Patrick Walden

Patrick George Walden (b. Oct 5 1978) is best known as the former guitarist for Babyshambles. Prior to joining Babyshambles, Walden belonged to a variety of London groups, among which were Fluid, with Manus Fraser on vocals, the Six Cold Thousand, and The White Sport. He played guitar for The White Sport alongside another future Babyshambles member, drummer Adam Ficek. Walden also worked as a live guitarist and as a session musician, playing bass and guitar for numerous recording artists. Among those acts were Whitey, James Blunt, 500 and Crave, Ed Laliq, and, very briefly, The Honeymoon. Walden co-wrote a number of Babyshambles songs with Pete Doherty. One of them, "The Man Who Came To Stay," was released as the B-side to the Killamangiro single in November 2004. Other Doherty/Walden compositions include Top-10 single "Fuck Forever" and "Loyalty Song," "352 Days," "In Love With a Feeling," "Up the Morning," "Pipe Down," "32nd of December," and "8 Dead Boys." He co-wrote six of the sixteen tracks that made it onto Down In Albion, Babyshambles' debut album. At Babyshambles' live shows, he usually performed using a Olympic White 1960 Fender Jazzmaster, with a 1985 Jazzmaster and a 90s American Stratocaster as backups. Often citing experimental guitarists like J Mascis, Thurston Moore and Jimi Hendrix as early influences, Walden's unusual playing style set Babyshambles apart from other bands in the East London music scene. It is reported that the foot pedals he used whilst in Babyshambles were; Boss CE-5, Boss GE-7, Boss DD-3, Boss TU-2, a Marshall Footswitch, an AB Switch and a Korg Tuner. In December 2005, Walden left Babyshambles. The band continued to perform under the same name, but did not replace Walden with a different guitarist immediately. In the January 10, 2006, issue of NME, Walden's departure was officially announced.[1] However, on January 23, 2006, Walden turned up to play guitar for the Babyshambles at a gig in the Junction, Cambridge.[2] He returned once more to the band in February and played several of the gigs on that tour, but has not appeared with them onstage since. Walden was rumoured to have been playing at The Cheltenham Jazz Festival (27 April-2 May) as a special guest with Seb Rochford's band Fulborn Teversham, but cancelled the appearance. A message was posted on The Official Libertines Forum [3] that stated (as of 8 May 2007) he has been 'clean' of heroin for six months, 'even off the methadone', and on June 30th he appeared onstage, for the first time in London since leaving Babyshambles, with the Rebecas at the Vice Magazine run venue, The Old Blue Last. Walden appeared at the Rock Against Racism 30th Anniversary Show at the Hackney Empire on July 19, 2007. He played Babyshambles' classics with his old band mate Drew McConnell. The set list included "The Man Who came To Stay" and "8 Dead Boys" On August 3 2007 played a small gig in Hackney with all of his former Babyshambles bandmates (including Mick Whitnall) for friend Peter Wolfe's birthday. Currently, he plays guitar in the band Big Dave alongside drummer Seb Rochford and bassist Ruth Goller. Walden was supposed to have played with Babyshambles on their Nov/Dec 07 Arena tour. The band released a statement saying that he had dropped out at the last minute, even after travelling with them on the tour bus. No reason was given for him leaving.[4]

External links

• Official Babyshambles website
• Official White Sport website
• Big Dave's myspace