Time For Heroes

Workin' For The Industry

2005-03-24T08:48:00.000-08:00

Excellent Yeti Live Session on BBC Collective

Finally, Something Musical To Report On:

BABYSHAMBLES have headed into the studio in WALES to start work on their debut album. Pete Doherty and the band left London on Sunday (March 20) to move into the Twin Peaks studio in the Brecon Beacons. The star is cutting himself off from the outside world in the remote studio previously used by Manic Street Preachers and Catatonia. A source close to the band told NME.COM, "They've only been in there a day."

Babyshambles are working on the record with The Clash's Mick Jones and producer Bill Price, known for his work with The Clash, Sex Pistols and on the last Libertines album. Doherty was given permission to go to Wales after re-arranging his strict bail conditions in relation to charges of alleged blackmail and robbery. The band are expected to be in the studio until Doherty must return to Snaresbrook Crown Court on April 18 to enter his plea. Babyshambles' debut album is expected to be released this summer.

Where Pete's Policemen Walk The Beat

2005-03-17T12:12:00.000-08:00

Pete on the right side of the law for once:

'TROUBLED rocker Pete Doherty treats cops to an impromptu midnight show as they call to check he is observing his 10pm curfew. Pete, 26, popped out of his flat clutching a guitar and began playing for the surprised officers, who burst out laughing. The star, who is battling a drug problem, has to be in by ten under bail conditions for a robbery charge. His model lover Kate Moss, 31, was in the East London flat at the time. A source said: "The police arrived at 12. Pete, as ever, was a bundle of fun. He played them a couple of Babyshambles songs. "The officers thought it was hilarious. He went on serenading Kate late into the night."'

(thanks Marta for the link)

Check out this hot new fansite

In other news, Pete's hotmail account has reportedly been broken into and shut down. So you'll just have to find somewhere else to send your love letters and adolescent poetry. Just kidding... Maybe.

Keep your eye on this page for great downloads (thanks style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Jimmy)

More NME News:

Doherty is set to feature on the new Wolfman & The Side Effects single--fighting. 'Ice Cream Guerrilla' is due for release on April 25 and will feature the song 'Wolfman' --a live Babyshambles favourite--on the B-side. A source close to the band has revealed that the recording will also include the sound of a scuffle breaking out between Doherty and Wolfman.

He said: "Wolfman wrote the track and has been playing it live for the last 2 years. The lyrics used to go: "Wolfman you give me the hump man, you come in like a swamp man, I jump when you say jump man". "The day the track was recorded the lyrics were changed to: "Wolfman you used to be my friend man, you really are the end man, you're fucking up again man."

"When Pete heard the new lyrics and realised they were about him--the fight broke out."

The Man Who Would Give Ring?

2005-03-10T07:39:00.003-08:00

Pete and Kate Engaged?
KATE MOSS is back with troubled lover PETE DOHERTY--and sporting a ring on her engagement finger. Kate showed off the band for all to see and sparked rumours that junkie rocker Pete has popped the question.

Guardian Article On Pete's Poetry

Pete Doherty makes a surprise appearance this weekend: using his own blood to create a painting for the cover of a free literary magazine. Currently observing a strict curfew as part of bail conditions for an alleged robbery, the unpredictable former lead singer of the Libertines has donated the striking image, along with a poem and a short piece of writing, to Full Moon Empty Sports Bag. It marks a prolific week for the 25-year-old, who has also read poetry on BBC radio, performed at the 100 Club in Oxford Street, London, with his new band Babyshambles and shaved off his hair. A regular contributor to Full Moon, one of a new generation of intelligent urban magazines springing from east London's literary scene, Doherty also suggested the theme of the latest issue: the self-destructiveness of fame.

(thanks to Graham for the link)

Here are those poems, as found on the .Org Forum:

Untitled

Waking up alive in London beaches of muddy iron filings
Bubbled under
Puddles of rain
Soaped wet water
Fitzrovia splashes in the dips
Of her curbs as I slip a folded fifty
In to a clammy glove
And skip
Off the pavement by the
'Kebabish City'
lick lick fry chick chat
does fixing up rot your teeth?
What about mine
In the sweet by and by my crooked smile
from one too many sad goodbyes no longer says hello
(the west end is piles of rusting pedals and blank metal stares)

Nearly all of a sudden

Almost all nearly all

'I've already put that down.' This last line repeated by muffled red Sally who takes the typist's chair and with that very same thing as that view of which wrote a letter that made me feel the opposite of better some years ago when I first met her. I say "up the morning".

The days are dripping with blood and hungry without hunger. What meagre meals I do scoff are peppered with bullet holes and garnished with Christ-knows-what. Oh you my book, so new take me deep inside you, deep into your trusted heart and hear me scream and speak sorrow for it is all I can do to hold the pen to the page... the day staggers in to the shabby hotel room, breathless and dripping with blood aright. Start again. Dripping in blood are the days changing in to evening wear and so London is a night time pipeline red alert and dead dirt in the sticky spoon bubbles up a sweet ancient perfume steamed form the spoon and as the stopper props up the droper the drop the shot, that will pop rock a'flame and rolling bones in a sharp dressed ghost's freefall through the peaceful minutes at the beginning of the night.

Moments that break a young man's heart.

Number one: somehow I would never play for QPR and therefore never score QPR's winning goal in the FA Cup Final (a brick wall is my closest companion, friend, the only witness to me clenching a season of domestic and European silverware maybe wegerte style) beat 14 men and then running rings round 11 men and then lets see in off the bar so it somehow wedges in the angled netting of the top left hand corner of the onion bag 'from the moment it left his foot'

And now we return to the olivelli hotel, store street, wcl. It's of course, upon this page I mean to say I write is the place I might still be honest with you whoever who are if indeed anyone is reading this. Hello? 'op yurs yiz borstaye 'rare' my throat dry like gaffa tape a gaping bracket like a hole in the road that trucks pull up and dump loads of food, fags and iced tea in to every couple of minutes. These days I have axed the smoking middle man and spike right from the bloody heart of things flooding up the hole in my soul that someone seems to be on the latch by way of that 20 second catch (the need to fill the hole comes from the hole……that comes from knowing that there is a need to fill a hole that...)

Whether a poem be 'true' (as true as a poet be true) or a poem be 'good' (as good is critically understood) is down to the poet’s concern for that which he craved in to wood and the words that he wrote with the red of his blood.

deeper than bloody hell. Open like the (blotch of me veins scotch). Oh the obscenity of the sea though I pursue innocently the city’s whims teeth cleansed for the first time in weeks must get my act together the pair of us my sweet? My tongue flavoured gossips of the scaggy raggy jagged underworld we inhabit. My oh my all living dead like we wander the wards of my oh my.

It's Just His 19th Nervous Breakdown

2005-03-03T20:17:00.000-08:00

Another Pete breakdown in Stoke

"Just got back from this afternoons gig in Stoke. What a fucking disgrace, im suprised nobody's posted anything. Pete was fucked, spent almost the entire sat (all 5 or 6 songs) sat on the floor next to the drummer. Seemed to forget words to songs and just wasnt with it at all. Band tried to sort him out but to no avail, I felt sorry for Pat and Drew. I thought he was sorting himself out?, the final nail in the coffin for me im affraid, that is the last babyshambles gig i am off to. The worst thing was, most of the crowd seemed to really enjoy it and were still shouting 'we love you Pete' after he had fucked off. Pathetic"

Guardian piece on playing more than one show in a day

But then the twice-in-one-night performance plays the same part in rock'n'roll as it does in the kiss-and-tell. In the music industry, just like in the tabloids, it goes without saying that more is always more, never less. And, of course, if two times is good and three times is great, four times is even better.

This, absurdly, is what Pete Doherty's Babyshambles somehow managed on New Year's Eve with shows in Birmingham, Stoke, Oldham and Manchester. This is the band who've caused at least one riot by their inability to get it together enough to play even once, and yet they pulled it off. What better way to show you're not the flake-out that everybody thought than by bombing up and down the motorway in the middle of the night? Unless by pulling a supermodel with a unduly literal take on what "dangerous" means, (it's supposed to be a teen magazine's euphemism for messy hair and "flashing" eyes rather than a mundane medical diagnosis). But I digress.

MP3 of Pete on Radio 4's "Bespoken Word"

Was It The Liquor Or Was It My Soul?

2005-02-27T08:59:00.000-08:00

Some lovely pictures from the 100% Better Club

Guardian Piece By Max Carlish, Pete's Accuser (thanks Graham)

"The first time I met Pete Doherty was in a gungy, grungy nightclub in Leicester. I'm not a pop man, I'm a documentaries man. I helped produce an Emmy and Bafta-award-winning television series about the Royal Opera House. But I had seen a photo of Pete in a newspaper pretending to smoke crack and had read about his genuine addiction, and he fascinated me."

Poetical Pete

PETE DOHERTY is to appear on BBC RADIO 4's 'BESPOKEN WORD' programme, performing music and poetry. The Babyshambles singer will feature on the March 3 show playing a specially adapted version of 'Killamangiro' and reading war poet Siegfried Sassoon’s 'Suicide In The Trenches'. 'Bespoken Word' producer Graham Frost was impressed by Doherty's poetry posted on his website babyshambles.com, and the star was asked by fellow musician Salina Saliva from the band Saltpeter to go on the show.

She said: "Whilst making the second 'Bespoken Word' series I was asked who I would most like to interview and introduce. For me it had to be Doherty, the tastiest poet in town. We all know him from before, when it was more about his poetic voice, lyrics, his spirit and work before and beyond the tabloid headlines and here I believe we have captured some of that," Saliva added.

Doherty famously recited 'Suicide In The Trenches' alongside former bandmate Carl Barat when The Libertines picked up the Best British Band gong at the NME Awards 2004. 'Bespoken Word' featuring Pete Doherty will air on March 3 at 11pm.

What's The Difference Between New Labour and Tory?

2005-02-24T09:08:00.000-08:00

Simple, Tory leader Michael Howard no like Pete:

PETE DOHERTY has been attacked by TORY leader MICHAEL HOWARD.

In the latest example of the Babyshambles singer's increasing notoriety, the Conservative MP has said that it is surprising that the star is dominating the newspapers despite his recent drug problems. "Here you have a man who takes drugs and gets locked up - yet ends up on the front pages," said Howard. Howard is urging pop stars and celebrities to be positive role models to children as he outlined his party's policies on drugs, reports BBC News.

"Today, more than ever, we need responsible role models for our children--professional athletes prepared to say drugs are wrong, pop stars willing to say drugs aren't cool, actors who make clear that drugs ruin lives," he said. "Because we all know that youngsters are more influenced than ever before by the celebrities they see on TV, the musicians they listen to and who are featured in magazines."

The politician added that the media should not glorify drug use. "Some in the media give the impression that drug-taking is cool - is it any wonder that children believe this?" asked Howard. "I think many parents will have been rather surprised by the celebrity coverage given to Peter Doherty over the last month."

Down In Albion, A Bandmate Black And Blue

2005-02-23T07:53:00.000-08:00

Onstage Punch-up at the Brixton Show:

Rock singer Pete Doherty has been involved in a fight with his band's guitarist at their biggest gig to date. Babyshambles played for 5,000 fans at London's Brixton Academy on Tuesday. The former Libertines singer traded blows with guitarist Patrick Walden. They were separated and bundled off stage before returning to end the set. The show was earlier held up due to audience overcrowding. On Monday Doherty faced blackmail and robbery charges in court, which he denies. He is out on 50,000 GBP bail and the judge agreed to extend his 2200 GMT curfew deadline by two hours so he could play the Brixton gig.

Frenzied reception

Babyshambles, which he formed after his acrimonious departure from the Libertines, played a warm-up show at The Garage, north London, on Monday. On Tuesday, Doherty and his three bandmates were introduced to the crowd by Mick Jones, the former Clash guitarist who produced the Libertines' second album. Babyshambles took the stage to a frenzied reception at 2200 GMT, launching into their last single, Killamangiro, which reached number eight in December. But the group had to stop during the next song to persuade fans not to push forward and allow security guards to pull people out of the crush. Doherty appealed to fans to calm down, saying: "There's a few people getting hurt down the front, you've got to move back."

The music resumed minutes later but after several more songs, the singer appeared to accidentally disconnect Walden's guitar, leading the pair to trade kicks and punches. Bouncers stepped in and the band left the stage, but returned after five minutes and finished their 50-minute performance with no further trouble. Doherty, 25, had to be home by midnight to observe the curfew, which is one of the conditions of his bail.

On Monday, the judge agreed to allow him to perform on condition that requests for changes to his bail terms were "not too regular an occurrence". The singer was arrested with fellow musician Alan Wass on 2 February after an alleged dispute with documentary-maker Max Carlish at a London hotel. They are next due in court on 18 April.

Thanks to Matt For The Link

You May Wake Up One Day In The Last Chance Saloon

2005-02-20T16:43:00.000-08:00

New York Times Article on Pete (registration required):

But in addition to his musical talent, Mr. Doherty demonstrated an effortless knack for getting himself in trouble. In June 2003 he entered the first of many stints in rehab, only to walk away days later. In September 2003 he spent more than a month in Wandsworth Prison for burglarizing Mr. Barat's apartment. Last year he received a four-month suspended sentence for carrying an illegal knife. The Libertine's self-titled second album - recorded with security guards in the studio to keep Mr. Doherty and Mr. Barat from coming to blows - went straight to No. 1 in Britain and won critical acclaim in the United States in September. But by then Mr. Doherty had been kicked out of the band.

Babyshambles, the band he started next, looked ready to repeat his former success. But it didn't quite work out that way. During Babyshambles's British tour late last year, Mr. Doherty's drug use led to canceled shows, backstage overdoses, fights with hecklers and fan riots.

Can Slash Save Pete Doherty?

To the horror, I'm sure, of the schmindie purists who hang out there, west London's Rough Trade record shop has just been discovered by packs of teenyboppers in search of Pete Doherty CDs and T-shirts. Therein, an urgent question: now that NME's Coolest Man of 2004's influence extends to schoolgirls, how long before his original fans abandon him? After all, what self-respecting indie type wants to share their hero - even if he is a certifiably bohemian junkie - with little kids? But if he does manage to survive this loss of cred, and stops his life unravelling further, he has a future ahead of him. Just ask Slash.

Carl On Pete And The Future

BBC Gossip From The NME Awards

Pete's current band, Babyshambles, lost out in the Best Live Act category to The Libertines but when Carl went to pick up the award he made an impassioned speech. Backstage he told us that despite the media circus he was really looking forward to seeing Pete again:

"I was hoping to see him tonight - I've spent three days in a sort of cold turkey state myself, expecting to have this reunion. It would have meant so much to me, it would have meant more than the world. Of course, this would have been the wrong time and the wrong place, but it just seemed inevitable that we would be forced together. I will say that the fact that Pete isn't here, is for such very, very fine reasons, because he's getting better and he's not yet well enough to be here."

"My heart goes out to him, and I defy anyone that thinks or says otherwise."

You'll Never Fumigate The Demons...No Matter How Much You Smoke

2005-02-12T19:19:00.000-08:00

Pete's been clean for 8 days...but can he stay that way?
See the report on Spirit of Albion

And here's a good article from John Harris on the effects of crack smoking:
Pipe Down

"These days, barely a week goes past without another crack-meets-music story impacting on the headlines - and most of them, of course, involve that wretched, broken talent Pete Doherty.

Crack is "gorgeous", he told the tabloids this week, before adding that he wanted to kick the drug so as to cement his heartwarming relationship with Kate Moss. It's not just him, though: in that corner of the universe reserved for musical small fry, there is the Others' Dominic Masters, who has claimed to use the drug as a means of 'winding down'"

Not only does the article call Pete a "broken talent"...but it compares him to Suede's Brett Anderson...now that's a low blow!

