Get Loaded In The Park 2006

United Kingdom | by Ross Purdie | 28 August 2006

“Big up The Priory and the Metropolitan Police”, hollers Pete Doherty as he struts on stage, unshackled and seemingly sober. With rumours abound that the Babyshambles singer is currently on the verge of getting banned from every Priory centre in the world for continually sneaking in coke, there’s no guarantee he’s not polaxed on something tonight (he is headlining Get Loaded In The Park after all) but he’s looking the best we’ve seen him in years.

With the rehab police waiting in the wings, gorging on cocktails and free chicken backstage no doubt, it’s left to their day-release inmate to reaffirm his position as talent icon of Generation Skinny, as opposed to drug-mangled tabloid tragedy, before he’s thrown back in the clink with only cold turkey for company. As the spotlights beams down on his straw hat and striped top, there’s a bizarre irony in the fact that everyone in the crowd is more battered than our beloved/bemoaned ‘potty Pete’.

With the knives out in force as mourning Big Brother fans gather for an alternative adventure into carcrash voyeurism, it's easy to write off a man who, let's face it, has done little to ingratiate himself back into our hearts after years of frustration, missed gigs and bad blood spurting. There's a sense of a band - and it's focal of all focal figures - finding themselves at a career defining crossroads, with the future of Babyshambles and arguably Get Loaded resting on the next 45 minutes. A bit short for a headline set, you may think, and it starts off predictably ramshackle as the Babyshambles sideshow struggles to keep in time with itself and Doherty’s unpredictable warbling.

It's already been said many times before that the band have a lack of great songs, so it’s left to Libertines classics ‘Time For Heroes’ and ‘What Katie Did’ to really give the set the kick up the arse it needs. But there are a few gems in amongst the rubble. ‘Albion’ is a touching reminder of dreams so needlessly chased away, the song coming alive tonight with Pete still clearly believing, ‘Kilamangiro’ is a rumbling, two-fingered assault on anyone doubting his songwriting ability and set closing singalong ‘Fuck Forever’ is a clear indication that, despite the demons and playing not-the-greatest-show-on-earth, Pete Doherty still doesn’t really give a shit - and, arguably, nor do tonight's audience. 

It’s a fitting finale to a festival that’s never really taken itself too seriously during its three year history, an attitude clearly shared today by stage comperes, The Cuban Brothers. While Clapham enjoys the final mojitos of summer, the Latin-loving cabaret legends breakdance, joke, cajole and cover the stage in live funk with their 12-piece band. It doesn’t matter what event they perform at – they’ve played Reading, V and Bestival in the last year – they simply make any festival that much better.

Like the Cubans, many of the highlights of Get Loaded arrive during the afternoon. Lily Allen gets the crowd swaying to her nursery rhyme reggae, before Bez finally arrives after getting stuck on the M4 on his way back from Get Loaded’s other show in Cardiff. The ordeal seems to have made him go grey, but he’s in good spirits, jumping around to tracks by the Mondays and Roses and chanting "fuck the police" enough times to offend NWA. Perhaps he’s throwing down the gauntlet for young Pete - after all, it has been The Happy Mondays who’ve held the Get Loaded crown for the previous two years.

It’s the ‘real’ musicians who really impress though. The Young Knives may take a bit of growing, but once you’re there it’s difficult to get enough of them. Shrill, art-rock commentaries about middle England prove a fitting respite for the jangled demographic of Clapham Common and songs like ‘The Decision’ and ‘She’s Attracted To’ have equal measures of brain food and disco juice to bump around knowingly to.

Similarly with British Sea Power. So often mildly disappointing on stage, tonight nestled away in one of three marquees they play an absolute blinder. Usually when live opus ‘Lately’ is left off the set list it would be cause for concern, but when it’s replaced by the tripped out, oceanic epic that’s ‘True Adventures’ it’s absence makes sense. Like the seas meeting continents, the final song from latest album ‘Open Season’ laps and crashes with equal force, beautifully personifying the unpredictable nature of this nature-obsessed band.

Guillemots also impress with a mad, feedback-filled circus of squalling noise that distorts the much cleaner sound they resonate on record. Playing as if the Mercury Music Prize relied on it, Fyfe Dangerfield throws himself around his piano like a schizophrenic coyote hunting  fresh ways to sound even more grandiose. Those high pitched screams are chilling and warming at the same time and, mixed with off-kilter pop animosity, make for the most enthralling set of the day.

So sod Babyshambles. This year’s Get Loaded is easily the best to date, in spite of, maybe even because of, a headline set that fails to set the world alight. By the time he skips on stage like Cilla Black everyone's too mashed to care and you get the strange feeling that even if Doherty had failed to show it wouldn’t have really mattered. Expecting little and, wooed by the fact that he’s actually turned up and can sing coherently, the crowd chant along and absolutely love it, basking in the frontman’s temporary freedom and knowing that they, too, will be incarcerated once again come Tuesday morning.

Babyshambles are simply the file in the cake, the icing on the spoon. Rather than being the headline heavy showcase that many predicted, Get Loaded In The Park triumphs because throughout a sun and booze drenched day, beatboxers, breakdancers, DJs, bands, former drug dealers, comedians, comperes and crowds all come together to make this bank holiday party a uniquely ‘together’ affair compared to many of the festivals held in London throughout this long, hot summer.

Unlike Pete Doherty, it buzzed from start to finish. Sometimes, it seems, the drugs do work.    

Click here for loads more photos from Get Loaded In The Park 2006.