Pete Doherty Totally Explained

Everything about Pete Doherty totally explained

Peter Doherty (born March 12, 1979) is an English musician, artist, published writer and poet. He is currently a singer and songwriter in the band Babyshambles, but best known musically for his work with The Libertines, alongside Carl Barât. In 2005, Doherty became prominent in tabloids, the news media, and pop culture blogs because of his romantic relationship with supermodel Kate Moss and his well-publicised drug abuse.

Early life

Peter Doherty was born in Hexham, Northumberland, England, the son of Jacqueline (Michels), who was of paternal Jewish descent, and Peter John Doherty, who was of Irish descent. He had a Catholic upbringing(External Link

) and grew up at a number of army garrisons, due to his father's work as an officer in the British Army, living at various times at garrisons in Catterick, Belfast, Germany, Bedworth, Dorset and Larnaca, along with his mother, a nurse, and two sisters, Amy Jo and Emily. Doherty was the second of the three children. He was academically successful, achieving 11 top GCSEs, 5 of which were A* grades, at Nicholas Chamberlaine Comprehensive School in Bedworth and four passes at A Level, two at grade A. At the age of 16, he won a poetry competition and embarked on a tour of Russia organised by the British Council.
   After his A-levels, he moved to his grandmother's flat in London—where he said he felt 'destined' to be—and got a job filling graves in Willesden Cemetery, although most of his time was spent reading and writing while sitting on gravestones.
   He attended Queen Mary, part of the University of London, to study English literature, but left the course after his first year. and on May 10, 2006 was voted #2 in their poll depicting 50 of rock's greatest heroes.
   On February 28 2008, Doherty won the "Hero of the Year" award at the 2008 NME Shockwave Awards.

Career

The Libertines

Doherty and Barât formed a band called The Libertines in the late '90s, although it wasn't until 2002, with the release of their debut album Up the Bracket, that they began to achieve widespread mainstream success.
   The group achieved critical and commercial success and gained a dedicated cult following, with Doherty in particular being praised by fans and critics alike as one of the most promising songwriters to emerge on the British music scene for some time. However, Doherty's increasing drug problems led to his estrangement from the band. In 2003, he was jailed for burgling Barât's flat.
   The two initially fell out over this incident, but made amends whilst Doherty was in prison. He was originally sentenced to 6 months, but his sentence was cut to 2 months. Upon his release, Doherty immediately reunited with Barât and the rest of the band to play a gig in the Tap 'n' Tin pub in Chatham, Kent.
   Following his rejoining of the band, Doherty sought treatment for his drug addiction. He attended the alternative detox centre Wat Tham Krabok, a temple in Thailand, famous for its rehabilitation program for crack and heroin users, where he was beaten with a bamboo cane and forced to drink foul herbal concoctions to induce vomiting. He left after three days and returned to England. As a consequence of this, The Libertines cancelled appearances that they were due to make at the Isle of Wight and Glastonbury festivals.
   However, while post-production work was taking place on the second Libertines album (also called The Libertines) in June 2004, Doherty was again asked to leave the band. The band cited Doherty's continuing drug addiction as the reason for his dismissal, but emphasised their willingness to take him back once he'd addressed his addiction. Although Barât had previously stated that the Libertines were merely on hiatus, pending Doherty's recovery, the group effectively disbanded with Doherty's departure at the end of 2004. The reunited Libertines played "What a Waster", "Death on the Stairs", "The Good Old Days", "What Katie Did", "Dilly Boys", "Seven Deadly Sins", "France", "Tell the King", "Don't Look Back into the Sun", "Dream a Little Dream of Me", "Time for Heroes", "Albion" and "The Delaney".