They Have A Way To Make You Pay

2005-02-08T14:06:00.000-08:00

Pete is out:

PETE DOHERTY is free from PENTONVILLE PRISON on bail after six nights behind bars, police have said. The star has been in the London jail all weekend, and was widely expected to be released yesterday (February 7) on GBP 150,000 bail. However, following complications with the payment, the former Libertine had to spend another night in the prison.

Speaking earlier today, Doherty's manager James Mullord explained the delay. He said: "We just had problems coming up with a personal security of someone who had GBP 100,000 in their bank account--trying to fudge it did not work...hopefully he will be cleaner now than when he went in because he's been in there six days now."

NME.COM understands that Doherty will be taken straight from prison to a drugs rehabilitation centre. Last week, the singer was granted bail with curfew restrictions at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court after being charged with robbery and blackmail. Doherty, 25, was arrested following an alleged incident in a London hotel on Wednesday night (February 2) and has been in custody since. Musician Alan Wass, 23, also of north London, appeared in court accused of the same offences. Magistrates imposed a range of bail conditions on Doherty including a curfew between 10pm and 7am, except when he attends a drug rehabilitation centre. He was told he would not be able to leave his home without being accompanied by a security firm.

The star must also surrender his passport and report daily to a local police station. Doherty was arrested after police were called to an Islington hotel in response to claims that a man had been assaulted. A man in his thirties was later taken to University College Hospital, London, with facial injuries, before being discharged. A lawyer representing Doherty and Wass said the pair strenuously deny the charges.

In other news, like our kid King Monkey, Pete had a go with this generous tart:

Read all about it here.

Unfortunately, the full length version of the Newsnight interview has been taken off the BBC's schedule. The Observer has information here.

Another Pete Interview

And Babyshambles.net had this to report:

As expected, Baby shambles will definitely not be playing the NME show at Brixton this Thursday (10th) as Peter will be in rehab. The headline gig at Brixton on 22nd February is still going ahead.

Will He Hear The Jailer Rattling The Key?

2005-02-03T18:35:00.000-08:00

We'll See:

PETE DOHERTY has been charged with blackmail and robbery following his arrest earlier this week. Doherty has been held in a north London police station throughout the day after an alleged incident in a hotel in the city. A lawyer acting on behalf of Doherty, and a second man, announced this evening that both will face two charges.

He said: "(Pete) has been charged with two offences, one of blackmail, and one of robbery. They will be appearing at Highbury Corner Magistrates Court tomorrow morning (February 4) and they've been remanded in custody by police."

Prison For Pete?

2005-02-02T18:07:00.000-08:00

It Appears So

PETE DOHERTY has been arrested on suspicion of assault and robbery.

Doherty remains in custody this morning in London (February 3) after being arrested after an alleged incident at the Rookery Hotel in Clerkenwell. According to press reports, the arrest followed an alleged altercation with documentary maker Max Carlish. Carlish was taken to hospital, where he was treated for a black eye before being released. Carlish has been identified as the person who made a documentary about Doherty, which included scenes of hard drug use. A spokesperson for Scotland Yard said: "Police were called to a hotel in Peters Lane, London EC1, at 6.20pm yesterday following a report of a man being assaulted. "A 25-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and theft. He was taken to a north London police station and remains in custody." It has been reported that a second, unnamed musician was arrested later in the evening on suspician of robbery.

Carlish has told the BBC he doesn't want to press charges. He said: "I'm feeling bloody battered, but I'm bowed and I feel sorry for Pete. My heart goes out to Pete, he has screwed up big time now. Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if in three weeks time he's hanging on the end of a rope in a jail cell somewhere. I do not want that to happen, so I'm not going to press charges. "Pete may be thinking 'I can't stand Max now', but I still love Pete and I want the best for him. If that involves me giving him money so he can go into rehabilitation, the money I've earned from the Mirror and the people who are waving cheques in my face, then so be it." According to the London Evening Standard a police doctor examined Doherty after his arrest, who said he had been high on drugs.

The Man Who Would Be Tabloid King

2005-01-31T08:38:00.000-08:00

Some More Tabloid Nonsense:

The Mirror
"Last night the Sunday Mirror was exclusively told how Doherty encouraged a girlfriend to turn to prostitution to help fund his habit. The 21-year-old blonde - whose name we are protecting - became so hooked she had sex with other men to help fund Doherty's habit.

The tawdry story was revealed by social worker Cherilyn Russell, 33, who spent two months hanging out with Doherty at a flat above a Ladbrokes bookies in Stepney, East London."

News Of The World
Those closest to multi-millionaire Kate know she's no angel and loves to party hard. But they're terrified Doherty--who spends up to 1,000 pound a day on heroin and crack cocaine--will send her crashing off the rails.

So far stubborn Kate, 31, has defied them all, including mum Linda, best pal actress Sadie Frost and ex-lover Jefferson Hack, who is threatening to go for sole custody of their two-year-old daughter Lila Grace if she doesn't see sense.

Oh, and in other news, Gemma left Babyshambles:

BABYSHAMBLES drummer GEMMA CLARKE has revealed why she quit the band. Yesterday (January 27) NME.COM revealed she'd walked out on the group prior to the recording sessions on the group's debut album. She's been replaced by Adam Ficek (ex White Sport).

In a letter to Pete Doherty seen by NME.COM , Clarke has said she wants to make it "very clear" as to her reasons for leaving, blaming a breakdown in relations with the band's management. She wrote: "I will not continue to work under the management that you have chosen for the band... I love you, the music, Patrick, Dru and Babyshambles. Please be safe and be careful. You are a great artist and have been a massive inspiration to me. "Thanks for the experience and for a great time - keep safe and don’t forget to call me...good luck for the future."

(Special Thanks to Marta For Sending Links)

Lucky Bastard

2005-01-25T07:28:00.000-08:00

PETE DOHERTY - 'I'VE FOUND LOVE WITH KATE MOSS'

PETE DOHERTY has broken the silence on his rumoured relationship with KATE MOSS.

The Babyshambles man confirmed that he is smitten with the model, telling ITV's Orange Playlist "It's been the best week in a long time because I've really found love with Kate".

The former Libertines star explained in an interview to be screened next month that he's optimistic about his new relationship's chances.

"I think it will last...she is good for me because she has a beautiful soul and I think I can trust her," said Pete. "I believe her when she says she loves me and I know I mean it when I say I love her."

The pair were revealed in Sunday newspapers to have had a tattoo of each other's initial done, while The Sun reported Kate had taken Pete to have a pub lunch with her parents.

Babyshambles Album Update!

2005-01-23T17:40:00.000-08:00

From Babyshambles.net

Baby shambles to start recording in February - 20 January 2005

Baby shambles are due to go into the studio on 3rd Feb to start working on the next single and their debut album. Until the songs have been recorded we don't know when the album is likely to be released, but as soon as we have more information we'll let you know!

The choice of song for the next single release is still undecided, but there are rumours it will probably be either Albion or Forever (aka Fuck Forever).

Pete and Kate?

2005-01-18T18:44:00.000-08:00

Nice One Pete:

Kate Moss has been linked to a host of bad boy celebrities - and today she is said to have found romance with drug-addicted rock star Pete Doherty. According to friends, the supermodel and the ex-Libertines frontman were "all over each other" at her 31st birthday party.

Now there is speculation the two icons of the fashion and rock world may have united to form one of the London scene's most explosive couples. The party, with a rock'n'roll circus-theme, was at her Cotswold home. The model, who is said to be "smitten", then invited Doherty for lunch with her family the following day.

A source at the party told The Sun: "Kate and Pete were all over each other. They were sitting on each others' laps all evening. They only had eyes for each other, and were almost oblivious to everyone else."

Pete and Carl Talk To NPR

2005-01-11T18:57:00.000-08:00

Pete and Carl talk to National Public Radio here. It's a heartbreaking piece.

"The Libertines are Britain's hottest dysfunctional band, and their music is produced by the Clash's Mick Jones. New Musical Express called them the most important band of its generation. Yet theirs is a troubled story -- of breakups, break-ins, and drug addiction. From London, Matt Cowan reports."

Time For Updates

2005-01-10T08:15:00.000-08:00

Sobering News From Carl:

CARL BARAT's forthcoming operation is to remove a tumour behind the ear.

As reported last year on NME.COM, Barat has split The Libertines. One of the reasons given at the time was "an ongoing problem with my health, which requires an operation".

NME.COM has learned that the operation is to remove a tumour.

Speaking in this week’s NME about the split of the band and their last ever gigs, Barat said: "It was inevitably poignant. It was laying a tombstone to what's been and gone and also laying a foundation stone for the future… it’s cutting the ribbon into a different realm of freedom. Because The Libertines became constrained."

Barat also revealed that the reason The Libertines played their last gig outside of the UK was that, even now, he was concerned at not hurting Doherty’s feelings.

"I’d like to have (played a tour of Britain)," he said, "but the reason I didn't was because I didn't want to upset Peter, really. I didn't want to rub it in his face. I believe I've done the right thing. I hope he understands it. Of course I'd have loved to play Britain. I'm English… contrary to popular belief! I love the British crowds. I feel a loyalty, affinity and unity with him whatever plight he seems to have been trudged through."

Of his immediate future plans, Barat said: "I'm going to tie up my loose ends, deal with some demons and follow my ridiculous drive to find what's previously been embodied in the word Arcadia. I shan't rest until I find it. So I have to find a home, go to it, take stock and try and understand what this has all been about."

He added: "I intend to contact Peter. I'd like to embrace him on a level of friendship and maybe…. I don’t want him thinking I'm avoiding him… I want him to remember I love him. I get upset when he says things (to the media) that make me sad. I read it. And he knows I read it. I feel nothing evil towards Peter. I get angry sometimes but I know better than to spread it to the rumour mill and the gossipers, like some kind of virus."

While Barat considers his next move, bass player John Hassall has formed a new band, Yeti, in which he sings and plays guitar.

Said Barat: "I've seen Yeti play. I think they're a good band I think he plays well and he seems happy and if I were him I'd do exactly what he's doing. Today we spoke about everything – much of which we’d never discussed before. It was quite liberating for me as there had been some kind of tension. Whatever anyone says I do consider John a Libertine; he’s been nothing but himself."

Finally, Carl sent a message to Libertines fans: "It's your turn, really. All the people who’ve come to our gigs and picked up a guitar, all the people who say they’ve liberated themselves… I look forward to what you come up with."

Get Well Soon Carl!

Article About Pete From The Times on Spirit Of Albion

Recap Of Pete's Big New Year's Eve

Download the Newsnight Interview

What a Shambles!

2004-12-19T08:49:00.000-08:00

Andrew Kendall reports:

So, the Astoria. Several of my friends say that they saw Peter arrive at the venue - whether that is true or not I don't know. Whatever happened, Baby shambles didn't play and after two hours of waiting, the curtains were lowered on to the stage and an announcement was made. Seconds later what could best be described as a riot began to take place. The curtains were torn down, the drum kit was smashed and essentially the entire contents of the stage were destroyed. As the "rioting" progressed, the security became more and more aggressive, they drove the kids from the stage and forced them back to the other side of the barrier. Then things started to get really violent, a security guard tore electric cabling from the stage to form a whip, leapt over the barriers and proceeded to lash at the kids. People around me were crying as the security guard caught one of the teenagers who was trying to run away and beat him as he knelt on the floor. The whole spectacle was horrific and left everyone who saw it in a state of utter shock. Now I'm left debating what I should do with the pictures, they are incredibly graphic and I get the feeling that they have the potential to cause an awful lot of trouble.

NME also has a report

And there's a discussion of the night on the .Org Forum

He Knows He's Losing It

2004-12-16T07:12:00.000-08:00

(Photo by Jasmine)

NME Reports:

PETE DOHERTY was pulled off the stage by his management and "completely lost it" as part of a chaotic gig at the BLACKPOOL EMPRESS BALLROOM last night (December 15). Doherty's new group Babyshambles played at the venue as part of a UK and Irish tour which has already visited London, Belfast, Dublin and Glasgow. Fans at the show have contacted NME.COM, concerned at Pete's physical state at the gig. They say he was forgetting songs and at times could barely stand. Things got so bad that the rest of the band walked off stage. One fan told NME.COM: "Everyone can see he wasn't well. Pete was looking really bad, forgetting his lines and almost falling to sleep. Members of the band kept having a word in his ear but a few songs in the guitarist just got fed up and left. The rest of the band followed and Pete tried to play on his acoustic."

Other fans have claimed that a member of the band's crew physically attempted to remove Doherty from the stage in a headlock. Another said: "Pete played about four songs before the guitarist stormed off. Pete looked bemused and the rest of the band members decided to leave the stage. He played a couple of Libertines songs on his guitar and carried on. But a member of their road crew was buzzing around him on stage after every song trying to get him off. After about half an hour of the set someone came on and eventually dragged him offstage in a headlock to a chorus of boos.

"When they came back on the crowd were really angry. They were throwing bottles at the stage and shouting abuse but the band carried on and played a couple of songs including 'Killamangiro'. The band went offstage again and Doherty followed them shortly after.

"The crowd were getting more and more pissed off at this point and people started leaving. When he came back on at about midnight, he started playing a few Libertines tracks and he seemed to come round again. They tried to get him off again. But Pete tore his T-shirt off and dived into the crowd. He then climbed on the speakers. He was going mad. He didn't have a clue what he was doing."

From the gig, Pete then went to Liverpool for a second show at the Zanzibar. Fans there have said the performance was just as bad. One told NME.COM: "He played without his band last night and it was bloody shambolic. He turned up two hours late and played some awful songs." There is currently no comment from the band's official spokesperson. The tour is scheduled to continue tonight in Sheffield (December 16) and return to London for the Astoria on Saturday.

Chav Scum!

2004-12-14T11:10:00.000-08:00

NME Reports:

CARL BARAT has formed a 'supergroup' with members of THE CHARLATANS, RAZORLIGHT and PRIMAL SCREAM -- and they played their first ever gig last week, NME.COM can reveal.

Carl recently signalled he was planning to split The Libertines at the end of the year, telling NME.COM that he was taking the band off the road for the "foreseeable future". Barat has to have an operation and with Pete Doherty now seemingly out of the band for good, with Babyshambles going from strength to strength, Carl is looking to the future.

For his band first venture outside of The Libertines, he roped in some old friends to form The Chavs for a festive night of music.

Featuring Charlatans singer Tim Burgess, Razorlight drummer Andy Burrows and Primal Scream keyboardist Martin Duffy, the band played a combination of Burgess-penned hits and solo material, Libertines songs, and a cover of the Christmas classic 'Fairytale Of New York'.

The show took place at the Tap And Tin in Chatham, the venue made legendary for the gig The Libertines played on the night Pete got out of prison for burgling Carl's flat.

For exclusive interviews and pictures from the show, see this week's NME which is out now in London and nationwide tomorrow (December 15).

Shamblin' In Ireland

2004-12-12T09:10:00.000-08:00

NME Reports:

BABYSHAMBLES kicked off their brief December tour of Ireland and the UK with a manic show in BELFAST last night (December 11). The band tore through a 12 song set at the Limelight club with none of the problems, late shows or histrionics of previous dates. The most notable part of the gig was the variety of bits and pieces fired at singer Pete Doherty from the crowd – including socks, gloves, bras, scarves and a rubber glove. At one point Doherty started to tell the crowd how close the band had been to missing to show, but the story turned into an incomprehensible mumble about lying on a bunk on the tourbus. The best reception of the night came for the group's latest single 'Killamangiro', though their version of The Libertines' 'What Katie Did' was also welcomed. Babyshambles move on to The Village venue in Dublin tonight (December 12). The rest of the tour will visit London Forum (December 13), Glasgow Barrowlands (14), Blackpool Empress Ballroom(15), and the Sheffield Leadmill (16).

Not much else to report, except for the fact that the Band played on Top Of The Pops and video is here. Enjoy.

Time For Updates

2004-12-05T08:52:00.000-08:00

Babyshambles dropped by XFM to perform "Killamangiro" and new song "32nd December". Andrew Kendall has photos. This site has audio (plus video of Pete and Graham Coxon together).

