Pete Doherty
with Jack Jones (Trampoline), Vona Vella, Evan Williams, Del Bhoy Kennedy
at Cringlewood Social Club Northern Moor Manchester
August 2025
Live Review
It’s always good to break from the usual and a trip out of the city centre for a gig in a social club at the edge of Manchester ended up being one of those classic nights that people will talk about for a long time with Pete Doherty on great form introduced on stage by Andy Burnham whose inspirational anti nazi speech was as rock n roll as it gets and also with a cool supporting cast from Pete’s own label Strap Originals.
Pete Doherty is many things to many people, but somehow, he has survived the madness. The real version is on stage tonight in the Cringlewood Social Club in Northern Moor. It’s the perfect venue for this kind of shenanigans – the social club is a top spot run by lovely people who put the word ‘social’ at the heart of ‘community’, two key words mentioned a lot tonight. The event, put on by Andrew Hurst and Dean Skarrett, is an opener for their upcoming Northenden festival, and getting Pete to play with a raft of acts from his label is a bit of a coup.
Armed with an acoustic guitar, Pete Doherty is on great form and sings many classic songs from his career with that plaintive voice and the tumble of words poetry that drip a sensitivity and romantic heart on the sleeve wordplay that was often missed in the tabloid image of the troubadour. Somehow, the straighter version of the singer makes the words and voice more beguiling and the most unlikely of elder statesmen from that generation of musicians fits comfortably in his new role as mentor to the young bands on his label and as a touring musician who has his wife, lookalike young child and loveable lumbering dog on the road with him like some sort of updated version of the late and great Ronnie Lane. The audience is captivated, and Pete is on fire. The gig proves that there are second acts in public life, and rock n roll is far more about the music than the lifestyle.
The rest of the evening had been a great showcase for the bands signed to Pete’s Strap Originals label, like Jack Jones, the effervescent frontman from Welsh band Trampoline, who crooned and rapped over his pumping backing tracks in a highly effective manner. Jack is so omnipresent and upbeat that he could stand on his head for an hour and the audience would love him, but he is also a talented poet and tunesmith, and the electronic soundscapes weaved with his vocals created captivating vignettes of modern life. Vona Vella made the most of their twin male/female vocals over a sprightly and tuneful guitar indie pop whilst from the Tatty Seaside Town of Broadstairs, Evan Williams smouldering charisma delivered songs of dark lyricism and shimmering poetic frustration that captured his big grey sky roots and opening act Edinburgh’s Del Bhoy Kennedy delivered a sprightly indie guitar set of catchy songs with Evo stick choruses.
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