Collaborations

Prior to the disbanding of The Libertines, Doherty collaborated with local poet Wolfman. Together they recorded the single "For Lovers", which entered the top 10, charting at number 7, in April of the same year. Despite the success of the single, which was nominated for a prestigious Ivor Novello Award for songwriting, Doherty and Wolfman received relatively little money, having already sold the publishing rights for a small sum in a pub.
   Later in 2004, Doherty provided guest vocals to the song "Down to the Underground" by the British group Client. The song was released in June 2004 as a B-side to the group's single "In It for the Money" and appears on their second album City.
   In 2005 Doherty collaborated with the British rock band Littl'ans on the single "Their Way".
   In 2006, Doherty was featured on the charity single "Janie Jones", which was released to raise funds for Strummerville. A number of artists and bands, such as Dirty Pretty Things, We Are Scientists, The Kooks and The Holloways, also featured on the track.
   In August 2006 it was announced that Doherty was recording with The Streets frontman Mike Skinner on a new version of "Prangin' Out", from Skinner's album The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living.

Babyshambles

Doherty founded Babyshambles towards the end of his time with The Libertines. The group has released two studio albums, Down in Albion, in November 2005 and Shotters Nation in October 2007. The band's touring schedule and releases have occasionally been disrupted by Doherty's ongoing legal problems.
   The line-up of the band has changed several times: drummer Gemma Clarke left the band due to Doherty's drug problems and was replaced by Adam Ficek, and guitarist and co-songwriter Patrick Walden has also left the band and was replaced by Mick Whitnall.
   In August 2006, Babyshambles signed up with major record label Parlophone, on which they released The Blinding EP on 9 December 2006 to good critical acclaim. In January 2007, they've signed a long term record deal with Parlophone.
   In November 2007 Babyshambles played their first arena tour, taking in dates at the MEN Arena in Manchester, the Nottingham Arena, Bournemouth International Centre, London's Wembley Arena and Birmingham's National Indoor Arena.

Guerrilla gigs, writing and solo work

Doherty has recently been rumoured to be working on new acoustic material, similar to the wealth of his unreleased songs that can already be downloaded on the internet. On his own, and often with his band, he's continued The Libertines' tradition of performing on short notice guerrilla gigs in small venues. On New Year's Eve 2005, Doherty held a guerrilla gig in his North London flat where he showcased some of his solo works, many of which later leaked onto the internet. 31 March and 1 April 2006 Doherty was performing two surprising solo gigs, his first in mainland Europe, at the NonStop Kino pornographic cinema and venue in Graz, Austria, after he failed to turn up for an earlier arrangement in January. For this occasion he produced, at the suggestion of Bettina Aichbauer, friend of Doherty and owner of the NonStop Kino, a film with the title Spew It Out Your Soul which he showed on screen during his performance.
   In June 2006, Doherty announced that he'd signed a deal with Orion Books to publish his journals, in which he'd recorded poetry, drawings, and photos over the course of his career. Most of Doherty's journals are freely available on the internet. The book, titled The Books Of Albion: The Collected Writings of Peter Doherty, was released on 21 June 2007.
   He is reportly recording his debut solo album. It should be released during the summer 2008. Doherty has always played solo gigs in small venues like the Rythm Factory and Jazz After Dark in Soho, London. For the first time he's going to play solo gigs in big venues as the Royal Albert Hall, Glasgow Barrowlands, Manchester University and the Grand Rex in Paris in the next few months.
   For a whole month, from the 25th of April to the 25th of May 2008, an exhibition of Doherty paintings untitled "Art Of The Albion" took place in Paris

Modeling

Following in the footsteps of model and ex-fiancée Kate Moss, Doherty has become the current face of Roberto Cavalli's Fall 2007/2008 fashion advertising campaign. The photos have gained praise for depicting a much cleaner and more handsome Doherty. The '50s-style photographs are also being compared to images of the late Marlon Brando.