Read the excellent new article on Pete from Q magazine here:
Part One
Part Two
Babyshambles are Pete Doherty's new band, which he formed after falling out with, and evntually being expelled from, The Libertines. He would only be allowed back, said his friend and co-frontman Carl Barat, when he stopped using crack and heroin. This internal strife conspired to derail them on the eve of releasing a much-hyped second Libertines album, one that was expected to elevate them to rock's premier league. Doherty also split with Libertines manager Alan McGee, after McGee personally paid for Doherty's short-lived attempts at rehab. He is now managed by James Mullord, who runs 1234, a small London record label. Barat has referred to Babyshambles as Doherty's "denial band". An early incarnation was terrible. Today's version, against all expectations, are terrific. One song in particular, anthemic rocker Fuck Forever, is Doherty's first claim to greatness. Logic would dictate that Doherty was finished without the Libertines. Now it seems the reverse is likely.

Pete interview from Metro Life: "I don't want to die", Doherty says, taking occasional sips from a vodka and lemonade in Soho’s Colony Room. " And I'll take every precaution to avoid death. Probably, for the way I am and my state of mind and the state of my life, it’s best to avoid heroin. And it's certainly best to avoid crack cocaine. It's having the right people around me and the love of my family and the people I'm closest to".

Pete promises to give up crack if new single goes Top 10 (it did, btw)

And finally, Babyshambles.net is reporting that "Albion" could possibly be the next Babyshambles single!

Pete and Graham Coxon Perform "Time For Heroes" Together!

2004-11-28T08:47:00.000-08:00

Picture taken from Andrew Kendall's Site

Is It Cool Or Kind Not To Speak My Mind?

2004-11-26T07:04:00.000-08:00

He's been jailed, sacked by his band and he's a junkie. How cool is that?

THE music industry was accused yesterday of glamorising drug abuse after the New Musical Express chose an artist who is fighting crack cocaine and heroin addiction as its "Cool Icon" of 2004.

Pete Doherty, who was kicked out of The Libertines for failing to control his drug use, topped the magazine's writers' list of music stars who embody the notion of "cool".

Drug charities said that the magazine, the most influential music publication read by teenagers, was behaving irresponsibly. The NME said that it had rewarded Doherty for his wit, musical abilities and positive influence on his young fans, not for his well-documented drug problems.

Sing, Play Guitar, Act...What Can't The Man Do?

2004-11-24T19:28:00.000-08:00

Carl is in the new video of the group Client...he cowrote the song and sings backup vocals as well.

Watch it here.

Then Why Did He Release "Napoleon"?

2004-11-22T09:22:00.000-08:00

Strung-out jackal Wolfman claims to have written many of Pete's songs. Hmmm....

In fact, to hear Wolfe tell it, Doherty is the bad influence. "He turned up the other day and moved all his stuff in. He won't leave me alone. It's like having a really needy little brother. He wants me to be his bohemian trinket. He doesn't want me to do well. He wants me to do all my songs with him. My lyrics are all over those records." He rattles off a few song titles: "Delaney. Road to Ruin. The Man Who Would Be King. Skag and Bone Man. It goes on."

Get The Infamous French Sessions!

2004-11-15T20:48:00.000-08:00

Here they are:

1. Narcissist
2. Half-cocked Boy
3. Ha Ha Wall
4. Through The Looking Glass

If you're not sure what the French Sessions are, here is the fascinating tale of their creation, cut and pasted from Libertines.de (not trying to steal content here, but some of the articles posted there currently have an Angelfire logo in the background which makes them unreadable):

While the raw rock of their first album was just being approved on both sides of the Channel, the Libertines from London dashed to Nantes to record a 7" of unreleased tracks, at the back of a garage. Story of those 3 days.

5th January

Five guys in the van. Exhausted. It is 9pm in Nantes, the Libertines have just arrived after a 20-hours drive. The door of the van slides. On the floor, there is a jumble of whisky bottles, beers and cigarette butts. In the boot, there are a big travelling bag and a few guitars. Stephane Moreau and Nicolas Bourigault, the Dialektik Records agitators, a punk-rock label from Nantes, have taken turns to drive. Confirming their status of a chaotic and unpredictable band, the quartet has become a duet: only Carl Barât and Pete Doherty, the two singer-guitarists pillars have travelled. There is also Alan Wiss who will mainly be in charge of the production.
The car stops in front of a house in the suburbs: "This is the Garage Hermetique". They still have to go to the backyard, enter into a freezing shed, go through 3 or 4 doors in order to reach the place that the Libertines chose to record 3 or 4 new songs.
A few weeks before, Stephane Moreau and Nico Bourigault had dashed to Angers to be at the concert of ex-Clash Mick Jones' favourites, just to see if the album Up the Bracket was as good on stage. "Everything happened in 10 minutes. We saw the gig and we thought that we had to talk to them", Stephane says.
In the corner of the bar, the two Dialektik hit it off with Pete. " They had a real interest in our music, Pete remembers. We understood each other. So I thought, "OK, why not do something with them?" I woke up the manager to tell her that some guys were here and that they wanted to make a record with us. She said: "Fuck off!" So I decided alone." Stephane exults. "We brought them back without negotiating anything, without seeing a single guy from their English label, without any contract. Really wild." Stephane exaggerates. The Libertines had all the same a few requirements – about the sound: vintage amps, Ampeg and Vox, and an electronic organ as well.
Apart from that, the Formule 1 hotel and kebabs do not put them off. Pete, who has had too many sleepless nights, quickly goes to bed. For Alan and Carl, an evening in a pub is imperative, with Guinness and acoustic guitar. "I think we are going to do a good job, whispers Alan, leaving. See you tomorrow."

6th January

Nicolas, the sound engineer, with a waxen complexion and greasy hair, looks as if he has not left his garage since its opening, 8 years ago. He looks dubiously at the studio. Carl, Alan and Pete have been inside for more than 2 hours. Nico: "They warm themselves, they practise together." Pete goes out, with a smile on his chubby face. "It is a bit of a chaos. But it is ideal to create."
Change of atmosphere. On the other side of the door, the Libertines's manager demands the band to go back to London the day after. Reason: they can't miss their first interview with the national daily The Guardian.
In the studio, the adjustments progress. Pete and Carl stir, like onstage, unplugging some cables with their movements. The sound engineer is thundering forth. His hard disk saturates. It doesn't matter: the first take with bass, drums and guitar is done. The skeleton of the song is drawn. Alan, a strange compromise between Mick Jagger and Brian Jones, sits near the console: "The first and next to last ones are the best ones." Carl leaves quietly the room, settles down in front of the games console in the other room and settles the Guardian problem. The English journalist will be in Nantes the day after. "The manager is a bit fascist, he jokes. She tends to want to control everything."
Back in the studio. "If you get tired/Just hanging around..." Pete records the first voice take. He never leaves a bronze clothed notebook, which is at the same time the journal and songwriting notebook of the Libertines. "I jot down all my good ideas and my dreams in the morning. Sometimes I draw. To forget the lovely thing is such a horrible feeling." The song takes shape. When he sings, Pete seems to connect himself to another world. A synthesis between rock attitude and bliss. He is a meddler: he then sits behind the electric organ, whistles on the break of the song, giving a new distance and depth. "It sounds like The Doors", Alan enthuses. Pete finishes what is certainly the best voice take of the day and, by coincidence, Carl, who had disappeared for nearly 2 hours, goes into the studio, ready to record the second guitar. Between Pete and Carl, there is more a coincidence than an agreement, as if each moment spent to play together was a rediscovery.
End of the day. There remains the passage with both voices. Tambourines and maracas, and the atmosphere becomes psychedelic... Imperceptibly, something has just happened. The first song, "Silent Cope", only just finished, Pete begins another song. Alone on the sofa, he plays acoustic, catches all the attention. A talented songwriter, his tense voice sings a form of powerlessness, a perdition. Then he closes his eyes and lies down on the sofa. "We are supposed to make a ballade a bit quiet. It's a good sign if I am falling asleep." The evening slowly stretches out. Like with the first song, the first take of the second song takes the shape of an endless jam session. Carl: "Even if we are prisoners of an industry, of loads of constraints, nobody can steal us our pleasure to play. Even if the stage is small."

7th January

Carl remains wrapped up in his dark overcoat. Behind him, through the window, the countryside is still frozen. Pete, swathed in a shawl, dashes through the studio. Suddenly, a few bass notes shake the building. Like a well-known tune. "You Really Got Me" of The Kinks. Is it about recording a cover version? After all, Alan carted around some vinyls yesterday: The Doors, Everly Brothers, The Who, Elvis... Carl gives an answer when he starts singing: "Nice to be/Dorian Gray/Just for a day/Narcissist..." The recording of the most incisive song of the session has just begun. Until then, we had not really paid attention to Carl's voice. It was a mistake. Deep and low-pitched, it spreads out Pete's lyrics. Alan nevertheless tries to push it further: "Sing it like Elvis" – "That's what I thought I was doing!" Later, on his own, Pete works on the last song. A second ballade. It will be a well-balanced 7", for March, 2 rather mellow songs and 2 angry songs. Something in the image of the band, according to Pete. "We like to say that our influences are divided between the melody, the melancholy of Django Reinhardt and the rhythmic aggressiveness of the Stooges."
The Libertines only work instinctively. Which is confirmed this very evening, after Pete witnessed a fight in a bar: "The guy felt he was trapped. That's why he fought. He felt like a rabbit in the headlights." "Like a rabbit in the headlights": Pete hums this chorus. And notes it down in his notebook. For the future.

translation by Helene Turin

Who Will Buy My Beatiful Songs?

2004-11-11T07:53:00.000-08:00

CARL BARAT plans to split THE LIBERTINES at the end of the year if PETE DOHERTY doesn't clean up and rejoin the band.

The star is currently working on plans for what he'd do if Doherty is either too unwell or unwilling to rejoin The Libertines this year. The group aren't planning any more tours or studio time beyond December, putting the band on ice for the "foreseeable future". Band sources have told NME.COM the decision is tantamount to splitting The Libertines, but with Carl leaving the door open for a reunion if Pete is ever well enough.

Speaking last week, Carl told NME.COM that he's working on new songs, has a new found confidence and is considering either going solo or rehearsing musicians for a new group next year. It's likely that any new band would feature some members of The Libertines.

Carl told NME: "As of the end of December Gary, John and I have decided The Libertines will be off the road for the foreseeable future, no more official gigs are booked. An ongoing problem with my health, which requires an operation, will put me out of action for maybe some months. My position with Pete hasn't changed, I hope he gets better, I still love him and hope he will come back in full health and take the world with The Libertines and put the Albion back on-course. Joining the old crew on the good ship wouldn't be so hard."

He continued: "I'm gonna have to do something different for a bit. I've got a lot of songs written, I don't know if that means getting a splendid top-hole band together or just going off and recording [them]. So I'm going to go and do that for a bit.

"I do put a rather stoic brave face on which is hard to maintain sometimes. I don't always believe that's how I feel behind it. But right now I feel like I've got more focus about what I do in the future than ever before. And I've found confidence and faith in my writing. So I feel a bit more positive."

Carl said that he still hopes more than anything for a reunion with a fit and healthy Pete, but he can't see it happening in the immediate future. He told NME.COM: "My heart, of course, is with The Libertines. In its original line-up… To be honest, I've not been that close to what's going on (The Libertines have been touring the US). The pictures [of Pete] sadden me. I don't feel he's well at the moment.

"I don't know if [The Libertines will] ever be quite the same but I don't see why they'd be any less valid or why we'd have any less purpose or conviction or relevance if we did get back together. Of course I'd love to. But I'm not going to rest on my laurels waiting for Pete to decide if he's going to stop taking drugs... I've got things that I need to get out my system in song right now and I've got some other work to do."

Barat has to have an operation at the end of the year which will stop him playing live for a number of months. No more shows will be scheduled in the UK before December, meaning the last time the band played live with Pete was on the opening night of Carl's London club Dirty Pretty Things before Doherty flew to Thailand for rehab in the summer. Their last UK show was at this year's Carling Weekend: Reading and Leeds festivals in August.

However, the group have been touring North America without Pete, which came as something as a relief for Carl. At one show in Washington DC fans invaded the stage, similar to their legendary gig at the London Forum last year.

He added: "We were doing what we set out to do. It's been a bit of a trailblazer really. In America there's none of this press surrounding the band. People have just heard that there's gonna be a good band in town and gone out and had a good time. We think we've done good. But obviously it's still a bit tricky right now."

There are no plans to release a third single from 'The Libertines'. However, Carl has been in the studio with the band Client, having co-written their new single 'Pornography' which is released on January 10, 2005.

Alan McGee, manager of The Libertines said: "There are no limitations to Carl’s songwriting talent or musical adaptability. The most probable way forward under the current conditions of the Libertines will be to do many co write projects and various guest appearances.

"I have never known Carl more confident musically than he is at the moment. A great Carl Barat solo album or as yet unnamed band featuring current members of the Libertines awaits sometime in late 2005. To me 'Pornography' sounds like Carl and Client have written a great Cure type of single.

If there is going to be life after the Libertines, then Carl Barat's journey is certainly going to be an interesting one."

Like A Rolling Stone

2004-11-04T08:27:00.000-08:00

A fine feature is now up on Rollingstone.com:

The band has been touring without Doherty, pending his ability to clean up. The same week as the Philly show, Doherty graced the cover of NME, Britain's weekly music magazine. He has been touring the U.K. with his other band, Babyshambles. On the cover, he was shirtless and slit-eyed and covered in sweat, holding a cigarette lighter in one hand, a microphone in the other and appearing entirely wasted. "To be honest," Bar?t tells me, "the hardest thing in the world is to tell someone you love you don't want to be around them -- to tell someone you love very dearly to fuck off. That's a trial of the soul"...

"Yes, I did come out of a drug problem well before Pete got into his," Barat says. "But I stood by him the entire way. Now, he's utterly cocooned in a world I wouldn't want to have to trudge through. I doubt I could even meet him without all of his harpies around. You know what harpies are? Nasty little winged beasts. People who'll take you straight to hell"...

Doherty, sitting for an interview in the basement office of 1234 Records, the East London label that released the first Babyshambles single, rebuts the band's charges. "Of course, the official reason I'm out of the band right now is because of drugs," he says. "But part of the reason I've been made unwelcome by Carl is that I've been writing songs with other people, and doing Babyshambles with as much, if not more, passion than I was doing the Libertines. The Libertines has just become a big blow-up doll. If it's not me and Carl together, then it's not the Libertines. It's just a big con."

The End Of An Era

2004-11-03T09:47:00.000-08:00

NME Reports:

CARL BARAT is to retire THE LIBERTINES from playing live for "the foreseeable future" at the end of the year, NME.COM can exclusively reveal.

The band have been touring since the summer without Pete Doherty, who was kicked out of the band while he undertook a well-documented fight against drugs.

Speaking exclusively to NME.COM yesterday (November 1), singer Carl Barat said that from December there are no more plans for gigs – the strongest hint yet that the band will split for good unless Doherty cleans up and rejoins.

He said: "As of the end of December Gary, John and I have decided The Libertines will be off the road for the foreseeable future, no more official gigs are booked. An ongoing problem with my health, which requires an operation, will put me out of action for maybe some months.

"My position with Pete hasn’t changed, I hope he gets better, I still love him and hope he will come back in full health and take the world with The Libertines and put the Albion back on-course. Joining the old crew on the good ship wouldn’t be so hard."

The band have no UK gigs scheduled before December. It is currently unclear what operation Barat requires.

An Expensive Night

2004-10-28T09:22:00.000-07:00

Pete trashes a nice painting:

PETE DOHERTY has been banned from LONDON's trendy GROUCHO CLUB after reportedly wrecking a piece of modern artwork thought to be worth around £100,000.

The former Libertines star was performing a charity gig with his band Babyshambles on Saturday (October 23) when he tore the metal sculpture from the ceiling and it disintegrated on the floor.

