Babyshambles have been banned from headlining a festival in the UK by local police, because their frontman Pete Doherty is a likely to incite a raucous crowd reaction.

The band were due to headline Wiltshire's Moonfest Festival, which takes place from August 29th - 31st, but police looked at their track record and decided to pull the plug on their plans.

Chief Superintendent Julian Kirby of Wiltshire Police said: "We carried out an analysis of what Pete Doherty and his band does. What he does as part of his routine is to gee up the crowd. They speed up and then slow down the music and create a whirlpool effect in the crowd. They [the crowd] all get geed up and then they start fighting."

Festival organisers were then instructed to remove the band from the billing - even though they've only sold 150 tickets for the 5,000 capacity festival.

Drummer Adam Ficek said: "The whole thing is a farce, it's almost comical. The organiser of the festival is now on the verge of bankruptcy. Why? Because we intentionally speed up and slow down the tempo of our songs. We're now in the process of trying to make it happen in a different venue. Watch this space."

[UPDATE: The festival has now been cancelled, with organisers saying: "To say we are surprised and devastated would be an understatement. The police attended every public event licensing meeting over the last six months. They have always been aware that Babyshambles and Pete were appearing."]