Drew McConnell

From Libertines Wiki

Drew McConnell (born November 10, 1978 in Dublin, Ireland) is the bass guitarist and backing vocalist for Babyshambles. He took over on bass after Peter Perrett Jr left the band in 2004. McConnell grew up in Spain and completed a bass degree at the Institute of Contemporary Music Performance (ICMP).

Formerly a member of the band Elviss, he currently also participates in a number of side-projects as well as writing and recording solo material. McConnell organizes a musical collective named Helsinki[1], with which he has performed solo material as well as versions of Babyshambles songs, such as a swing version of their single, Delivery. In addition to Helsinki, he is in the bands The Phoenix Drive[2] and Mongrel [3] and has played double bass and piano with Irish singer/songwriter Fionn Regan. His newest group is The Traitors who formed on the 15th of December, 2008. [4]. More recently, McConnell has supported Carl Barat on bass in solo gigs following the break up of the Dirty Pretty Things[5].

During Babyshambles' recording of Shotter's Nation, McConnell would keep internet users up-to-date by posting a blog on MySpace, describing what had been going on in the studio each day. Following the album's release in 2007, his blog detailing the band's experiences while on tour was also published in the Guardian [6]. As well as posting on his MySpace, he sometimes posts on FrenchDogblues.com under Doherty's username, and on the libertines.org forum.

He is heavily involved in the Love Music Hate Racism movement, contributing a song with Babyshambles to a CD given away free with a copy of NME in 2007, and also playing the LMHR carnival with Helsinki in 2008 as a replacement for Babyshambles (as Peter Doherty was in prison at the time of the show).