"Killamangiro" is a song by English band,

Babyshambles Babyshambles were 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 2013 the band includes 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. Having successfully promoted and sold records by punk rock and early post-pun ...

. It achieved respectable chart success, peaking at #8 on the

UK Singles Chart The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...

. The song itself features an unusual opening beat from ex-Babyshambles 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 Magaz ...

and is recognised for guitarist

Patrick Walden Patrick George Walden (born 5 October 1978 in Islington, London) is best known as the former guitarist for Babyshambles. Prior to joining Babyshambles, Walden belonged to a variety of London groups, among which were Fluid, the Six Cold Thousand ...

's "messy" style of play and frontman

Pete Doherty Peter Doherty (born 12 March 1979) is an English musician, songwriter, actor, poet, writer, and artist. 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 b ...

'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 paronomasia, 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 the intentional use of homophoni ...

on the name of

Mount Kilimanjaro Mount Kilimanjaro () is a dormant volcano in Tanzania. It has three volcanic cones: Kibo, Mawenzi, and Shira. It is the highest mountain in Africa and the highest free-standing mountain above sea level in the world: above sea level and ab ...

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 British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

unemployment benefits Unemployment benefits, also called unemployment insurance, unemployment payment, unemployment compensation, or simply unemployment, are payments made by authorized bodies to unemployment, unemployed people. In the United States, benefits are fun ...

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

album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), Phonograph record, vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as Digital distribution#Music, digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early ...

Down in Albion ''Down in Albion'' is the debut album by Babyshambles, Pete Doherty's post-The Libertines, Libertines band. ''Down in Albion'' was released on 14 November 2005 on Rough Trade Records, although it was leaked on to the Internet on 19 October 200 ...

with different production ( Mick Jones) and a different drummer (

Adam Ficek Adam Steven Ficek (born 8 March 1974) is an English musician and psychotherapist who performs under the Roses Kings Castles name. He is a songwriter and member of Babyshambles. Ficek joined Babyshambles in 2005 with former The White Sport ban ...

) 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 and fronted by frontman of the Libertines, Pete Doherty, and for former Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher's band ...

on 5 November 2005 in the

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

: "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." Notable for being 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 {{2000s-rock-single-stub