Pete banned from playing at festival

8:46pm Tuesday 19th August 2008

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THE plug has been pulled on Pete Doherty’s band Babyshambles.

Magistrates have banned a concert by the indie band, planned for this weekend, because police said there was the potential for trouble.

We are not killjoys. It is unfortunate that -the safety issues could not be resolved in this case

Supt Paul Williams

Babyshambles were due to headline the opening night of the three-day Moonfest rock festival at Westbury.

But, after an all-day hearing, North Wiltshire Magistrates supported a Wiltshire Police application to cancel the show.

It is believed it was the first time police anywhere in the country had used Section 160 of the Licensing Act (2003) to get a performance stopped.

Officers objected to Friday’s show because of fears over crowd control. They made no application for Saturday and Sunday.

Both police and the Moonfest organiser John Green were represented in court by barristers. Doherty, pictured, who lives in Savernake Forest, did not appear.

Supt Paul Williams was in court for the police and he told media that West Wiltshire District Council had acted quite properly in issuing a licence for the three-day event.

But he said after scrutinising the safety arrangements police were unhappy at the level of crowd control and number of stewards the organisers proposed to provide.

They were concerned over the Babyshambles concert because there had been problems when Pete Doherty gave a solo performance in July at London’s Royal Albert Hall.

“It is very unusual for the Royal Albert Hall to have to request police assistance which, on that occasion, they did,” he said.

“He (Doherty) just whipped up the crowd and there was disorder.”

Ch Supt Julian Kirby, the divisional commander, said: “We carried out an analysis of what Pete Doherty and his band does.

“What he does as part of his routine is to gee up the crowd.

“They speed up and then slow down the music and create a whirlpool effect in the crowd.

“They (the crowd) all get geed up and then they start fighting.”

Supt Williams said the organisers told the court they had only 10 licensed stewards available and claimed that only 150 of the 5,000 tickets had been sold for Friday’s show.

Normally police insist on one steward for every 100 participants.

“You are talking of as many as 5,000 people in what is effectively an open field,” he said.

Mr Green said he was extremely disappointed at the decision.

A spokesman for Wiltshire Police said attempts were made seeking additional measures to minimise risks but that organisers had not made arrangements which satisfied their concerns.

Supt Williams added: “We are not killjoys and we help organisers with many events throughout the year and some are much larger than this one.

“It is unfortunate that the safety issues could not be resolved in this case for one of the three days but our duty is to protect the public.”