An onlooker told today's (October 25) Sun newspaper: "It's not a big room but Babyshambles launched into a very lively set. Pete was spinning round all over the place.

"Then he jumped into the crowd and grabbed the sculpture - it fell to the floor in pieces."

The club's bosses are reportedly furious over the incident and a source told The Sun: "Staff made it clear they never want to see him in their club again."

A spokesperson for the Groucho Club refused to comment on the incident.

Pete In The Socialist Worker:

There's few enough people doing things for the right reasons. Bringing people together to fight capitalism--I'm into that.

But I'm into learning as well. I need to know more of what it's about, and shape my own beliefs.

A lot of the issues surrounding Third World debt and loans to countries involves keeping things as they are, rather than completely dismantling a system a majority of people find horrific.

We need radical change. That's what I'm into and I think that's the only solution.

What did become of The Likely Lads?

2004-10-21T09:09:00.000-07:00

The new single is out next week. The bsides are live performances of older cuts like "Boys In The Band" and "The Delaney".

Download the video here

A new compiliation of performances from the Rhythm Factory is now available. Here is the tracklisting:

1. Up The Bracket - The Libertines
2. (You're) On The List - The Lams
3. Authority Confrontation - Selfish Cunt
4. Tommy's Disease - The Paddingtons
5. Moving To LA - Art Brut
6. Celeste - The Rocks
7. Give Me Something - Tigermoth
8. Killamanforhisgiro - Babyshambles
9. You - Thee Unstrung
10. You Stole My Brain - Electricity Comes From Other Planets
11. Back From The Dead - Pete Doherty

Together Again?

2004-10-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

NME Reports:

Estranged LIBERTINE PETE DOHERTY has revealed his plans to record a Christmas single with former bandmate CARL BARAT. The guitarist has said that he hopes the troubles between the pair can be buried and perhaps heal the rift with the group. Doherty said: "Oh yes, I'm going to collaborate with Carl Barat. No I'm not (joking). I'm going to. Even if I have to kidnap him." He added: "We're going to do a Christmas record. We always said we'd do a Christmas record. What better way to highlight the goodwill and forgiveness of man, than with a reunion?" However, Doherty did also say that he has still had no contact with the band since his failed attempts at rehab to treat his drug addiction. "You're joking aren't you?" he told Xfm. "I haven't spoken to anyone since the day I went to Thailand (to the Thamkrabok Monastery in June). No, not at all. You know what I mean? I try but there's only so much I can take."

Speaking about Babyshambles, who release their new single 'Killamangiro' on November 29, Doherty revealed that the band have been working hard in the studio on new material.

We went inside Odessa studios in Clapton [October 12] and we worked about 20 hours solid in there, just getting new ideas down," he said. "The idea was to get some new songs down but we just ended up running through brand new things. So hopefully before the end of the month we'll have the foundations of a great album."

The band are also expected to head out on a "little Northern tour" around the release of 'Killamangiro'.

As previously reported on NME.COM, Babyshambles play tonight (October 15) as part of a Love Music Hate Racism gig with The Cooper Temple Clause at London's The Coronet.

"Hopefully people will understand that it's something very important to me," Doherty explained, "And all the people that are involved in it, and are part of it together, who are trying to get the message across, I respect what they've done in the past – doing events, campaigns, keeping racism out of football, and I just feel it's a positive thing, a very positive thing to be involved in. It's quite simple, I am an anti-fascist. They might me old-fashioned 'leftie' ideals, but I'll do my bit."

Babyshambles are on the cover of this week's NME, which is out now.

Timeforheroes.net Returns!

2004-10-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

Hi all. It's good to be back. Now time for some updates:

The studio version of "Kilimangiro" was played recently on Radio 1. It's floating around somewhere. When we find it, you'll be the first to know.

Babyshambles on the cover of the NME:

New Pete Post on Babyshambles:

i greet mr Hey Richey (a penpal of my mothers) on the Upper Clapton rd. London's Jewish hinterlands and London's blop cell cap itchy igger knuckle he's quick to the point about what happenned. there was no way I could go in that building tonight
if this was a private page in my soul buried deep and not flauntered or pawned for tuppence coated in a sheen of pure darkling oceans demons in the foggy sea a strand of blood swimming up the needle like

the past
if I was right I'd say I need to have an aids test

That's all for now. More news as we get caught up!

Timeforheroes.net Sits Down With Mr. Razzcocks!

2004-09-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

Through a mutual acquaintance, Timeforheroes.net was fortunate enough to start a correspondence with Paul Dufour, aka Mr. Razzcocks. The original Libertines drummer, Paul's work can be heard on the 'Legs 11' demo. Paul stays active with the European jazz quartet 'Venus Edge', and is busy with a number of other recording projects. Here are some highlights from our correspondence:

You've been playing drums for years. What experiences stand out for you?

When I first started gigging at sixteen (I'm fifty-five now--so way back when!), I was working with a band that every week supported The Who (pre 'Pictures of Hilly'), Donovan, Tom Jones, The Hollies, P.J. Proby, The Merseybeats, and a bunch of other bands over a whole summer period. What stands out from that period of music in Britain ('65-'75) was the individuality--the wealth of different musical ideas and approaches, and the sharing of musical ideas--musicians getting together to jam. Fewer musicians and bands work this way now, I suppose because the musical scene is different in England.

What drummers/musicians have had the biggest influence on you over the years?

Drummers? Where do I start! I suppose for me jazz is the highest musical art form, because it involves a high technique, and yet it throws that away and says 'be creative, improvise'. So I hope this doesn't sound snobbish, but I'd have to say Elvin Jones. He died this year at 72, whilst on stage playing! I met Elvin at Ronnie Scott's in London on several occasions--the most wonderful drummer. He was into polyrhythms, or additional rhythms that wrap around a basic rhythm, which give the music a floating effect. That was his style when he was playing with John Coltrane.

I recently completed a CD of world music entitled 'Visions of Rhythm'. This has led me to work with a great percussionist named Mamadi Kamara. We're now working on a track in London at Odessa Studios with Airto Moreira and Flora Purim. It's exciting--Airto has recorded with everyone: Miles, Dizzie, etc.

Technically you're a jazz drummer, so the Libertines connections seems a bit strange. Then again, The "Legs 11" material is quite a bit different than "Up The Bracket"...are you proud of that demo? How did you become involved with the group?

I may be a jazz head, but I've always enjoyed playing a variety of styles–blues, rock. It's all experience!

How did I become involved with the Libs? I'll tell you, but realize you’re one of a lucky few!

I was partner and friend to Gwyn Mathias, a brilliant recording engineer/producer. We met in '75 at Berwick St. Studios--he was working with Cat Stevens and The Sex Pistols. We got together and ran Odessa Studios for five years. Gwyn is still running it. He phoned me one day to come and do three tracks with a young band that had booked studio time. Of course, they'd turned up with no drummer! I turned up and we played through the songs and recorded them. They were rough, but they had a quality that I hadn’t heard in a while–an originality, a freshness, interesting lyrics, and musical angles which sometimes made no sense! That was The Libs.

At this time, there were three songwriters: Pete, Carl and John. I was left with the rhythmical element. I stayed with them for two years or more and in that time I recorded them as much as I could. We worked all the usual free London venues and built up a name. I left when I could afford it no longer--we had no management, etc. Pete and Carl signed to Rough Trade when I left. John isn't involved in that. I still keep in touch with John...

At the moment I have 16 tracks (including masters) of The Libertines while I was the drummer, and I'm thinking about doing something with these. The "Legs 11" stuff is just some of the demos that I sent out for the band to get a deal--somebody, somewhere got hold of that!

Not proud of any of the 'Legs 11' tracks, but compared to 'Bracket'...well, the later stuff just isn't my scene!

I think a lot of people thought this bit in the Libertines bio:

And they employed a 70 year old drummer called Mr Razzcocks who used to be in The Sex Pistols (that's what he told them anyway).

...was probably just another one of Pete's tall tales. There's always a blurring of fantasy and reality with The Libertines, which makes them more endearing to fans who are on the outside looking in. Is it the same when you're on the inside?

That's just Pete's bullshit! When I knew them they were 20 years old and me 50--it was no problem--and that was the fun of it (no ageism). I’ve always been told 'never work with children or animals’--The Libertines were both!?! Pete, being a very talented wordsmith, always loved creating a mystique!

Did you leave the group when (former) manager Banny came in and instructed the group to write some 'punchier material', or had you already gone your separate ways? Have you met Gary? If so, what do you think of him as a person and/or drummer?

I was still in the band when Banny Puschti came in--just a young girl without a clue about music, working for Warner Chappell Music and wanting to manage The Libertines?!? I was at the tail-end. I just needed a paying gig, so I left the bullshit behind.

When I left and Pete and Carl signed up with her, she got Gordon Raphael in and said we want you to sound like The Strokes. The rest is familiar--she has been dumped and now Alan McGee is the manager. 'Punchier Material' meant rougher, quicker, fewer and more basic chords. In other words, crap!

I've met Gary once at the reunion gig after Pete got out of prison, so I don't really know him. He seems alright. I believe he uses a kit like mine--a Yamaha Custom Maple. They're a different band with him on drums. I have not ruled out working with them again under the right circumstances. The most recent history is blurred...

So you were at the reunion gig when Pete got out of jail. It seemed like a genuinely touching night. Would you agree?

I wrote to Pete in jail...I hadn't seen him since I left the Libs (1 and a half years?) and was concerned about his circumstances and situation. He sent me a nice return letter and we agreed to do a 'reunion' when he got out. John, being the professional he is, was at the gig early so we could rehearse...we hadn't played together for ages!

Pete and Carl turned up late--we went straight on to an enthusiastic crowd. Lousy sound, scrappy, half-remembered songs and arrangements...but the audience loved it. I played a set of all the songs we used to do when I was the drummer: "Love On The Dole", "Hooray For The 21st Century", "Music When The Lights Go Out, "France", "You’re My Waterloo", etc. A lot of people hadn't heard this stuff at the time. After my set, I came off stage and Gary joined them and did the 'Bracket' stuff.

As it stands now, Pete is in a sort of limbo, and the band are going to doing their touring/promotional commitments without him. What’s your take on Pete’s ongoing problems with drug addiction?

With Pete now--knowing him and reading various stories in the papers--it will go one way or the other. I really hope he can get out of the drug trap--he has a lot of support and a good family, etc. However sometimes it's the industry itself that does not help...the hype, the touring, recording, etc.

If Pete can get away from all that for a while, he may be repaired. I'm just sad about the waste of talent–he's an excellent songwriter and I love him dearly, but sometimes people go too far and there is nothing you can do. It's sad, I know, but let's hope Pete turns it around.

Timeforheroes.net thanks Mr. Razzcocks for taking the time to write to us. All the best Paul!

The Libertines In The Observer

2004-09-23T05:02:00.000-07:00

Click this link for a preview, wallpaper, and other assorted goodies

Random Bits and Bobs

2004-09-21T04:59:00.000-07:00

Babyshambles Album?

Somebody got their lucky paws on one apparently, and it had all these tracks:

1 killamangiro
2 the man who came to stay
3 gang o' gin
4 copy of fuckforever
5 at the flophouse
6 babyshambles
7 in loe with a feeling
8 a little death around the eyes/arcady
9 black boy lane
10 arcady
11 stix and stones
12 unbilotitled
13 killamangiro [peterperretshambles]
14 i love you but your green
15 track12
16 albion
17 the lastof english roses
18 pipey magraw
19 black boy lane
20 east of eden
21 do you know me//?
22 track one
23 a rebours
24 backwardshamble
25 the man who came to stay
26 hooligans on E
27 can't stand me now
28 killamangiro
29 track7

Speaking of "Gang Of Gin", it's quite controversial. Pete lashes out at Carl and Alan McGee in a rather crass way:

"Carl is kept sedated, the front man elevated...
and McGee doing all he can to ruin my band and keep me out of the way"

It goes on in a suitably bitter manner--while the lyrics are cringe-worthy, the music is actually quite good. The song alternates between white reggae ala "Cyclops" and Smiths-esque jingle jangle. I would post it here, but Timeforheroes.net prefers to generate traffic via content, not via illegal downloads ;-)

In Other News:

London's Observer newspaper will feature a five track Libertines CD in the near future, so look out for that. (Thanks Brett)
Pete will not appear at "Monk Aid"
Rough Trade is putting together a new Libs DVD

Still Looking Rough And Living Strange

2004-09-17T05:44:00.000-07:00

Pete and Liam in Child Support Row (Thanks Janessa)

Pop singer Pete Doherty's life is going from bad to worse.

His drug problem has got him kicked out of The Libertines, he's been in and out of court and his recent no-show at a gig has angered fans.

But to top it off there's a certain pop star that isn't too happy with Pete either.

According to the Daily Mirror, the atmosphere between rock rebel Liam Gallagher and Pete, 25, is getting a bit frosty over the issue of child maintenance.

Both Pete and Oasis front man Liam Gallagher have a child with their former lover Lisa Moorish.

And while wild man Liam, 31, is fulfilling his fatherly duties, paying out 2,000 pounds a month to support his daughter Molly, Pete's been left short of cash because of his drug problems.

An insider said: "Liam is fuming. He feels he's supporting Pete's son Estile as well as his own daughter.

"He reckons it's time Pete sorted himself out and started paying his share."

Doherty--who recently admitted to spending a fortune a day on drugs--is now attempting to get his new band Babyshambles off the ground.

The source said: "Pete's problems are very sad, but it's not Liam's problem.

"He doesn't begrudge his own payments but he hates the idea that Pete's not paying his share."

A friend of Pete's said: "He wants to do the right thing-- Pete will be in a better position once he stops doing drugs.

A Timeforheroes.net Exclusive!

2004-09-12T07:51:00.000-07:00

Download Here (Zip File, 38 MB)

"The Freewheelin' Pete Doherty" contains highlights from the 'Shaken and Withdrawn' sessions, edited and mastered so as to form a proper folk album. Enjoy!

A Step In The Right Direction?

2004-09-11T05:39:00.000-07:00

"Home Sweet Home"

I've come out to my mum and dads to get clean, and I've just had a bath so I'm halfway there. I'm bearing up very well, mostly in the mind you know... I can't really talk now.but lots of love and wish me luck P{eter x

There's Lots And Lots For Us To Do

2004-09-08T05:45:00.000-07:00

Here's a slew of updates for you:

Get the fantastic "Shaken and Withdrawn" Sessions, along with some b-sides

Zane Lowe Talks to Carl

Details Of Pete and Dot's Love Affair

Babyshambles Live MP3s

Noel G of Oasis discusses the Libs, sees them as a younger version of his band (naturally)

This Is Bardcore

2004-09-03T04:33:00.000-07:00

Pete arrives at court playing guitar from a sunroof

[Other News]

Tony Wilson On The Libertines And Drugs:
WRITE a piece about The Libertines? Give me a break. I don't care about The Libertines. But a piece about drugs and music. Where do I sign up? When I say I don't care for The Libertines, I'm not being controversial for the sake of it. I often am, though not this time. I find the darlings of NME insipid and drab. And I feel bad about that because I have enormous respect and even love for the two Lib champions, Rough Trade owner Geoff Travis and Alan McGee, the Scot who discovered Oasis.

And I tried. I bought the first album. Played it--for 15 minutes even--but I was pushing myself. So. Crap band and crap album, but good press on the drugs front.

Pete To Return?
Doherty 'back with Libertines soon'
By Alexa Baracaia, Evening Standard
2 September 2004

The Libertines hope to welcome troubled singer Pete Doherty back soon, it was revealed today. The band's producer, former Clash guitarist Mick Jones, said the suspended sentence Doherty, 25, received yesterday for possession of an offensive weapon would "hopefully keep him on the straight and narrow".

Pitchfork Album Review (Sadly, the bloke writing it still doesn't know which voice is Pete's and which is Carl's...couldn't someone drop him a line? It's getting embarassing)

French Album Review (thanks John)

Video of entire Pete acoustic show

Dodging A Bullet (Or a knife as it were)

2004-09-01T13:32:00.000-07:00

From NME:

LIBERTINES guitarist PETE DOHERTY has been given a four month suspended custodial sentence after pleading guilty to possession of a knife.

