I don’t hate Pete Doherty as much as you’d think I would. Hell, even as much as I think I should. His tabloid notoriety creates an obscuring fog over his body of work, but clear-headed appraisal shows he’s neither as talented as his fanboy-obsessives would claim nor as bad as his many detractors would have it. What is most apparent is that there is a songwriting talent in there, fighting through the drug haze. However, he can’t expect to keep getting away with it because teenagers are impressed by the lifestyle.
Doherty has told the NME that prison has ‘cleaned him up’, that he’s ready to get out playing again and his new songs are the best he has ever written. All laudable statements, but….we’ve heard it all before. Doherty now cannot be judged on words alone, he has gone to the well too often and come up short for anyone, short of the most devoted supporter, to take him seriously. He must deliver a classic album, one that ingrains itself on the national psyché, one you can’t get away from. Because at the moment he’s simply the junkie from the papers who occasionally goes out with Kate Moss.
Does he have it in him? I don’t know. I’m not even sure he does. But he has to give it a try. Otherwise it’s just a slope to infamy and pointlessness a la Boy George. If you want to do junkie chic, you better be producing ‘The Velvet Underground & Nico’ not ‘Shotter’s Nation’. It’s his call, and his chance; but it is definitely his last one.
Filed under: General Stuff Tagged: | Babyshambles, Doherty, Libertines, NME, shotters nation
He’s a toss that needs a good wash. I can’t stand whiners that can’t handle their drugs. If you’re gonna A/ Get caught or B/ Want rehab all the time, you’re a spineless weasel who can’t take the payback. Believe me, if you’re gonna take drugs, make sure you’ve the type of personality that can accept the down-side.
I always thought that his most quoted work (1st Libertines album) sounded like “Bingo Masters Breakout”-era Fall. And that’s not a good thing.
I’ve always thought he was a lazy, bright chancer. I’ve never been persuaded by any of the tabloid excesses that there is more to him that. He claims that there is. Time to prove it.
You still can’t deny that The Fall are masters of a good title!
He’s no tortured genius, just a junkie who can play a nice tune now and again in between freebasing and gobbing on people.
Arsehole rating: 5
Speaking of junkies that Winehouse freak is no better, sure she’s got a decent pair of …pipes but that Ronson fella produced her back to black album and from what I’ve heard she was ‘groomed’ by those fat scumbag crooks (read Record Execs) to be the souless corporate cash register that she became anyway. About as manufacturered as Robbie ‘the king of cunts’ Williams. Debbie Fucking Gibson had more cred.
Arsehole Rating: 4
Debbie Gibson did Playboy. I’d have liked to have seen that. unsure on Winehouse though – not unless she’d had a good was, Rambo-style.
With him I just think of the letter published in Private Eye:
Dear sir,
I wish to take issue with another correspondent who, in a previous letter, claimed that the majority of the population of Britain hates Pete Doherty. The Majority of Britain’s population couldn’t give less of a shit.
Regards,
Anonymous.
Jesus. Didn’t realise so many tabloid-readers were commetning on your blog.
Doherty’s public image is a two headed beast.
Firstly, you have the artist who appears on TV and in music videos and, most importantly, on records.
The other is the tabloid freak – 90% invented by the tabloids, 10% by Doherty himself. It’s an ugly thing and easily avoidable if you don’t pick up London Lite, the Sun or the News of the World.
My advice – if you see an article about Doherty, don’t fucking read it unless you want to become part of the idiot chorus that likes to give a scapegoat a good kicking once in a while.
If you, as an individual, alone in the world, were pictured on front pages every time you got rolling drunk or stoned, you’d look like a twat to those stupid enough to read about it. Imagine a flaky relationship you had being discussed by idiots who read Heat. Bloody awful.
Collective tabloid opinion is probably the root of the majority of this country’s problems.
I think PD is great, and Shotter’s Nation wasn’t a patch on the first album. More drugged up lo fi messes please, Petey-boy.
Fair to say, he’s either loved or hated.
Emmm… pretty indfferent myself. Kinda agree with Swineshead’s advice on this one!