Babyshambles guitarist Patrick Walden dead at 46
Patrick Walden, founding member of Babyshambles, guitarist Patrick Walden, has died aged 46.
Having played in other London-based acts such as The White Sport and the Six Cold Thousand, Walden found a home in Pete Doherty’s next act away from the Libertines in 2004. He also turned in a variety of session work apart from the band during the group’s interim periods.
News of Walden’s death was shared on Babyshambles’ social media page. They wrote: “It is with deep regret and sadness that we share the news of Patrick Walden’s death. We feel very fortunate to have known/loved and worked with him and we kindly ask for respect and privacy during these difficult times.”
No cause of death has been confirmed.
Upon first joining the group, Walden had a hand in writing many of the tunes on the group’s debut album, Down in Albeon, including fan favourites ‘Fuck Forever’ and ‘Pipedown’. While he remained with the group for the first two years of their development, he eventually parted ways with them in early 2006, citing personal issues.
Although Walden had mixed feelings surrounding his old band, he did see the silver lining in becoming known for his skills as a player, saying in 2014, “Pete was the one that made it all so exciting for so many people. It’s definitely affected me in some way but at the same time it gave me the opportunity to become sort of well-known for my guitar playing.”
Recently, Doherty has talked about the prospect of getting band members back together for reunion shows. However, the one-off surprise gig they played at Doherty’s solo show in Northampton did not feature Walden in any capacity. However, Walden did enjoy a few unofficial reunions with his old bandmates years before, such as when he played a solo gig in Hackney in 2007 with his former bandmates.
Doherty has kept the door open for possible reunion dates to creep in. While he had kept his focus squarely on The Libertines after their reunion in the 2020s, remarking in 2024, “I think there might even be dates pencilled in. Definitely for shows. The thing about the ‘Shambles is we had so many songs that we never got round to recording.”
He continued: “It’s just been a question of who’s gonna do what because there was a few Babyshambles line-ups and they’re all brilliant. In an ideal world, we’d get Pat [Walden, guitarist] and Mick [Whitnall, guitarist] playing and then maybe get Gemma [Clarke] and Adam [Ficek] to do some drums.”
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