encore:
Pipedown
I Wanna Be Adored
(The Stone Roses cover) (Ending with Deep Pile Dreams)
Fuck Forever
FOLLOW BABYSHAMBLES