Watch Pete Doherty perform The Pogues song ‘Dirty Old Town’ in Ukrainian
During his rare television appearance on Friday night’s episode of The Last Leg, The Libertines’ co-frontman Pete Doherty performed part of The Pogues’ timeless classic, ‘Dirty Old Town’, in Ukrainian. The performance marked the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in solidarity with the latter.
At the end of the show, Doherty played ‘Dirty Old Town’ solo to wave goodbye to the audience, weaving the Ukrainian language into the final chorus. He concluded the performance by shouting “Slava Ukraini!” which translates as “Glory to Ukraine!”
Though The Pogues and the Dubliners popularised the classic track, it was written in 1949 by Ewan MacColl, one of the most influential British folk artists and father of Kirsty MacColl.
Elsewhere during his appearance, Doherty recalled a comical story of when he thought he had been kidnapped by two Russian artists. The Libertines frontman revealed that the two artists locked him inside a flat in Moscow. “When they were in London, I put them up, so they were supposed to put me up,” he recalled. “They locked me in their flat, and that was part of their installation, but they didn’t tell me. It was terrifying.”
“It was in this big brutalist-style flat and there were no windows,” he added. “I couldn’t get out. They filmed it all and transmitted it to the gallery. That was their installation, me freaking out in the flat. It got really good reviews though.”
Doherty will soon head off for his first solo acoustic tour of the UK and Ireland in a decade, titled ‘The Battered Songbook Tour’. The exciting tour is scheduled to begin in April and will feature career-spanning setlists collating hits from The Libertines, Babyshambles and Doherty’s solo endeavours.
“Peter promises to take audiences on an unforgettable ride into his strange and fascinating world where nothing is as it seems and life itself is an intense euphoric dream,” a press statement promoting the tour reads. “Friends and special guests are expected to join him on occasion across these seventeen dates.”
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