Impossible to judge them in a vacuum given the circus around them, and canāt pretend that wasnāt part of what made them compelling when I was 13. Totally bought into the nonsense the NME were writing about them at the time.
Canāt imagine anything more depressing than seeing them post-reunion, and in terms of ālegacyā theyāre arguably the worst band on here, but I donāt think the hype machine was entirely unwarranted - they had genuine charm and charisma, Pete was a good frontman with a great voice, and they were a million miles better than all the other bands in the same scene.
Bet I wouldāve bloody loved seeing them in 02/03 if I was a few years older. I saw Babyshambles at the Blank Canvas (RIP) in 2004(?) and itās embarrassing in hindsight how much of a big deal it seemed seeing Pete on stage. Bloody loved it, even though they were clearly off their faces, probably quite terrible, so late on stage you assumed it was gonna be cancelled.
Had a (mostly media fabricated) aura about it that I canāt say Iāve experienced with anything else - Arctic Monkeys aside maybe, they were probably the last band that the NME successfully managed that with? Much as theyāve tried hard with the Vaccines or whatever else since.
Up The Bracket still stands up as a decent British indie album, if not a classic. Was embarrassingly excited for the self-titled but even at 13, much as I tried to tell myself otherwise, knew it wasnāt up to much.
For Lovers, The Man Who Came To Stay, most of Up The Bracket and the early demo stuff - decent imo.
Goes without saying that Pete was/is an awful person, if that needs adding.
