i read this in the paper the other day but hav jus found it on the net aswell.
My long night with a Libertine
(Filed: 08/07/2004)
Pete Doherty of the Libertines was an accident waiting to happen, says Neil McCormick
Supposedly celebrating its 50th anniversary this week, rock and roll has already had more than its share of tragedies. So it is with a heartbreaking combination of sadness and resignation that one watches another bright young spark succumb to the tired myths of hedonism and excess.
The first time I met Pete Doherty of the Libertines, I knew that he was an accident waiting to happen. Having witnessed the group deliver an abandoned, chaotic and utterly exhilarating set of hyped-up garage rock at Glasgow's King Tut's in February last year, I was surprised to find the slightly dazed, waif-like singer and guitarist turn up at my hotel door after midnight, inquiring in his polite, soft-spoken manner whether I had any cocaine.
I guess rock journalists have a reputation almost as bad as their subjects. I won't pretend that I am entirely innocent, but I have seen too much of the dark side of narcotics to condone their casual abuse.
Still, I invited Pete in to share a bottle of red wine, my vice of choice. Whereupon Pete produced a bag of heroin (which he claimed had been donated by a fan) and proceeded to chop out a couple of thick lines. When I informed him I wouldn't be sharing his stash with him, he did not seem particularly bothered. He just snorted both lines himself.
I wrote then that I feared "for the health and sanity" of the Libertines, suggesting that "they may one day be established among Britain's greatest combos. But first they have to survive life on the road."
What I didn't report was that I spent several hours that night talking to him about the perils of heroin and gently trying to disabuse him of his naïve theory that he wouldn't become addicted because he was snorting rather than injecting.
I did share my concerns with his management, who told me it was a full time job keeping Pete away from "undesirable elements". The following week, the European tour was cancelled.
This weekend, the Libertines play Scotland's T in the Park festival without their erstwhile co-leader. Although they still have Doherty's songwriting partner, the estimable (and much more sensible) Carl Barat, for fans of the band this must be a little like the Beatles without John (or perhaps more pertinently the Stones without Keith).
But, after his three failed stints in rehab and a spell in prison (for burgling Barat's flat), Doherty's bandmates seem to be resigned to life without him.
They released a statement announcing that "he is and always will be a Libertine, and when he cleans up he'll be welcomed back into the band".
Meanwhile, Pete has admitted to being addicted to crack and heroin. "I'm not scared about death," he told the Sunday Mirror last week. "I don't care if everyone says I'm going to die if I carry on taking drugs. I know people who take more drugs than me. It isn't drugs I need to get rid of, it's the demons in my head."
Rock's dismal history of drug casualties (the "Stupid Club" that Kurt Cobain's mother pleaded with her son not to join) suggests Doherty should take the dangers a little more seriously. Anyone who argues that hedonism fuels creativity has obviously never listened to Mötley Crüe.
It is certainly not Doherty's drug habit that has made the Libertines such an exciting prospect. He and Barat are talented songwriters, with a penchant for juicy chord changes and a quintessentially English lyrical sensibility that draws on an imaginative reworking of the imagery of old Albion.
The Libertines spearheaded a wave of new British bands (including the Ordinary Boys, the Others and Razorlight) with a refreshing sense of polemical urgency and an intense desire to make a real connection with their audience.
This is a band who loved to play, staging secret gigs and spontaneous performances in public places, every show ending in a riotous stage invasion, whether it is Brixton Academy or somebody's front room.
They recently completed recording their second album, a ragged masterpiece that draws on the intense relationship between the two frontmen. The sad thing is that, when it is released by Rough Trade in August, it will almost certainly prove to be both the band's major breakthrough and swansong.
The anthemic first track (and debut single, released on August 9) already sounds like Doherty's apology for the mess he has made. It is called, with a genuine sense of contrition, You Can't Stand Me Now.
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i do sympathise with pete in a way but hes also a fucking idiot. i agree with the writer when he says that these pathetic myths about the greatness of living the rock n roll lifestyle and being 'elegantly wasted' need to be given their marching orders or buried forever.