Doherty made an appearance at Thames Magistrates Court (September 1), where he was due for sentencing on the charge.

Doherty arrived outside court an hour early, sitting on the top of a car and playing acoustic guitar to the waiting news reporters.

Inside court, Judge Malcolm Ried, who heard the case, said: "You're a highly intelligent young man who appears to be very successful. You have experience of prison from a matter last year--yet in June from a holiday you brought back an offensive weapon."

He added that knives "are only made for one reason". He described the weapon as a "vicious looking item", saying it was regularly used in cities across the country and they could be used "just like that, with devastating results".

On sentencing Doherty was told he was not suitable for a community sentence, so he had to be given a sentence of imprisonment. He was told to serve four months in prison, at which point Pete covered his face with his hands.

The judge then continued to say that given the way the knife was found, and that it was found shortly after the singer had come back into the country, the sentence would be suspended for 12 months.

Doherty was ordered to pay £150 in court costs and said that the weapon would be destroyed.

The Judge told Doherty "consider yourself fortunate".

At a hearing last month he'd been warned that he faced jail time after admitting the offence. Prior to the sentencing, Doherty had a meeting with his probation officer.

The charge relates to an incident in the early hours of June 18, on Hackney Road, London E2.

Pete was in a public place and without lawful authority, carrying a flick knife, which is an offensive weapon. He was driving a motor vehicle and seen to overtake, when he was stopped by police.

Police decided to search the car, where they said they found the knife with a 10cm blade in the right front pocket of his jeans.

On The Cover Of The NME

2004-09-01T05:22:00.000-07:00

Doherty's Last Stand?

2004-08-28T07:03:00.007-07:00

From NME:

PETE DOHERTY has sparked rumours of a LIBERTINES reunion at CARLING WEEKEND: READING FESTIVAL by playing a secret gig in the town last night.

The band are scheduled to make a Main Stage appearance today without the estranged guitarist, who has been booted out of the band while he attempts to beat his addiction to drugs.

Yesterday (August 27), Doherty arrived in the town, and played a midnight gig with his other band Babyshambles at the Reading Fez Club.

The performance took place at a festival aftershow, attended by around 400 people. The set, which featured songs from Babyshambles forthcoming debut album and Libertines classics including "What Katie Did", ended with a stage invasion, Pete swinging the mic stand in all directions, striking the lights above the stage.

It now remains to be seen if he will attempt a reunion with his old band today at the festival.

NME.COM understands that singer Carl Barat has been in the US, and did not return until late last week, and is rumoured to be spending part of the day in the studio.

A source close to the band told NME.COM: "Who knows what will happen if they see each other. They'll either hug, or fight. Only time will tell."

The setlist ran:

'The Man Who Came To Stay'
'Do You Know Me?'
'In Love With The Feeling'
'Fuck Forever'
'Albion'
'Don't Look Back Into The Sun'
'Sheepskin Tearaway'
'Sweetest Girl'
'Time For Heroes'
'I Wanna Break Your Heart'
'Babyshambles'
'Killamangiro'
'Black Boy Lane'
'Wolfman'

The Libertines are due on stage at 7pm. Click back to see the first report and pictures later.

Trying To Escape From The Underclass

2004-08-25T17:14:00.000-07:00

Babyshambles, who rumor has it have just signed to Rough Trade, will release another single soon. Here are the details:

1 Killamangiro
2 Black Boy Lane
3 Do You Know Me (I Don't Think So)

Release Date: October 1st

Also, "What Became Of The Likely Lads" will be released as a single, also in October. This is rumored to be the last proper Libertines release for some time. Could these two developments spell the true end of the band?

For some insight, why not download the recent Radio One documentary here. (MP3 a timeforheroes.net exclusive!)

More reviews of the new album:
Rolling Stone
The Guardian (thanks Matt)

"Pikey Cunt"

2004-08-23T06:56:00.000-07:00

Pete attacked/run over in London?:

This was the scene then: Ice and I at peace with the world and we share a cigarette as we stroll in a delerious arcadian harmony with the otherworldly classically trained cracks in the pavementy that mark A fella in a baseball \cap and Irish accent engages us in a tabloid exchange - calls me a crackhead and says he 's gonna break my nose and stick a knife in my kneck. He just flares up over nothing and all horror breaks out of guarded cage , darkness i the d wns shockedtempered sunlight.
he's from the nearby travellers site and is not going back to thje fold until he's damaged me. I try to get across the road but get hit (not hard) by a car, he boots me full in the head while I am on the floor and punches me a few times or so full in the bilo face. My ears are throbbing \like the proverbial flappers of Albion I am ready to perform. But he grabs my feet and drags me back into the road. Fuckin hell. I scramble witless to my feet and stop the nearest car, get in and scream 'get the fuck out of here (mush)'

No No No, Yeah Yeah Yeah

2004-08-19T21:18:00.000-07:00

Carl In The Mirror:
"Of course I've tried crack," he admits. "Otherwise I wouldn't be able to talk about it. It's like inhaling a burning bin bag then having a 15-minute panic attack."

Pete In The Guardian (Court Appearance):
"If the law was to send me to prison it wouldn't be able to look itself in the eye."

Hear The New Album: NME

And in other news, "Can't Stand Me Now" entered the UK singles chart at #2. Cheers!

(Flick)Knives Out

2004-08-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

Pete In Court Again (NME):

LIBERTINES guitarist PETE DOHERTY has been warned he could face jail after pleading guilty to possession of a knife. Doherty made an appearance at Thames Magistrates Court (August 17), where he was facing a charge of possession of an offensive weapon. Inside court, Pete appeared in the dock dressed in a grey suit. The court heard that the alleged incident occurred on June 18, on Hackney Road, London E2 at 12.07am. The prosecuter claimed that Pete was in a public place and without lawful authority, carrying a flick knife, which is an offensive weapon. He was driving a motor vehicle and seen to overtake, when he was stopped by police. Police decided to search the car, where they said they found the knife with a 10cm blade in the right front pocket of his jeans.Speaking in his defence, Brazell said that Pete was interviewed by the road side where he said he'd come back into the country 12 hours earlier, and the knife was purchased lawfully while on holiday. He said that Pete had broken the tip off the knife, so it wasn’t sharp, and when interviewed claimed that it was "not dangerous".

Speaking about Pete the lawyer described him as a "peaceful man" without a history of violence, who had been cooperative throughout. Following the hearing, Doherty has been told he has to meet his probation officer on September 1, and there will a court hearing the same day. A report will be heard and it will then be decided on what happens next. However, one of the Magistrates said that a custodial sentence couldn't be ruled out.

Andrew Kendall Has Pics:

Time For Updates

2004-08-15T05:13:00.000-07:00

Exclusive Carl acoustic performances from Rolling Stone:

Pete Article In The Independent:

Doherty describes his childhood as strict and lonely. "I had no choice really but to disappear into myself, just veering between old, flickery episodes of Rising Damp, Tony Hancock radio shows, Emily Dickinson, flowers and QPR."

Observer Review by John Harris:

If Doherty's troubles form the album's plot, they're also its apparent undoing. In keeping with the abiding sense that it's been left unfinished, it has some of the worst guitar solos ever put to tape, distractedly mumbled vocals, and songs that promise much, only to flop into aimless underachievement. The band's sense of careening power - their ability to somehow encapsulate the condition of being ragingly drunk - only occasionally appears. Tellingly, its most convincing manifestation is in 'Narcissist', sung by Barat alone.

Pete's "Denial Band" Hits The Road (NME):
The band--currently featuring Doherty alongside Patrick Walden (guitar), Drew McConnell (bass) and Gemma Clarke (drums)--are also planning a new single, 'Kilimanjaro'.

The dates are:

Brighton Concorde 2 (September 16)
Portsmouth University (17)
Cardiff University (18)
Frome Cheese and Grain (19)
Liverpool Masque (20)
Leeds Cockpit (22)
Nottingham Rescue Rooms (23)
Leicester Charlotte (24)
Norwich Waterfront (26)
Birmingham Medicine Bar (27)
Newcastle University (28)
Aberdeen Lemon Tree (29)
Dundee Reading Rooms (30)
Edinburgh Venue (October 2)
Glasgow Barfly (3)
Stoke The Underground (4)
Shrewsbury Music Hall (5)
London Scala (6)

In other news, Pete issued a nasty message to the rest of the band on Babyshambles. So nasty, in fact, that we won't repeat it here. For the curious, the unedited post is here.

"She Wishes"

2004-08-11T04:07:00.000-07:00

Carl talks to Launch:
It's 3pm on a Tuesday afternoon in London and most people are at work. Not Carl Barat. Rock'n'roll is still asleep. LAUNCH woke up half of The Libertines' revered songwriting partnership to find out what's happening in one of the UK's biggest bands and if there is any future for the group without their drug-ravaged, damaged genius and Barat's partner-in-crime, Peter Doherty...

LAUNCH: The album was originally going to be produced by Bernard Butler. What happened?

CARL BARAT: "We didn't use any of the stuff we did with Bernard. We did a couple of things with Bernard but it wasn't happening. He didn't get on with Peter. "

You didn't have similar problems with Mick Jones (who produced the record)?

"No, Mick gets on well with everyone. Bernard and Peter are both a bit highly strung."

What sort of vibe do you get from Mick?

"A lot of a vibe, basically. That's all you get from him, he's one of the boys, a natural. He fits in and has a lot of love for what we do and he really understands. He's like Albert from "Only Fools And Horses" with his stories…"

When did you start on the record?

"I can't remember man. We did ten days altogether in June I guess. We have no conception of time or punctuality."

Was it hard work?

"It was murder. I can't believe it got made to be honest with you."

Where there day to day problems?

"It took two months to get ten live days done. It was all over the place, Two days here and three days there. Every time we went in wondering if everyone was going to turn up."

Was much of the record written before you went into the studio?

"Not really. Nothing was decided. It was all pretty hodgepodge. We had a few ideas. A couple of the tracks were already written."

How significant was Peter's involvement in the songwriting?

"As significant as on the first album…"

What is "The Man Who Would Be King" about?

"Have you seen the film of the same name - Sean Connery and Michael Caine are in it? It's about friendship, you know. It's set in the colonial Empire. You should see it, man."

What is it that Katie did?

"You don't even want to know..."

Is the Katie suggested in the press the right subject?

"She wishes..."

Uh Oh

2004-08-10T03:49:00.000-07:00

NME Reports:

LIBERTINES guitarist PETE DOHERTY has failed to turn up for a court appearance this morning.

Doherty was due to make an appearance at Thames Magistrates Court this morning (August 10), where he's facing a charge of possession of an offensive weapon.

A spokesperson for the singer told NME.COM: "Unfortunately Pete was unable to turn up for court today, he has a severe case of gastroenteritis. The case has been postponed for a week."

Carl In The Independent

2004-08-07T09:35:00.000-07:00

Carl speaks:

The reason for the insecurity guards, however, is less to do with fending off legions of over-eager fans than it is to do with protecting The Libertines from themselves. Doherty, who is 24, is currently barred from the band pending his overcoming an addiction to heroin and crack cocaine. Barat, Hassall and Powell had spent the week prior to T In The Park rehearsing with a stand-in guitarist somewhere near Box in Wiltshire. The location was secret lest the erratic Doherty take it upon himself to turn up; the heavies at T In The Park were said to be reinforcing this protective cordon around the band.

Barat must have had a sense of déjà vu: a year ago The Libertines were forced to play a round of festivals without the troubled Doherty.

"I know, I know," sighed Barat, 25, as he and his beefy posse walked to The Libertines' Portakabin dressing-room. "Doesn't make it any easier though. Pete's into festivals, but he's not very well at the moment. It would be nice to have him here, but there's no point in compounding his illness by accepting it."

Is being in The Libertines bad for Pete's health?

"No, taking smack and crack is bad for his health."

Libertines In The U S of A!

2004-08-07T09:09:00.000-07:00

Check out the tour dates, with American stops other than LA and NY!:

The Libertines
Thu	08/19/04	West Hollywood, CA	The Troubadour
appearing with "Reading Festival"

Sat	08/28/04	Reading, UK	Richfield Avenue
appearing with "Leeds Festival"

Sun	08/29/04	Leeds, UK	Bramham Park
The Libertines

Mon	09/27/04	Vancouver, BC	Richard's On Richards

Tue	09/28/04	Portland, OR	Dante's

Wed	09/29/04	Seattle, WA	Neumo's

Fri	10/01/04	San Francisco, CA	The Fillmore

Sat	10/02/04	Los Angeles, CA	Henry Fonda Theatre

Sun	10/03/04	San Diego, CA	Mira Mesa Epicentre

Wed	10/06/04	Denver, CO	Larimer Lounge

Sat	10/09/04	Chicago, IL	Metro / Smart Bar

Sun	10/10/04	Detroit, MI	Magic Stick

Tue	10/12/04	New York, NY	Webster Hall

Fri	10/15/04	Toronto, ON	Opera House

Sat	10/16/04	Montreal, QC	La Tulipe

Sun	10/17/04	Philadelphia, PA	Theatre Of Living Arts

Mon	10/18/04	Boston, MA	Paradise Rock Club

Thu	10/21/04	Atlanta, GA	Echo Lounge

Fri	10/22/04	Orlando, FL	The Social

Articulate As Ever

2004-08-06T18:12:00.000-07:00

Pete sits down and talks to BBC6 after the recent gig in his flat

I'm So Sorry

2004-08-06T11:27:00.000-07:00

Pete Apologizes (Sort Of):

PETER DOHERTY has issued an apology for not turning up to a gig last night (August 2) in LONDON. With the rest of the band touring in the Far East, Pete, out of the band because of his drug problems, has been touring the UK alone. The singer was due to appear at the London Camden Barfly last night. However, as the evening progressed, it became clear that something was wrong and by 11.30pm fans were told Doherty wasn’t going to make it to the show. The star has issued a statement to NME.COM this evening explaining his actions. In part, it reads: "Pete Doherty would like to apologise to everyone who turned up to The Barfly in Camden last night (Monday the 2nd of August). "Pete turned up at the venue at 11pm with his guitar tech and encountered problems at the door. A doorman refused to let the tech in and…a number of fans who had gathered at the entrance." Pete said: "We have played at venues up and down the country on this tour, some of which had no security, and have encountered no problems. I simply asked the bouncer last night to apologise for his behaviour, and he refused. I was very upset at his attitude and…I'm very sorry for letting everyone down."

But then, on Babyshambles:
well hello everyone.. you certainly find out who you your friends are in times of trouble, and right now it's clear their are many who just can't wait for me to fail and appear a flaky junky, unreliable and fucked up on drugs. The fact is that there was no way in heaven or hell I could have played the barfly gig after the bullying and bastardly dastardly bouncer done what he did. Throwing his weight around for no other reason than that he could. If this website wasnae so slow in uploading downloads then I'd put up the frontline video footage that Anne took at the time and you could all see what went down. I apologize to all those who lost out, but given some of the reactions, I'm glad that a few of you have been inconvenienced. In fact, I'll eek out all of the gits until I can be sure I'm playing to a crowd who trust me, beleive in me , and don't turn on me at the first chance they get. You want clockwork, amoral live music? There's plenty of that about. What I did I did for you.. and the response is quite heartbreaking.
Friday's barfly gig goes ahead on the promise that bullyboy won't be present, and we're gonna do a special gig at the great eastern hotel beachparty for those with ticket stubs from mondays fiasco.
The tour continues apace though, and I'll see you in Bristol/ Shrewsbury as planned. bonjour. peterx

Still Not Dirty Enough For You My Love

2004-08-01T19:37:00.000-07:00

Pete Retracts His Offer:

the open letter to the libertines fell down well i took it down coz in their reply the boys that had me out the band says not to 'embarrass ' meself with 'offal pies for the pete club internet freaks to get fat '
apart from that all is well. I spoke to Alan Magee for the first time in a month, and have located my guitar - they've taken it to Japan it seems, to play fugi rock and then australia with my stand-in. Quite confused and for a moment lost or deranged this feeling a strange thing not keeping in with the glorious sun and the current mood of stabilization, inspiration and sharpening up. more akin to the despair and jolts into juvenile exclamation
they always tell me when they've left so as I can't stowaway. I've got the solo from tomblands down to a tee though.

