Patrick Walden

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Patrick Walden (b. October 5, 1978) is perhaps best known as the former guitarist for Babyshambles. Prior to joining Babyshambles, Walden belonged to a variety of London groups, the best known of which were Fluid 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, 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 of 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," "Dreams of an Insomniac", "Take Myself Apart," "Alibi," "32nd of December," and "Eight Dead Boys." He co-wrote six of the fourteen tracks that made it onto Down In Albion, Babyshambles' debut album.

At Babyshambles' live shows, he usually performed using a Olympic White 1960 Jazzmaster, with a 1985 Jazzmaster and a 90s American Strat as backups. Often citing experimental guitarists like J Mascis, Thurston Moore and Jimi Hendrix as early influences, Patrick Walden's unusual playing style set Babyshambles apart from other bands in the East London music scene.

In December of 2005, Patrick Walden briefly left Babyshambles. The band continued to perform under the same name, but did not attempt to replace Walden with a different guitarist. In the January 10, 2006, issue of NME, Patrick Walden's departure was officially announced[1].

However, on January 23, 2006, Patrick turned up to play guitar for the Babyshambles at a gig in the Junction, Cambridge[2]. He did not play again with the band at their subsequent gigs, but eventually returned to the band in February and played many of the gigs on the tour.

Walden is known for his unique string-bending guitar style. In an August edition of NME Doherty admitted that some songs had to be wiped from Babyshambles' set lists because the current lead guitarist could not recreate Walden's sound.