Austria with Babyshambles Oh!! Then There Was Two

So there I was driving up the M11 approaching Stanstead airport, when my mobile phone rang. It was about 9:30 am. I was reliably informed that the one and only Peter Doherty had been arrested a few hours ago in London. Aparently, yet again driving under the influence and possession of some form of drugs.. The rest of the band were also on their way to the airport.. Anyway, I was the first one to arrive. Drew & Adam & The General arrived together about 20 mins after me. They only just made it with about 2 mins to spare to the check in desk. They were just about to shut that flight.. We then legged it through security and headed off to the departure gate. We were all making loads of phone calls trying to find out the latest with Pete. Obviously there was no way he was going to make that flight. We immediatley started to try and make arrangemnts to get him and Mick (guitar tech) on another flight out to Graz in Austria. The only other flights were from Heathrow to Vienna. We then made the decision to go out on our flight. We had in fact discussed actually not boarding this one, but, we did. So after the 1:50 flight, we arrived in Graz.. As we got off the plane and got onto the tarmac, I saw a row of photographers and TV crews.. Oooops we thought, they were there for Pete (The Scarlet Pimpernel).. They all surrounded Drew. Adam and I swerved them and belted into the terminal.. Not that they wanted me.. But they did want Adam. So, through Passport control and into the bagagge hall. We grabbed the guitars and bags then headed straight out where we were met by the promotors. We jumped into two cars and off we went to the hotel. Everyone was frantically trying to find out from the lawyer who was now in attendance with Peter what was happeneing. But, no news other than he was still in custody. It was now afternoon and time was moving on. We slung our gear into our rooms and headed off to the venue to meet up with the main promoters. It was all a bit awkward as everyone was asking where Pete was and we still didnt know if he had been released. So with time moving on and no good news from London.

Copyright 2006 Danny Clifford

All rights reserved

Adam and Drew decided after lots of soul searching to do two songs. We all discussed the situation with the radio station and all greed the best thing Adam & Drew could do is go up and do a couple of songs..

Copyright 2006 Danny Clifford

All rights reserved

Deep down I dont really think they wanted to do this without Peter, but they thought that this may be appreciated by the fans. The fans were the reason that they did this. They then went on and got into the songs.

Copyright 2006 Danny Clifford.

All rights reserved

The General then suddenly walked up onto the stage and joined in. As soon as the two songs were over, the General started to sing Pentonville Rough. Adam and Drew joined in and once that was finished Adam and Drew walked off stage. One of the listed support bands then got on stage and started their set. We then left the venue and headed back to the hotel. The one really helpful person from the promotors was a young lady called Ellie. She was really professional and so helpful. She was driving us around and acting as translator. We knew at this time that even if Pete was now released from the police station, he was never going to catch the last flight out of Heathrow. So, I made a few calls and started to make arrangments to hire an aircraft to bring him out. The promotor agreed to pay the fee. So, I had a Jet and crew waiting for me to give them the go ahead to fly Peter and Mick down to Austria.. All we needed was the news from the lawyer to say that he had been released.. But he hadnt.. In fact he was there all night. So, no chance of getting him to Graz.. Adam, Drew Ellie and I then sat in one of the rooms and just talked until about 3-4am. Ellie went home and we all went off to bed.