"Killamangiro" is a song by English band,

Babyshambles Babyshambles are an English rock band established in London. The band was formed by Pete Doherty (lead vocals, rhythm guitar) during a hiatus from the Libertines. As of 2014 the band included Mick Whitnall (lead guitar), Drew McConnell (bas ...

, released in November 2004 through

Rough Trade Records Rough Trade Records is an independent record label based in London, England. It was formed in 1976 by Geoff Travis, who had opened a record store off Ladbroke Grove. It is currently run by co-managing directors Travis and Jeannette Lee and ...

. It achieved respectable chart success, peaking at #8 on the UK Singles Chart. The song itself features an unusual opening beat from drummer

Gemma Clarke Gemma Clarke is a musician, who was previously the drummer for the Suffrajets, the Krak and Babyshambles and Adam Ant. She has recently taken up writing, and her article, entitled "For the love of music" was published in ''Louder Than Bombs'' ma ...

and is recognised for guitarist Patrick Walden's "messy" style of play and frontman

Pete Doherty Peter Doherty (born 12 March 1979) is an English musician. He is best known for being co-frontman of the Libertines, which he formed with Carl Barât in 1997. His other musical projects are indie rock, indie bands Babyshambles and Peter Dohert ...

's distinctive vocals. It is a regular feature of live setlists by the band and is one of their most popular and well known songs. The title is a

pun A pun, also known as a paronomasia in the context of linguistics, is a form of word play that exploits multiple meanings of a term, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from t ...

on the name of

Mount Kilimanjaro Mount Kilimanjaro () is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world, at above sea level and above its plateau base. It is also the highest volcano i ...

in Tanzania, and further mixes in the song's lyrics about "kill nga man for his giro" – a bank deposit method often associated with British

unemployment benefits Unemployment, according to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), is the proportion of people above a specified age (usually 15) not being in paid employment or self-employment but currently available for work d ...

. The track was released as a single, and subsequently included on the

album An album is a collection of audio recordings (e.g., music) issued on a medium such as compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl (record), audio tape (like 8-track cartridge, 8-track or Cassette tape, cassette), or digital distribution, dig ...

'' Down in Albion'' with different production ( Mick Jones) and a different drummer ( Adam Ficek) from the original. The circumstances of the recording of the song for the album were remarked upon by Babyshambles bass player

Drew McConnell Drew McConnell (born 10 November 1978 in Dublin, Ireland) is the bass guitarist and backing vocalist with Babyshambles, the band formed by frontman of the Libertines, Pete Doherty, and for former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher's band. He lived in ...

on 5 November 2005 in the

New Musical Express ''New Musical Express'' (''NME'') is a British music, film, gaming and culture website, bimonthly magazine, and brand. Founded as a newspaper in 1952, with the publication being referred to as a " rock inkie", the ''NME'' would become a maga ...

: "We weren't planning on having 'Killamangiro' on there. We got in the room and thought, "Let's run through 'Killamangiro'", but sneaky Mick pressed record. Pete was jumping over the desk and giving the engineer a heart attack. Pete's got a thing about not releasing tracks more than once. People have written that we can't play our instruments and that's really not true because this is completely live." "Killamangiro" is the only track by Doherty to be produced by Paul Epworth.

Music video

The video for "Killamangiro" features orange tinted live footage of the band on stage, with snippets of Doherty walking down a street, out of a shop, mock hanging himself with his mic cord, flicking through a magazine, and driving along in a car (complete with a Christmas tree air freshener). Footage was also shot at the Underground Club in Stoke-on-Trent.

Track listing

*CD rtradscd201 # "Killamangiro" # "Man Who Came To Stay" # "Killamangiro" (Video) *7" rtrads201 # "Killamangiro" # "Man Who Came To Stay"

Chart performance

References

2004 singles Babyshambles songs Songs written by Pete Doherty Song recordings produced by Paul Epworth 2004 songs Rough Trade Records singles UK Independent Singles Chart number-one singles {{2000s-rock-single-stub