Pete In The Evening Standard

2004-08-01T19:30:00.000-07:00

Pete Still In Tabloid Hell:

'I don't want to turn into Peter Libertine Rehab King'

The flat is a pleasant, airy space in Clerkenwell's Exmouth Market, conspicuously bereft of bloody needles or scenes from Trainspotting. A pale, thin, but relatively healthy Pete Doherty--formerly Libertine and currently Britain's most infamous rock star--is talking, with great articulacy, about how music should mean far more than drugs, while continually smoking crack and smack in front of me.
We are in his bedroom, which contains nothing more sinister than a bed, an electric guitar, a sofa, and two members (guitarist Patrick Walden and drummer Jemma Clarke) of his new band, Babyshambles. Doherty is expounding on his past, his future ad the drug addiction that has had him thrown out of The Libertines by his co-frontman and best friend, Carl Barat.

"All I can do is assure them that, in the past year, I've calmed down a lot. I don't inject any more. But I know the only solution is to knock crack and heroin on the head completely before they knock me on the head. And that's the plan. I'm gonna have a go at Detox Five. They knock you out for a few days so you go through the withdrawal when you're sleeping."

"I don't want to go to America for 10 months to promote the new album. Carl does. Carl wants to sell a million records. Good luck to him. But I can't accept that he's gonna call himself The Libertines and sing my songs."

Libs Feature In The Guardian

2004-07-30T07:27:00.000-07:00

Nice Career Spanning Piece Here:

In a hotel room in New York, Barat is hunched over an acoustic guitar. As night creeps into morning, he'll run through various Libertines songs, try a few Beatles numbers and play lots by the Doors. He begins new single Can't Stand Me Now - a bruised portrait of how Doherty and Barat's relationship has deteriorated - before suddenly stopping. "Do you have any idea what it was like for me to tell Peter he couldn't be in the band?" he asks, his eyes welling up. Then he grabs a bottle of beer and loses himself in the song...

It's hard to remember it was the music that made anyone care about the Libertines in the first place. That and the chemistry between all four members of the band, an unpredictability that inspires magic and mayhem in equal measure. Combining the power of the Clash and the melodic beauty of the Beatles, their songs capture the angst of the disenchanted and swoon with the poetry of the Libertines' private world, Arcadia - a vision of England in which no one is tied to societal rules, and in which everyone is free to do as they wish.

It was a shared belief in Arcadia that forged the initial bond between Barat and Doherty. "It was something that a lot of people had laughed at," says Doherty. "Or maybe I'd never found quite the right person to share it with. With Carl it was glaringly obvious that we'd found each other"...

Their potential was finally spotted by Geoff Travis, head of Rough Trade. "They were alive, alive to a degree that you just don't see," he says. "They were hilarious, entertaining, jumpy, songs coming out of their ears." The Libertines were signed to Rough Trade in 2002 - and celebrated in typically idiosyncratic style. "We got a bunch of money," says Barat, "ironed it and put it in the fridge."

May 2003. The Libertines arrive in New York for the first time and play a triumphant show at the tiny Lux in Brooklyn. Afterwards they go back to their hotel to celebrate. Barat and Doherty sit with their guitars, playing Chas and Dave songs to a small group of friends. Everyone is happy. It doesn't last. The next day, the band are in a recording studio and Barat is eager to do some work. But Doherty has brought some friends in with him. The tension is unbearable.

"Pete and his friends having their little crack fun," remembers Barat. "They're singing this song - which is my tune - adding and changing bits. Then a girl says: 'Come and sing, it's fun. Shall I teach you the words?' " Barat left the studio and New York soon after.

Doherty remembers it differently. "I knew I had I a better album than Up the Bracket in me and I wanted to record it. But I was told we've got to keep touring, keep promoting. That was the first time I realised we were on a conveyor belt."

Won't You Heed My Call?

2004-07-28T22:16:00.000-07:00

Message To The Rest Of The Libertines:

please don't play to p of the pops or reading Leedswithout me if you have any heart or beleif in me. I 'm sorting it out, it's ok. don't be daft., I'm wanting to speak to you. I need to speak to you. there's these songs I can't get out of my head
I'm off and about the Allbion singing them. I've got a lot of energy and good people about me, Chev, Jim, Dot, Andrew, Matt, Jai and my mum I need to speak to you mum I've got a new phone.
whatever happens, from now in and I'm here if or when you need me, I send all my love and wish you well
Peter x

Carve It Into Something New

2004-07-28T17:29:00.000-07:00

Gary Talks To XFM:

"Carl's attacking [the live shows] with a real fervour. He's really, really going for it. Whether he's enjoying himself or not, I don't know. I think he also knows that this is for the better good of everybody," he continues. "We'll keep on playing, Pete has something to come back to, and hopefully Pete will want to come back. [He'll be] in a better frame of mind than beforehand and that's what we really, really want."

New Bilo Post on Babyshambles:

after thousands of years rehabilitation the bilo laptop returns, and if hundreds of closeup eye witnesses are to be relied on to inform you of my ship shapeness, is in as good a shape as its owner is these reckless (rockless)sweet days of liberty, adventure and melodic arcadian revelry. I awake just, to the familiar towers and twisting footbridges in the embassy filter air of sheffield. their rammed in and ready. Backstage is a go go with selfish cunt jamming up the mirror, Dot practising her xylophone solo for never never, the lights are low and red and I'm waking up stood motionless in clean white fake fake burberry yfronts what has been going on?
A hell of a first night in Glasgow... intimacy, inspiration and sweet sweet music the night before duringand after the show the like of which I've never known, and I confess a quiet sorrow that perhaps the first night of the tour was to be the greatest. How could that be matched? Well... by time the Wolverhampton Civic hall's ballroom floor and stage had stopped shaking from the outrageous spirit shown and spilt (remember the round got in for the whole moshpit, and they cannae dwell, hotel close attention, corridor parade. a new song you fancy everyone really don't you) the dressing room had a piano and a jacuzzi and sitting in the bubbles with dot, andrew and Rini and god knows who all in our knickers I,m singing, all innocence smudged reflections in the steamed mirror. not a drug in sight...
when people say 'get better'.. I wonder how it can.
'playing reading Peter?'
'I can't go anywhere I'm not welcome. I love playing, but do not idealize a heartbreaking routine. Their way is sound but oh what a way I have found.'
I am available though, now you mention it...

this most certainly is the life then, on beanbags now everyone dancing in the dressing room, Mike Papa Georgio singing to a rabid acoustic shuffle '..I wish I had sailed the darkened seas on a great big clipper ship' people spinning round in the heat tambourines. meanwhile, out in the snake pit the anti-christ faces the little lions...
selfish cunt just been pulled out the crowd by chev, they called martin a wanker so in he waded, he's an elegant and slim but quite hefty dose of the theatrical underworld singing of race, hackney pavement chalk bodies outlined in his closet's imagination from raving queen glitter braces outerspace and 'the best band in the world are we' in the face point blank of boos and flying bottles. eh up, in swaggers young Tom Paddington now
'alright Mr Doherty. wnna cig?'
everywhere you look there's a fuckin paddington
Lambert and Butler.\hmmm

You'll Never Choose, You're Bound To Lose

2004-07-26T07:06:00.000-07:00

BBC Radio One Reports:

After being kicked out of the Libertines, Pete Doherty performed an acoustic set on Friday at a London art gallery to mark the opening of a photo exhibition dedicated to the band. He was briefly joined on stage by Libertines' drummer Gary Powell, who joined in on hand claps for a track called 'Don't Be Shy' from their new album. Pete dedicated one of his songs in his set to bandmate Carl but backstage it was very different, Pete told Radio1 he feels there's no going back for him and the Libertines: "The door's been shut on me from the Libertines. Whether it was the management, whether it was the band, it doesn't matter to me. I don't want to hang around any place I'm not welcome."

"I can't betray myself. I feel betrayed. I don't want to go on about the drugs thing, I try and avoid it as best I can but to say it's about drugs to me is a cop out. At the moment, the only people that are offering me support are the boys and girl in Babyshambles."

Don't Forget: Libs Photo Exhibition This Weekend!

2004-07-23T15:42:00.000-07:00

This July photographer Roger Sargent will be presenting "The Boys In The Band", the photographic story of the band so far. Open to the public on Saturday the 24th and Sunday the 25th, the exhibition launches on Friday the 23rd of July with an invite only viewing. Over 150 unseen images of the band will be on display at London's Proud Gallery.

::Thanks to James for the heads up:::

Solo Pete

2004-07-20T08:15:00.000-07:00

Dates For Pete's Acoustic Tour:
Glasgow Stereo (July 26)
Wolverhampton Little Civic (27)
Sheffield Trippets (28)
Southampton Joiners (29)
Nottingham The Social (31)
Brighton Freebutt (August 1)
London Camden Monarch (2)
Bristol Louisiana (4)
Shrewsbury The Albert (5)
London Camden Monarch (6)

This week's NME:

Pete in Vice Magazine:

So Much News To Report, So Little Time

2004-07-18T19:16:00.000-07:00

Quite a bit has been happening in the world of The Libs. Here are the highlights:

The story behind "What Katie Did" (thanks Acoustica):

Katie first met the charismatic 24-year-old rocker in April 2002, at a gig in East London. Pete nicknamed her Katie Bapples, due to her large chest, and co-wrote the song What Katie Did, about her battle to quit drugs. It appears on The Libertines' second album, due out on August 9, and was recorded before they sacked him. The couple had been dating for a month before Katie realised he was into heroin. One night in his flat, he persuaded her to try it, too. "We were young romantics and would write each other poetry," she recalls. "He told me I could only discover 'Arcadia' - our word for a perfect, peaceful world - if I took the drug with him.

Peter Speaks In The Metro (scroll down a bit):

'The narcotic contribution to my lifestyle is exaggerated', he muses. 'If i did the things they say, i would be dead. £1000 of heroin a day is impossible. I feel like i've got things under control on the drugs front. And i'm confident about the album'.The album to which Doherty refers to is The Libs eponymous follow-up to 2002's debut Up The Bracket. It's due out next month but Doherty won't be on the PR junket - not since Barat announced they'd be touring without him.'This absolutely breaks my heart' Doherty sighs. 'Saying that i'm too mentally ill to play and that i'm noy welcome at the festicals is a bit like him saying "Kill yourself". i know i've cut myself up and stuff, but that was the first time in my life that i felt suicidal.'If Carl was a clean-living lad, then maybe i'd make an effort to be completely clean' he continues. 'but i feel abandoned, there's nothing he could have done to hurt me more. Hopefully, he'll get help himself and realise I love him'. In the meantime, Doherty's focusing on his other musical manifestation, Babyshambles. So how's it different from the libertines? 'Well i'm allowed onstage' Doherty smiles, wanly. 'This libertines album that's coming out should have come out a year ago, so the Babyshambles album we're working on is the new Libertines. We might confuse people by calling it The Libertines by Babyshambles.'

Review of "The Libertines" from the Observer Music Monthly

Carlos plays "What A Waster" and "Can't Stand Me Now" acoustic for a Dutch radio station, and you can listen now.

Bootleg of T In The Park Performance now for download.

Possible album covers:

Oh Shite!

2004-07-15T13:56:00.000-07:00

From Drowned In Sound:

What do you get when you cross an ex-Libertines star, Selfish Cunt, Buckingham Palace, and some horseshit? Why, a news story of course! DiS was there to witness the mess...

During a photoshoot for the NME yesterday outside the Palace, a horse saw a prime moment to take a dump. The resulting poo was then kicked around by Attention-Seeking Bloke from disco punks Selfish Cunt, before he picked it up with his bare hands and started hurling the poo at Babyshambles' Pete Doherty and photographer Andrew Kendall. The Others' singer Dominic Masters then tipped a pint of beer over Selfish thingy's head. As Doherty, looking pale but rather dapper in a black suit, wrestled Selfish wotsit to the ground and shocked tourists watched, several policemen ran in to break them up.

Artwork!

2004-07-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

"Anyone Who Argues That Hedonism Fuels Creativity Has Obviously Never Listened to Motley Crue"

2004-07-13T07:24:00.000-07:00

Jack posted the following story from the Telegraph on the .Org Forum:

My Long Night With a Libertine

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 naive 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 Motley Crue. 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.

Mama You've Been On His Mind

2004-07-11T07:09:00.000-07:00

The Sunday Mirror Reports:

AGONY OF LIBERTINES STAR'S MUM
Exclusive By Danielle Lawler

THE mother of rock star Pete Doherty has told how her son's £1,000-a-day heroin addiction has broken her heart. Jacqueline Doherty says: "It's bizarre. I look at his body and wonder where did my little boy go? He's not my Pete - my son wouldn't do anything like taking drugs. "But I don't fear death for him. At least he wouldn't be in this living heroin hell he is now."

"I'll always be there for my son, but he's broken my heart." She spoke out after the Sunday Mirror's exclusive interview last week with Doherty, 24, when he spoke of his spiralling drug addiction and his sacking from top band The Libertines. He was forced out after his third failed attempt to kick his heroin habit. "I have cried so many tears over Pete," says Jacqueline, 50. "The reality now is either death or being messed up with his head mangled on drugs. Or he could turn and become the person he should have become in the first place.

"He was so clever at school, I thought he might become an English professor." The mother-of-three gave Pete a strict Catholic upbringing during his years growing up in Liverpool and London's Shepherd's Bush. But she says the family have been torn apart by his attempts at self-destruction. His father, also called Peter, and two sisters, aged 26 and 17, are devastated to see the change in him. "Pete used to make us all laugh but now we are crying. I just pray at some point he'll see how he's pushing everyone away who loves him." Jacqueline, who is a nurse, predicted his downward spiral when Pete admitted smoking cannabis at 18.

"I said 'It will lead to heroin - every heroin addict started with cannabis.' "He told me I was over-reacting - but I was right." Brainy Pete gained 11 A* GCSEs and four A-Levels before going to university to study English. But after six months he dropped out to form the Libertines. "Eventually he admitted he'd been taking heroin and crack cocaine. I was devastated and asked why. He said he wanted to experience everything." He promised never to take drugs again, but a year later Jacqueline stayed with him at the Priory rehab clinic in London. "It was his second go at rehab. I stayed with him for nine days. When I searched his room I found heroin in his pillow, taped underneath chairs - he'd stashed it everywhere. He got through the detox stage but he was determined not to stay at the Priory and left."

Doherty revealed last week how his mum blackmailed him to attend a strict clinic in Thailand by refusing to get treatment on a lump she found in her breast until he went. Jacqueline, who lives with the rest of the family in Germany for work reasons, was later given the all-clear, but Pete dropped out of the clinic before he was cured. "He called me after he walked out of the Priory to tell me he was on his way to Thailand, I hoped the Thai clinic could help him but again it was for all the wrong reasons," says Jacqueline. "He was trying to please me."

However, she hopes being axed by the Libertines may help Pete, who lives in squats around North London, in the long run. "Maybe it's better if they go their separate ways and get on with their lives. There is too much stigma surrounding The Libertines, Pete and drugs.

"It would be good if he had a clean break and started again."