Influences

In interviews, Doherty has listed his favourite books as George Orwell's 1984, Brighton Rock by Graham Greene, Our Lady of the Flowers by Jean Genet, Flowers of Evil by Charles Baudelaire and the complete works of Oscar Wilde. He has also mentioned Emily Dickinson and Tony Hancock as influences; Doherty and his father were once members of the Tony Hancock Appreciation Society. Doherty mentions Hancock, and makes an allusion to his famous phrase 'Stone me!', in an early song entitled "You're My Waterloo". However, numerous literary and musical allusions occur throughout Doherty's ongoing Books of Albion. He places particular importance on the Romantic poets and on existential philosophers such as Albert Camus and Miguel de Unamuno. Doherty has also alluded to work by the Marquis de Sade and Thomas De Quincey. On the Babyshambles album Down in Albion, there's a track entitled "A'rebours", which is significantly influenced by the novel of the same name by Joris-Karl Huysmans. His favourite films include British films of the 1960s and seventies such as Billy Liar, Poor Cow, O Lucky Man! and the film versions of Steptoe and Son. He is particularly fond of The Smiths and The Clash.
Doherty has also supported up-and-coming British bands, such as indie bands The Paddingtons Doherty is also known to be a devoted follower of the Queens Park Rangers football club. As a youth he wrote a fanzine, entitled "All Quiet on the Western Avenue".

Drug abuse and legal problems

Doherty has been repeatedly arrested for drug offences and those arising from drug misuse, such as driving under the influence, car theft, and driving with a suspended licence. He has plead guilty to possession of crack cocaine, heroin, cannabis and ketamine.
In 2003, while Doherty's first band The Libertines were performing in Japan, he broke into Carl Barât's flat and stole various items, including an old guitar and a laptop computer. On 7 September Doherty was sentenced by Judge Roger Davies to 6 months in prison, however the sentence was eventually shortened to two months on appeal with the judge commenting, "We feel that a custodial sentence was justified in this case but sufficient credit wasn't given for his timely plea of guilty which it should have been. We have reduced his sentence to two months which will allow for his almost immediate release." Doherty was released from jail on 8 October.
On April 8, 2008, Doherty was jailed for 14 weeks by a court for breaching a probation order after a string of brushes with the law for drugs and driving offenses. On the April 18, 2008, he was moved to a private area of Wormwood Scrubs prison after learning that fellow inmates were planning to attack him, therefore making it safer for the singer. On 6 May, 2008, he was released after his sentence was cut in half and he was released from prison a further 18 days early due to a government plan to reduce overcrowding. He also had another 2 days off for being in police custody (after serving just over 4 weeks of a 14-week sentence). He described prison life as "a lot of gangsters and radio 4" and showed a certificate confirming he'd passed a drugs test while inside.

Family and personal life

Doherty has an older sister and a younger sister, named Amy-Jo and Emily, respectively. His mother Jacqueline Doherty is a nurse, who recently published a book about family life with Doherty and his drug problems, called Pete Doherty: My Prodigal Son (ISBN 978-0755316083).
   Doherty has had a tumultuous relationship with Kate Moss, frequently covered by the press. They met in January 2005 at Moss' 31st birthday party and have had an on-off relationship since. Moss has also taken to singing at some of Doherty's shows. On 11 April 2007 Doherty announced Moss as his fiancée during the first of his solo gigs at the Hackney Empire, London, at which Moss also performed. Doherty planned to marry Moss during the summer 2007. Since July 2007 Moss and Doherty have broken up.
   In October 2007 Doherty was briefly engaged to fashion model Irina Lazareanu.
   Doherty has a son named Astile Louis Doherty (born Camden, London, 2003), with singer Lisa Moorish.

Singles

For Lovers (Wolfman featuring Pete Doherty) (April 12, 2004) UK #7

Their Way (Littl'ans featuring Pete Doherty) (October 17, 2005) UK #22

Prangin' Out (The Streets featuring Pete Doherty) (September 25, 2006) UK #25

Other appearances

Down To The Underground (Client, featuring Pete Doherty). Taken from the City album.

Bibliography

The Books of Albion: The Collected Writings of Peter Doherty (2007, Orion Books; ISBN 0-752-88591-X)Further Information

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