AN EARLY frontrunner for the best Britflick of '99, this poignant and hilarious little Northern low-budgeter is one of the most savagely funny and warmly human yarns to emerge from across the water in many moons.
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from quirky popsters Alphastates but that’s not because they’ve had a massive falling out. Rather, their lead singer lost her voice and then they suffered a sudden lack of confidence. But now they’re back, with perhaps their finest record yet.
It’s been quite a year for PETE DOHERTY, the former Libertines frontman, and now leader of Babyshambles. 2005 featured a series of drug busts, failed rehab attempts, the tabloid witch hunt of his girlfriend Kate Moss, several non-appearances and live shows that fluctuated between agonising and ecstatic... oh, and the small matter of a debut album. As hotpress went to press, the news broke that Doherty had been busted yet again, barely two days out of an Arizona clinic. hotpress talks to Doherty’s label boss, Rough Trade founder Geoff Travis, tour photographer Danny Clifford, and former Babyshambles drummer Gemma Clarke, for the insiders' view on what’s becoming an increasingly sad and fearful saga.
It requires no great talent to reduce an audience to tears when your backdrop is a concentration camp. If your principals are potato-headed children, so much the better.
For a few nerve-wracking days, it seemed that the good times might just have come to an end. But if things had bounced differently, what would she have done?