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nothing worse than a parody of the 'rock star lifestyle'
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July 11 2004, 8:18 PM
those two words have become pretty parodic over the years as it is. im not saying pete is a faker or anything like that, just that its fucking stupid now, rather than something for fans to empathise/sympathise/romanticise. he needs to get a grip of himself and wallowing in self pity or his 'demons'. sort it out mate.
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Re: nothing worse than a parody of the 'rock star lifestyle'
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July 11 2004, 9:29 PM
*sigh*
an astute and sensitive article methinks. one to counter the sensationalism of the tabloids perhaps?
unfortunately the more we discuss it (im as guilty as any) and the more it is reported in the press the more caged the boy will become.
has anyone read the nme letters page this week with the request from the guy writing hs dissertation on the bands press coverage over the last year? did anyone email him?
jess x
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save me from tomorrow
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Re: nothing worse than a parody of the 'rock star lifestyle'
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July 11 2004, 9:44 PM
^^^^^^ sorry i disagree with that.
Although there's no doubt that all the media attention/fan adoration won't help, it's a personal problem of his own. Without trying to sound pompous, as my personal representation of pete is simply an amalgamation of interviews/articles and a drunken handshake, it's clearly his own romantic view of drugs and the rock'n'roll lifestyle that he needs to shift.
His idol and exemplar is syd vicious, and he clearly believes that making music and taking drugs are symbiotic (not sure that's the right word, but you know what i mean). We read about his romantic view of opium, and his belief that it fuels his creativity; he probably believes he's reliant on it for success as much as he's now physically reliant on it.
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Re: nothing worse than a parody of the 'rock star lifestyle'
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July 11 2004, 9:57 PM
i agree with you.
i dont think we are responsible for his emotional state and i certainly agree that he probably believes his creativity is reliant on the junk.
the point i would like to make is that peter is renowned for reading any press about himself and for reading the forum threads and while we are not responsible for his psyche it must surely affect hime. people with poor self image always pay more attention to the negative images of themselves than the positive and for the most part will take the slating to heart while dismissing the admiration as an impossibility.
ultimately as you say, peter needs to separate music and drugs and to rediscover the fact that he is just as gifted without junk as with it, but equally, as he says he must overcome his daemons too. unfortunatley to overcome his daemons he must come off the drugs because he needs to learn who he is again, and that is what he hasnt realised as yet.
jess x
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save me from tomorrow
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instead of all this 'tragically wasted' shite. all these romantic quasi-sympathetic commentaries could do with a bit of a jolt, like what i read in arena a few months back when they called the libs representatives of 'wastrel chic'.
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Re: i think the media should be more critical of pete
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July 11 2004, 10:06 PM
"wastrel chic"?!!! You're kidding me? that is by far one of the most stupid and irresponsible things I have ever heard. Arena should be ashamed of itself.
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in some ways, theyre right. look at all the quotes from pete quite aware of his predicament and its ramifications as well as what it can do for ones career. im not saying for one minute, that this is all a big ruse, or a ploy on petes part, but just that what with all the articles on these latest 'episodes', it does indeed look as if the drugs/exclusion from band/alleged bodyguards in studio/etc etc etc/drama = magnificent hype topped off with all important 'authenticity'. i can see how they arrived at the wastrel chic conclusion.
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Re: i think the media should be more critical of pete
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July 12 2004, 12:12 AM
upset by it all and utterly helpless, whats the point of these posts when nothing, neither good nor bad can come of it.
im not any of condemning you, i too am posting myself, just expressing my sheer melancholy at the situation.
time to sleep and forget for a while methinks.
xx
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"I've tried so hard to keep myself from falling back into my bad old ways"
not hard enough apparently.
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Re: i think the media should be more critical of pete
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July 12 2004, 2:21 PM
I don't REALLY want to contribute to this but I have to put you straight there stu_w.
People do snort heroin. I used to work with a guy who snorted lines of the stuff when the boss went to lunch.
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