Live Review: Peter Doherty, Nantwich Civic Hall, 19th May 2025

Peter Doherty took to the stage with Max Bianco to celebrate the launch of his new album, Felt Better Alive

Indie hero, Bard of Camden and Poetic Renegade, Peter Doherty’s Album ‘Felt Better Alive’ was released on the 16th May, under his own record label, Strap Originals, and to celebrate the release, Peter played some intimate shows in small venues across the country. Joined by Label Mates, Vona Vella and Fellow Musician Max Bianco, his next stop was in Nantwich.

For a small town in Cheshire, where large musical events rarely happen, let alone an Indie Legend coming to play at the local town hall, this was big for the people of Nantwich and its surrounding towns.

Vona Vella joined for an acoustic set, combining some originals with covers. It seemed the crowd was particularly fond of their cover of ‘Whistle for the Choir’ by The Fratelli’s. Combining melodic, angelic harmonies reminiscent of female/male duos such as Birkin and Gainsbourg, it is clear the duo is musically intertwined with each other as it was faultless, would love to see them return to Nantwich.

A last-minute addition, Max Bianco, a musician and artist from Cambridge, performed a beautiful acoustic set. Having joined Peter on his most recent tour with The Libertines, it was understandable as to why he was wanted to join the lineup. As he was finishing his set, he was infact joined by Peter briefly for a final song.

Peter then took to the stage, joined by Max Bianco on the bouzouki, he started his set with a new song, Felt Better Alive, sharing the name with his newest album. His set was a perfect collaboration of his finest works including Libertines classics such as ‘What Katie Did,’ ‘What A Waster’ and ‘Don’t look back into the Sun’.

Whilst playing ‘Albion’, a Babyshambles classic, chants of ‘Nantwich’ started to surface, to which Doherty picked up on and not only encouraged, but joined in, much to the crowd’s pleasure. From there, other chants and shouting’s emerged, showing their enthusiasm and love for Doherty. However, as they progressed, they became less PG friendly compared to the previous…

Merging, remixing, and combining songs, the crowd were constantly surprised, and cheers would be echoed across the room when a Doherty original became a Cover or a Libertines track. When I looked around the room, I saw a certain age group, ones who were teenagers or young adults in the age of the 2000’s, reliving their youth soundtracked to The Libertines and smelling of Cheap Lager and Cigarettes, all on a Monday night.

Seeing Peter away from his role as spokesperson in a high-speed rock band shouting blasphemous poetry about ‘Gin’ and the ‘Albion Lifestyle’ and instead strip down his music to just him and his guitar is something truly magical and emotive. This is a man who feels passionately about his lyrics and has lived and felt everything that he writes about and uses his music as a vessel for storytelling.

Peter Doherty - Felt Better Alive (Signed Copies)

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