I Don't Believe In First Love, That's The Worst

2004-07-11T07:04:00.000-07:00

NME Reports:

At T IN THE PARK tonight (July 10), THE LIBERTINES played their first gig since PETE DOHERTY left to deal with his drug problems...and the fans gave overwhelming support to the band, as they appealed to the audience to voice their support for the absent guitarist. Playing the NME stage directly before headliners Muse, frontman Carl Barat urged the vast crowd who had come to watch the band to give a big round of applause for Pete, dedicating first song to "my best friend Peter", which was new single 'Can't Stand Me Now', a song that was written by Pete for his bandmate. Their first gig without Pete was an energetic affair, and while Carl appeared to miss his sparring partner on stage, the whole band – with replacement guitarist Anthony Rossomando, who was announced as the substitute earlier today on NME.COM - put full-force energy into their performance, which included a swathe of new songs. The new songs went down a storm with the vast audience who had gathered to watch them, but the wildest applause and cheers were reserved for 'Boys In The Band' and 'Up The Bracket', which were served up as a double-whammy.

It was an emotional gig for the band, with Carl admitting earlier in the day that he was a little nervous. But he put 100% into the set, saying little but playing hard, until the set-closer, which was raucously well received new track 'Whatever Happened To The Likely Lads'. Fan Tim Barker, from Perth, said: "I didn't think Carl looked totally comfortable on stage, he seemed to miss Pete. But they sounded as tight as ever. It lacked something, though." However Scott Webster, from Aberdeen, was absolutely confident about the band's future. "It was fucking magic, brilliant!" he said. "They did well without Pete - they've let him do his own thing, and they will do well without him. They are right behind him all the way, but the new songs still sounded great without him."

"I'd wish him all the best, but I think The Libertines definitely have a future without him," he added.

Carlos, Yesterday

Pete Out, Anthony In

2004-07-10T14:03:00.000-07:00

NME Reveals:

LIBERTINES star CARL BARAT has confirmed to NME.COM who their replacement guitarist will be at T IN THE PARK. As previously reported, the band's July festival appearances will be their first gigs since cancelling all dates in June because of Pete Doherty's addiction to drugs. As a result they've decided to carry on without him. NME.COM can reveal that for the last week the group have been in a secret rehearsal space in Bath, where they've been rehearsing with Anthony Rossomando, who has played with the band before. He joined the group temporarily last year for gigs without Pete, including the Carling Weekend: Reading And Leeds festivals. Carl told NME.COM: "We've been down in Bath getting ready for this gig. I'm going to do my best with the songs and I hope the response will be reciprocal." Barat confirmed that the group will be playing new songs from their forthcoming second album, which is due on August 30. Before their set the band made an appearance at the NME Signing Tent. By the time The Libertines arrived the crowd was the biggest of the day, with the three members of the band signing all manner of objects including Wellington boots, pictures, CDs and even a girl's naked chest.

Mick Jones, Mick Jones Knows What I Mean

2004-07-09T06:49:00.000-07:00

NME Reports:

MICK JONES has revealed all about the new LIBERTINES album, and spoken out about the troubles surrounding the band. Speaking to NME.COM at last night's (July 7) Diesel U-Music Awards at Fabric nightclub in London, he said the new album, which he produced, saw the band go from "Men to boys. Actually, that's supposed to be the other way round." He continued: "It's almost like they've come into themselves, and the living that they've done since last time has all gone into this. You know what I mean? And the subtext of the record is really great as well. It reaches you, it reaches you in the right place. It touches you. It's touching. It's beautiful really." Asked whether he thinks the band can survive the current crisis stemming from Pete Doherty's chronic drug addiction, he said: "I hope so. I think so. We're positive, we've got a lot of love. We've got a lot of goodwill. No matter what they say about Peter or something, always at the end it's 'Dot Cotton hopes he gets better'. They always put that in don't they, and that means that people care. "People love the band, because they can touch them on that place. You can recognise that but no one can obtain that. You can go for it but it's a once in a generation thing." Jones was given a Lifetime Achievement award at the awards, to which he responded: "It feels like you're finished basically, but funnily enough I haven't been finished up to this point."

Mick Jones, Yesterday

Yet Another Reason To Move To London

2004-07-08T08:26:00.000-07:00

NME Reports:

THE LIBERTINES' turbulent history is to be documented in a new exhibition by former NME photographer ROGER SARGENT. Over 150 unseen images of the band will go on display at London's Proud Gallery between July 24-25, with a launch night featuring a performance by the group taking place on July 23. The collection traces The Libertines' career from the release of their first single 'What A Waster', through to their impromptu gigs, guitarist Pete Doherty's release from prison last year as well as the band's dramatic reunion on the same night. Sargent said: "It would be difficult to follow this, in all the time I've been following bands I've never done anything like it. Working with The Libertines has restored my faith in the music industry. Every time they've performed for two years I've been there, through the highs and the lows, and every time I've felt like I've witnessed yet another historical moment." He added: "I've captured that feeling and now I want to share it with the people that are most important to the boys...their fans."

Review: "The Libertines"

2004-07-04T15:10:00.000-07:00

Pete Doherty is a talented songwriter. He's written about six or seven albums worth of material by now. He wanted to release another Libertines album right after "Up The Bracket" but Rough Trade wouldn't go for it. If we were living in the 1960s, we would have seen a lot more from the Libertines--we're talking Dylan or Beatles levels of output...one or two albums a year.

This being 2004 and the era of the sensible album every three years followed by the two year world tour, the band sticks out like a sore thumb and Pete destroys himself because all he knows how to do is write and record songs, with maybe a bit of playing live on the side.

Ultimately it's the big tours and the unnecessary gaps in proper recording that have dramatically worsened his addiction issues. As one of Pete's idols once sang, "the devil will find work for idle hands to do". It will probably take his death for people around him to realize that, which is a fucking scandal.

Look out your window and you'll see vultures circling, intoxicated with the stench of imminent death currently emanating from our hero. The very system that created Pete is licking its chops, waiting with bated breath for him to keel over so it can start cleaning the whole thing up. Remember when Tony Wilson said the best thing Ian Curtis ever did for his career was killing himself? Pete's problem is practically everyone around him is an aspiring Tony Wilson. The skinny boys with their ripped jeans and designer pipes, the ghostly girls with stripey shirts and trust fund bangs, the greedy journalists, the clueless industry types...

Let Pete die.
Let him become a "Rock n' Roll Legend".
Let us get around to ideal[sanit]izing his memory.
Then let's sell the whole fucking thing on Ebay.

Fuck You.

The album's brilliant by the way. Best thing they've ever done. Pisses on everything released this year, last year, next year...

The Libertines are dead. Long live The Libertines.

Shhhhhhhhhhhh...........................

2004-07-04T14:06:00.000-07:00

??????????????????????????????????

(Link no longer functional, sadly. Try Soulseek)

My Boy...There's A Price To Pay

2004-07-04T05:35:00.000-07:00

Pete talks to the Sunday Mirror:

MY DRUGS HELL BY TRAGIC LIBERTINES STAR
Jul 4 2004
Exclusive By Danielle Lawler

HE is only 24 and should have the world of rock and roll at his feet. Until last week Pete Doherty was lead singer and guitarist in the Libertines, the group once tipped to eclipse Oasis and make millions. Yet instead of holding court in a five-star hotel suite, the man hailed as Britain's brightest musical talent for years is sleeping on the couch in a friend's down-at-heel flat sipping tea from a chipped cup. Doherty can't - or won't - give up a crippling addiction to heroin and crack cocaine that is costing him up to £1,000 a day...

His mother Jacqueline resorted to emotional blackmail to try to make him stop. She refused to have treatment after finding a lump in her breast unless he booked into Thailand's Thamkrabok Monastery - last refuge of drug addicts that other clinics cannot help...Many now fear he is heading down the same road to oblivion as Nirvana singer Kurt Cobain who committed suicide after battling chronic heroin addiction...

A loose page falls from a leather-bound diary he is flicking through as he chain-smokes his way through a pack of Lucky Strike cigarettes. He picks it up and starts reading a poem he's written:

I feel death - dull misty death - it is pestering me like a well-meaning friend,
Death is blinding me, with slow-burning horror flame flickers.
I feel death - thrashing, certain death - banging me about a reet gud clobbering. Waves then...
I feel death, mournful dreary death, clogging up myself.'

Doherty believes that it is his inner demons, rather than drugs, that could kill him. "There are three things I know a bit about in my life and that's QPR, my guitar and drugs," he says. "I know QPR are the best football team in the world, my guitar is the most beautiful thing I own and that I don't take enough drugs to kill me. It isn't drugs I need to get rid of, it's the demons that fill my head. Once I have come to terms with my demons, maybe I'll be able to get clean."

It was after a second and failed spell at the exclusive Priory Clinic that his mother begged her son to go to the Thamkrabok Monastery. "She just turned up on the doorstep one day and was really distressed and worried about me," says Doherty. "She'd found a lump in her breast but refused to have a scan unless I agreed to go into rehab. I think that was unfair to put so much pressure on me, but I went anyway to prove I would do it for her. I went for three days without drugs and it was hell. But she still wasn't satisfied. I'd gone to Thailand like she asked. I couldn't have done much more"...

Doherty had a breakdown, writing in a statement before he fled: "Thamkrabok Monastery have done everything they could to help me, but I am not strong enough for this treatment." He says it was three days of hell. "I'd only come out of the Priory a couple of days earlier so I'd been through all the shakes, vomiting and sleepiness nights with cold turkey. Foolishly I didn't do any research about Thailand before I went, and it was hardcore."

"On the third day I left and went to Bangkok. I booked into a hotel where they offered room service of heroin with my bacon and eggs. I told them I had no money but they said I could have it on tab. I notched up a £280 bill in three days. If I'd done the same amount of brown in England it would have cost me thousands"...

Doherty adds: "The first time I had heroin I was 21, walking round the streets of Whitechapel on a Sunday, smoking brown my dealer gave me and thinking I was cool. I've no idea how much I took that first time or how much it cost. He gave it to me for free. "As it got into my bloodstream I noticed it exaggerated parts of me that were already there... solitude and loneliness. "Then I started getting all these creative thoughts for the first album. So I kept taking it. I didn't get hooked straight away - it was a gradual thing. It was six months to a year later before I started taking it every day. "Drugs have never been the driving wheel - they are just part of creating music. I just want to play so I take it to enhance my creativity. A lot of my lyrics are heroin related - but they're never a celebration of it."

Just before Christmas 2001 they were signed by record label Rough Trade. "We could never afford coke - that was too expensive - it was always heroin," says Doherty. "Someone laid out a line of coke on the table for me and Carl to congratulate us. It was our first proper line...

He was sacked for the first time in July last year. While the band were abroad he even took some of Carl's property to feed his addiction. Doherty was welcomed back - but his continuing addiction finally forced the band to part with him again last week after his latest battle to beat his addiction failed.

"I tried to calm down when they told me with a smoke," he says. "But as I was cooking up I looked at the brown and screwed it up. There was not a drug in the world that could make me feel better. It made me feel dirty and I realised, 'This is why I can't play'. I've got to start getting clean straight away. But I can't do it in the Priory or places like that. I have to do it in the environment I live in because I am always going to be surrounded by drugs while I'm making music. I've just got to find the inner strength to control it"...

Doherty has had a series of relationships with a leggy American model known only as Jack and has a two-year-old son Estile with Lisa Moorish, who has a baby daughter Molly by Liam Gallagher. His latest love was a girl called Irene. Once he dreamt of running away to Paris with her. "Irene was my girlfriend but it's over," he sighs. "I had to choose between her or drugs. I suppose I chose drugs."

It's Been A Long War...I'm Tired And Dirty

2004-07-03T18:54:00.000-07:00

"There are many demons inside of Pete but not half as many as are running around him."
-Tim Arnold

Exit The Skag And Bone Man

2004-06-30T04:09:00.000-07:00

NME Reports:

LIBS CONTINUE WITHOUT PETE

THE LIBERTINES have decided to continue their forthcoming live commitments without PETE DOHERTY, NME.COM can exclusively reveal. The band are confirmed for a number of festivals in July, which will be their first gigs since cancelling all dates in June because of Pete Doherty's addiction to drugs. The band have issued a statement to NME.COM today (June 30) saying that "with regret" they've decided to continue without Pete. It reads: "It is with regret that The Libertines announce they are to continue without singer and guitarist Peter Doherty due to his well-known addiction problems, specifically with crack cocaine and heroin." Carl Barat said: "Peter is and always will be a Libertine and when he cleans up from his addictions he will be immediately welcomed back into the band. "This decision is made with love and with no disregard to Peter and his problems. The other members of the band - Gary, John and myself - have come to this conclusion after three recent failed rehab attempts, all of which The Libertines have funded. "Peter's erratic mental state worries us greatly and having him on tour would only compound his problems. We aim to complete all existing tour commitments without him." The Libertines' eponymous second album is now complete, and set for release on August 30. It was recorded with Doherty in April and May, before his health problems escalated. The band have confirmed they will be appearing at T in the Park (July 10). The show will be followed by the Oxygen Festival in Dublin (11).

"I Am Not Anti-drugs, I Am Anti-suffering And Pro Freedom"

2004-06-29T19:25:00.000-07:00

Some thoughts from Tim Arnold on yesterday's Babyshambles gig:

When I went to live in Thamkrabok to make my album, I said something that I thought I might never see.I said that I believed Thamkrabok might be the only cure in the world for Crack addiction and that I could try to do something useful in helping other musicians like me to go there and 'get better'. I don't mean 'get clean' because to say that Thamkrabok gets people clean is underselling what they actually do for you.
I had a very perculiar image of other doomed minstrels turning up to do treatment and then re-awakening through music again. Because thats what I did. I alway knew it would not be as black and white as that because everyone is different. But nothing prepared me for what 'did' happen.
I knew about Pete Doherty from long before I went to Thamkrabok. I think I was hitting Rock bottom with my own addiction just as the Lib's were securing there place as a really important band in this country . We have mutual friends and we 'had' mutual interests. Drugs and Music. When I saw the title 'Skag and Bone man' I could not believe how open the whole lexicon of drug taking had become...
Last night, Pete did a a show at the Rhythm Factory which was in many ways, the coolest thing I have seen since I have been back in the UK. It was also the most heartbreaking thing I have seen as well. He is a grown man, its true, and as many people keep saying, he should be a man and be big enough to accept how lucky he is and be brave enough to really repair himself.But if theres one thing that I have learnt in the Monastery , it is that you cannot be compassionate enough to somebody who is suffering from addiction.
The monks call it 'Challenge your Compassion'. The addicts that come to the monastery do their best to drive the monks mad, but it never works because the Monk's just smile and ask if they can help in any way until the addict either leaves or accepts that he/she does not really have an affect on the world and the only thing worth working on is themselves...
People who know me will know that I am not anti-drugs, I am anti suffering and pro freedom. The Libertine's. It's a great thought, but like all grand concepts, its hard to practice. If Pete believes in freedom, he would not offer himself as a slave to Crack and Smack. Using Crack and Smack is as uncool and irresponsible as sponsoring Superbrands who have unsound investments. The mass production of Crack and Smack are directly linked to Warfare, slavery and poverty throughout the world. Libertine? You have got in it you Pete, but you are getting your sums wrong. This is all by the by, but it maybe of interest to others in a similar position to Pete....
Who ever he has pissed off, Pete should also be forgiven for some of his fuck-ups. Because everyone I saw last night around him are making it harder for him to stop. It is easy to mis-construe and confuse adoration for love. The sort of love Pete is getting on a day to day basis is not making him feel 'loved' its making him feel trapped. Last night was an eye opener.I saw adults in their mid 20'swapping tales about Crack like 14 year olds swap football stickers.I am not saying everyone should stop taking drugs. Most of my friends in this country take drugs. But last night I did not see young Punks and Rockers starting a revolution with music. I saw a bunch of trust-fund kids in make-up and hopeless hangers-on with nothing inspirational to say about anything in the age of celebrity, as they performed the lastest reality execution where everyone contributed to the public hanging. And Pete is in the middle hanging on by the skin of his teeth. Anyone with any conscience whatsoever,try and get a grip of the situation and start taking care of each other. At the end of the day its meant to be about 'MUSIC'.
Pete, I saw the tears in your eyes when we were singing in the back of the van. You are better than average. Lets sort you out so at least the Judge knows you made an effort when you go back to court in August. Call me
Love and Light, Tim Arnold

Can't Stand Waiting For The Single

2004-06-29T17:39:00.000-07:00

Just about everyone is reporting on the "Can't Stand Me Now" single:

New single, Can't Stand Me Now, will be available on two CDs and 7". All bonus tracks are exclusive to this release.

