The rock star Peter Doherty, 25, had his bail conditions changed today to allow him to play a gig with his band Babyshambles.

The ex-Libertines singer and apparently occasional boyfriend of the model Kate Moss was in court accused of robbery and blackmail.

He was arrested earlier this month following an alleged dispute with the documentary maker Max Carlish at the Rookery Hotel in Islington, north London.

Also detained was Alan Wass, 23, a guitarist with the four-piece band Left Hand, who faces the same charges.

The men, both of north London, appeared at the Snaresbrook crown court, in London, today for a preliminary hearing.

Their lawyers had indicated at a hearing in April they would be pleading not guilty and that there was likely to be an application to dismiss the case.

Doherty, dressed in a black suit and a tie with a white shirt and navy trench coat, confirmed his name as he stood in the dock next to Wass, who was wearing a grey suit, black shirt and large star emblem on a silver chain.

Doherty's lawyer, Eamonn Sherry QC, asked the judge, Mr Justice Radford, for a variation in his client's bail conditions.

He requested Doherty's surety be reduced by £50,000, from £150,000, and that his curfew of 10pm to 7am be changed tomorrow night to midnight to 7am to enable him to play a gig at Brixton Academy in south London. The prosecution in the case offered no objection.

The judge agreed to reducing the surety and also to allowing Doherty two more hours out tomorrow night provided requests to change bail conditions were not a "too regular occurrence".

Mr Justice Radford asked the two men to stand as he told them their case was being adjourned to April 18.

He said their bail would continue, warning them: "Let me make this perfectly clear, as I say to all defendants: you must abide by these conditions. If you fail to observe any one of them, it is very likely you will be arrested and your bail will be revoked."

Doherty left the court in a black Mercedes after being greeted by fans outside. Doherty, a self-confessed drug addict and now singer of the band Babyshambles, has been the centre of media attention during his romance with Miss Moss, 31.