Babyshambles announced three small club shows in London, Sheffield and Stoke in January, 2006. To the surprise of his fans, the band performed without guitarist
Patrick Walden, with Doherty on guitar instead. Walden returned for a gig in Cambridge on January 23 and a UK tour in February. He played his last gig with the band at the Shepherd’s Bush Empire during that tour, and has not appeared with Babyshambles since. He has, however, appeared on stage independently and in the company of Drew McConnell and
Seb Rochford, playing two Babyshambles songs which he co-wrote with Pete Doherty.
In February 2006, Babyshambles won the
Naomi Award for Worst Live Act, and was nominated for several NME awards. The band performed "Albion" at the
NME Awards show, and Doherty won the "Sexiest Man" award.
In August, 2006, Babyshambles signed to major record label
Parlophone for the release of an EP, and headlined the
Get Loaded in the Park festival. The band released the limited edition single "Beg, Steal or Borrow", which was exclusively available to those who had attended the festival. A free copy of "The Blinding" was released in the street magazine
The Big Issue.
A cover version of the
Clash song "Janie Jones" was released through
B-Unique Records in October. The single was released to raise money for the late
Joe Strummer's charity foundation
Strummerville and features contributions from others bands such as
Dirty Pretty Things, Larrikin Love, We Are Scientists, The Kooks, and
Guillemots. This release marked the first time that
Carl Barat and
Pete Doherty had worked together since
The Libertines parted, although they never met during the recording process.
On
December 4 2006, ''
The Blinding EP'' was released to critical acclaim. The release was promoted with music videos for "The Blinding" and "Love You But You're Green", and an
acoustic performance of the latter on ''
The Culture Show''. The single was not eligible for the singles chart because it contained too many tracks; however, the band claimed on its
MySpace page that it would have made number four in the Christmas Day 2006 UK chart had it been eligible.
On
January 18, 2007, it was announced that the band had signed a long-term record deal with Parlophone. The contract was reportedly for three albums. In February, 2007, Babyshambles played
Oxegen 2007,
Glastonbury, the
V and
T in the Park festival. Their first arena tour, begins in November 2007, taking in dates at the
MEN Arena in Manchester, the
Nottingham Arena, London's
Wembley Arena and Birmingham's
National Indoor Arena.