CD1- Can't Stand Me Now, Cyclops, Dilly Boys
CD2- Can't Stand Me Now, Never Never, All At Sea
7"- Can't Stand Me Now, (I've Got) Sweets

Can't Stand Me Now will be released on the 9th of August.

Not Guilty, Your Honour

2004-06-29T10:21:00.000-07:00

NME Reports:

LIBERTINES guitarist PETE DOHERTY has pleaded not guilty to possession of an offensive weapon. Doherty made a brief appearance at Thames Magistrates Court (June 29), where he's facing the charge. The court heard that the alleged incident happened on Hackney Road, London E2. Pete, dressed in a grey suit, was supported in court by a number of friends, including Alan McGee, the band's manager. By pleading not guilty Doherty will now have to return to the same court on August 10 for a preliminary hearing.

Pete, earlier

Piss Me Off!

2004-06-28T17:02:00.000-07:00

Check Out The Bootleg Available for Download on Babyshambles:

piss me off
the libertines at the rhythm factory
15/04/04

1. what a waster
2. cyclops
3. up the bracket
4. what katie did
5. don't be shy
6. death on the stairs
7. the delaney
8. don't look back into the sun
featuring peter perrett
9. can't stand me now
10. last post on the bugle
11. campaign of hate
12. tell the king
13. man who would be king
14. another girl, another planet
featuring peter perrett
15.time for heroes
16. i get along

copyright the libertines

huge thanks to Richard for his bootlegging skills

The First Review Emerges

2004-06-27T06:09:00.000-07:00

HMV has a review of the new album:

The mythology was starting to overshadow the music with tales of drug addiction, punch-ups, imprisonment and therapy all adding up to make The Libertines the most talked about band in Britain. Thank god then, that their second album, cleverly titled 'The Libertines' has been finished. Many thought it would never happen but Pete, Carl, John and Gary have managed to put their problems behind them long enough to create an album that is destined to be album of the year, if not the decade. Produced, as with debut album 'Up The Bracket', by Clash legend Mick Jones and engineered by Bill Price (who worked on "London Calling"), "The Libertines" is as ramshackle and effortless as you'd expect, spitting out killer tunes, insistent hooks and mouth-watering melodies at every turn...

"The Libertines" is a deeply personal record that, hopefully, will go some way to exorcise the demons that have haunted the band over the past year. Rammed full of instantly memorable tunes, it consolidates their position at the peak of British indie. Whilst pretenders to the crown like The Ordinary Boys and Razorlight have managed to produce some truly classy first records only The Libertines are capable of the sort of creativity on show here. With this album The Libs can now take their place alongside The Clash, The Who, The Jam, Oasis and The Kinks as part of the elite group of bands that can lay claim to the term 'genius'. In short, 'The Libertines' is a terrifyingly good record.

In other news, promo copies have already been released to the press, so it's probably only a matter of time before the album emerges on the net. Stay tuned to Timeforheroes.net for a complete review!

Here Comes The New Album!

2004-06-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

NME Reports:

THE LIBERTINES have confirmed to NME.COM the tracklisting for their hugely anticipated second album. Simply called 'The Libertines', the album will be released on August 30 via Rough Trade Records. The album will be preceded by a single "Can't Stand Me Now" on August 9. The single and album were produced by Mick Jones and engineered by Bill Price.

The full tracklisting for the album is:

Can't Stand Me Now
Last Post On The Bugle
Don't Be Shy
The Man Who Would Be King
Music When The Lights Go Out
Narcissist
The Ha Ha Wall
Arbeit Macht Frei
Campaign Of Hate
What Katie Did
Tomblands
The Saga
Road To Ruin
What Became Of The Likely Lads

Band Of Brothers

2004-06-22T13:05:00.000-07:00

Radio 1 Reports:

The Libertines were surprise guests at the MOJO Honours List awards show in London this afternoon (Tuesday). With Pete Doherty out of rehab and being arrested for possession of an offensive weapon last Thursday, they band have been laying fairly low over the past few days. They've also cancelled a few performances including this weekend's Glastonbury. Carl, Gary and John showed up at the bash without Pete, and Carl told us that despite rumours, they're unlikely to make a surprise appearance at the festival. The main thing is to help Pete get himself together: "Ten minutes is a long time in the Libertines, so you never know what could happen. He is always part of the band, of course he is. The band wouldn't be the band if he wasn't." "He's always welcome. Obviously his health is above all our primary concern. As soon as he sorts himself out he's more than welcome to join us whatever we're doing."

Can't Stand Me...Now!

2004-06-21T12:41:00.000-07:00

Three Useful Facts:

1. The "Can't Stand Me" single is out August 9th in the UK.

2. The b-side is "Never, Never"

3. You can hear it tomorrow night (Tuesday) on Zane Lowe's Radio 1 show between 8 and 10 pm.

Good God Man!

2004-06-19T04:10:00.000-07:00

NME Reports:

PETE ARRESTED IN LONDON

THE LIBERTINES' PETE DOHERTY has been arrested after coming back to the UK from Thailand. As previously reported, the guitarist flew out for a course of rehab at the Thamkrabok Monastery. However, Pete walked out after just a few days, and returned to the UK earlier in the week. It has now emerged that police pulled Pete for a suspected driving offence on Thursday (June 17), just hours after he arrived back in London. Pete was searched, and it's alleged police found a flick knife in his possession. As a result the guitarist was arrested and is due in court later this month where he'll face charges of possessing an offensive weapon, driving without a licence, insurance and driving dangerously. Doherty's trip to Thailand to clean up was the reason The Libertines pulled out of festival appearances in June.

Pete's Flick Knife, Yesterday

I Tried So Hard To Keep Myself From Falling Back To My Bad Old Ways...

2004-06-18T04:09:00.000-07:00

NME Reports:

PETE COMES HOME

THE LIBERTINES' PETE DOHERTY is back in the UK after going to Thailand in an attempt to beat his drug addiction. As previously reported, the guitarist flew out for a rigorous course of rehab at the Thamkrabok Monastery. The Monastery claim to provide one of the most successful detoxification and rehabilitation programs in the world, having treated over 100,000 patients since its inception in 1958. However, Pete walked out after just a few days, and has been in Bangkok ever since. A spokesperson for the band told NME.COM Pete returned home yesterday (June 17). Doherty's trip to Thailand to clean up was the reason The Libertines pulled out of festival appearances in June, including last weekend's Isle Of Wight festival.

Words Of Reason and Sympathy

2004-06-15T21:31:00.000-07:00

Alan McGee:
Please enough of the Peter slagging on this forum.No good will come of treating Peter like this.It will make him run away.His Mother,Carlos,Gary and John and everybody involved in the mangement of the Libertines are all extremely worried for him with regards to his health mental and physical.I know Peter reads this board so to bait him is only venting your own anger about his problem.If the people that are closest to him on a daily basis can still accept rehab never worked again[and believe me we were gutted] then the Libs fans will have to as well.Rough Trade put Peter through his first Rehab and Creation Management have put him through the Priory twice.Our belief in Peter as a person and his talent remains intact.The group will still put Peter into a clinic if he wants to return back to these shores.There is a place i know of in Spain that may well work.To recap it's easy to slag Peter off behind a computer but he has given British Music the kind of kickstart i personally haven't experienced in 25 years.His support of Love Music Hate Racism to trying to arrange benfit gigs for QPR only goes to prove he has a good heart.He may have lost the way at this point but he is a good person.Let him work out what he wants to do.Thanks Alan

Bobby Gillespie:
hi peter, i don't really know you very well, but douglas speaks very highly of you. i just want to send you a message of support
keep on keeping on -derangement of the senses/poetry/rock n roll/chinese rocks/bangkok/ i hope your safe, happy & when you come home if you want to douglas & me would love to go to the cinema with you/ go for late night walks round london could be good fun, see what you think. i'm sitting up with mcgee listening to records-some good, some bad, i'm pretty tired now, so take care of yourself & hope to see you soon. bob g x

Trouble With A Capital "T"

2004-06-14T13:47:00.000-07:00

NME Reports:

THE LIBERTINES' PETE DOHERTY has fled his rehab program in Thailand. The guitarist flew out last week for a rigorous course of rehab at the Thamkrabok Monastery. The Monastery claim to provide one of the most successful detoxification and rehabilitation programs in the world, having treated over 100,000 patients since its inception in 1958. However, a spokesperson for Pete said that he left of his own accord at 4.30am local time yesterday morning (June 13). It is thought Pete was headed for Bangkok.

A statement from the Monastery reads: "Having entered into the free treatment program at Thamkrabok Monastery in Thailand on Thursday June 10, and having vowed to senior Monks "never to take drugs ever again" upon registration, Peter refused to take even his third dose of medication, and has finally today rejected the sensitive and compassionate care offered by the Nuns and the Monks there. "Despite insistent and concerned appeals from the Monastery's officials and even his own mother, he demanded his passport and personal belongings and has fled to a hotel in Bangkok. "Upon leaving the Monastery, Pete signed a declaration stating that: "Thamkrabok Monastery have done everything they could to help me, but I am just not strong enough for this treatment."

Pete In Thailand: McGee Confirms It

2004-06-09T03:27:00.000-07:00

NME Reports:

THE LIBERTINES' PETE DOHERTY has flown out to Thailand for an intense rehab program. The guitarist walked out of the Priory earlier this week, and on Monday (June 7) played his final show with the band before jetting East for treatment. Pete will undergo a rigorous course of rehab at the Thamkrabok Monastery. The Monastery claim to provide one of the most successful detoxification and rehabilitation programs in the world, having treated over 100,000 patients since its inception in 1958. Writing online, the band's manager Alan McGee said: "We flew Peter to Thailand last night. To be honest his mum, Carlos and myself can't believe he did it but he (is) a man of many surprises. If he's going to get clean permanently anywhere it's in this place. "We kept him at The Priory under a different name this last week to avoid people staring at his recovery but deep down we knew he wasn't buying. We cleaned him up as best we could and he (of) his own accord agreed to go off to Thailand. "What happens to the group in the long term who knows as in any event the man we sent out there will come back a different man. He wanted to change and has done something about it. All we ask of you people is keep the faith in Peter Doherty and The Libertines. "Carlos last night told me Peter's health comes before the band and again you have to love the man left in the UK. The (tabloid press) will no doubt be all on our case today but to say we all jumped for joy last night when his escort texted me and said we are on the plane and all systems are go would be the understatement of this year. "The man may be away for a month, he may even reject the west and not return. Who knows. All I hope for is he kills his demons and gets better and finds a happy life in The Libertines or in Thailand or wherever happiness lies for him. To be honest his health is the most important thing to everyone involved."

God Bless You Pete

2004-06-08T17:20:00.000-07:00

A Touching Farewell From Pete on Babyshambles:

9.30pm Heathrow tonight wave me a little goodbye, because part of me will never be coming back. I was given ten seconds mostly
to live if I carried on at that rate. I have some strength god knows from wherein me to be bothered about sharpening up on the old browns front. Bang bang this little toy soldiers in no mans land and stuffing into his tight pockets all well wishes and tokens of love to power the cause. I want to live, and want to be fit for the second albums airing. I saw Mick Jones, Carl, John and Gary (we played) last night and I know I can mangle out all the creases and live out further my grandly Arcadian dreams and dear divine adventures all albion's sons and daughters

I love you all and will return stronger, willing glances souls windows smudger
Peter xxx

Back From The Dead

2004-06-08T04:30:00.000-07:00

(Andrew Kendall)

Many More Here

Pete's Back, Only To Leave Again...

2004-06-08T04:07:00.000-07:00

NME Reports:

PETE REJOINS THE LIBERTINES

THE LIBERTINES proved they are far from splitting last night after PETE DOHERTY joined the rest of the band on stage at a small club show in LONDON. In front of around 100 people the band played a set including ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’ and forthcoming single ‘Can’t Stand Me’. The band finished with a rousing version of ‘The Good Old Days’. Earlier Pete led the crowd in a chorus of Happy Birthday for Carl, who turned 26 the day before. Pete checked out of rehab at The Priory in the morning – friends express great concern at his disappearance after the second recent stint of rehab was curtailed. Despite obvious nerves on the part of the whole of the band following Pete’s interview in a British tabloid claiming that Carl had neglected him, they made up their differences. They hugged before resolving to play an unscheduled set with instruments on loan from headliners The Boxer Rebellion. Pete insisted that he would be leaving for Thailand today to undergo a rigorous course of rehab at the Thamkrabok Monastery. The Monastery claim to provide one of the most successful detoxification and rehabilitation programs in the world, having treated over 100,000 patients since its inception in 1958. The club was the opening night of ‘Dirty Pretty Things’ a new weekly club at Infinity in Old Burlington Street, London where both Carl Barat and Clash legend Mick Jones DJed.

Pete On The Run?

2004-06-07T15:31:00.000-07:00

Don't know what you're up to Pete, but don't do anything I wouldn't do. NME Reports:

"PETE DOHERTY has left rehab leaving friends "very concerned for his well being". The Libertines guitarist has been back in rehab in recent weeks, including a second stint at The Priory in an attempt to beat his addiction to drugs. However, a spokesperson for the band told NME.COM that Pete has walked for the second time and nobody knows where he is. He told NME.COM: "Peter left The Priory this morning, his whereabouts are currently unknown although every effort is being made to find him. We are all very concerned for his well being." The band are set to make a number of live appearances this week, including slots at the Meltdown festival supporting Morrissey and at the Isle Of Wight festival. It is currently unclear what will happen to the performances."

"There is no such place as Paris. Tomorrow I go to Thailand"

2004-06-07T10:09:00.000-07:00

Pete posts on Babyshambles:

"...There is no such place as Paris. tomorrow I go to Thailand

Barnes common, gutted on the trail, London will not await me but some spilt entrails line the knobbly way through the trees to the old station. A mothers embitterred hope (a bit of hope?) oh there must be ... I can't be anything but a junkie to her can I? she was there for me..the cavalry now I am free, in my mind and my heart and adventure I seek. Thailand..Alan and mum see it as the next step on the cleanliness trail, gateway to bilo's eastern adventures. I have a collection of songs for you A Palace of Bone and other untitleds"

He's Really Done It This Time

2004-06-02T05:19:00.000-07:00

Here's What Scarborough Steve Posted On Babyshambles:

Hi peeps stevie bedlam here how is u all.
jus wanted to say i was with pete at the weekend and he left mine under satanic majestys request bundled into a van by men in white coats and ferried over to the train station and put on the euro star to france where he had all drugs removed from his person i also hear he had his laptop taken off him so we wont be hearing from him for 3 weeks apparently he tried to escape but they held him down dont worrie yourselves he'll be fine been told to get of computer now i have a sign in name il be back.

"Addict Pete Quits Libertines"

2004-05-28T11:02:00.000-07:00

Peter Tells All To The Sun:

LIBERTINES star PETE DOHERTY has quit the band, I can exclusively reveal. He dropped the bombshell after I tracked the missing star down to his London hideout.In a frank and emotional interview, Pete - who is clearly still addicted to hard drugs after quitting The Priory last weekend - told how he was turning his back on The Libertines. In tears, he said: "I'm heading to Paris to escape with my girlfriend Irene. "She's the one person who understands me. She will help me give up the crack pipe. "I couldn't do that in The Priory. I was barely aware of what was going on in there. "All these visitors were coming in to see me and saying they were my family and my sisters - but really they weren't. "I want to clean up but it's something I have to do on my own terms." Pete, who had all his worldly possessions packed up ready to leave when I spoke to him, had been in hiding for most of the past week. Not even family or friends knew his whereabouts. Even though he was dressed immaculately in a suit, fedora, cravat and polished brown brogues, the talented guitarist/songwriter still cut a lonely figure.