The thrill grows after the opening band “The Kilians” finished its set. It was a perfect entry – but perfection is not what the crowd is waiting for. Everyone is waiting for Pete Doherty and his band to enter stage. The excitement is so hight as it is never quite sure if Babyshambles can really make it to the show. But on Wednesday night in the Columbiahalle in Berlin everything is going to be fine. After having some pyhsical problems (probably the stomach…) in Cologne the day before that lead to quite an early finish after not even an hour, Pete Doherty gave everything in Berlin – he was at his best.

When this fragile, inebriated person enters the stage it has got a dramaturgy like in theatre – sometimes one’s breath catches as you can never know if the frontman is going to find the microphone, if he is staying afoot or if he’s gonna fall off the stage. But what comes out of this ecstatic mind is true genius: Pete Doherty starts the journey with his band, in the next moment he starts drifting away into his dreamland, trips up the whole scenery only to come back and enter the finish line with Babyshambles again. It is a bit like jamming – a pleasant improvision.

Pete Doherty personifies something many people are longing for: He does not care about if the beats and tones are the right ones or if the text is the same as in the cd booklet. This is what the crowd likes Babyshambles for – it is the imperfection, the filthy, the vulnerable, the incalculable. In a society where everything is made up properly for the market and where all aspects of life are accurately planned to the detail, there is a desire for the unformed, for malfunction.

All the precision loads too much pressure on the people. It is kind of a release to see an artist that does not pay attention to the technical exactness of his guitar or the clearness in articulation. Perfection is an irrelevant fact. Music is feeling. »Failure is a noble pursuit«, Malcolm McLaren said in a ROGER interview. Pete Doherty is the ultimate failure – essentially failure till death. It is pure devotion to music. Such an easing imperfection is very hard to reach – so hard that probably only panaceas allow to get into this state.

What this has to do with design? Maybe designers are also fed up by the claim for perfection they face at their work. And probably there is a way to let imperfection enter the principles of design. It would definetely lead to a perfection on a higher level!