A Likely Lad

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Like his friend Amy Winehouse, he was a fixture on tabloid front pages, whether in disrepair or ducking out of a courtroom. It turned into a long weekend, and on the morning of the second day, he was just sat there on the stairs with his head in his hands. In an incident that saw him imprisoned for burglary, he “started shouting and then booted the door in” of a flat in which he mistakenly believed band mate Carl Barat was hiding. With his wildest days behind him, Doherty candidly explores—with sober and sometimes painful insight—some of his greatest and darkest moments, taking us inside the creative process, decadent parties, substance-fuelled nights, his time in prison and tendency for self-destruction. His lack of reflection then is perhaps understandable given that he likely doesn’t remember a whole lot of what happened.

Thrown out of that band for drug consumption he founded Babyshambles, who continued on the success that the Libs should have had without him, and then on into solo work, an unsuccessful acting career, back into the Libertines, and eventual sobriety living the quiet life in Normandy. With his trademark wit and humour, Doherty also details his childhood years, key influences, pre-fame London shenanigans, and reflects on his era-defining relationship with Libertines co-founder Carl Barât and other significant people in his life.Loved reading this as Pete is a fascinating bloke and it was good to read some of the stories he has and how he started e. But getting to learn about Doherty's very normal love of antique hunting, collecting military memorabilia, enjoying walks on the beach with his dogs, and having a lifelong love of "Hancock's Half Hour" all helped to round out the very two-dimensional caricature of him that was always portrayed in the media. The subject comes across as completely lacking in accountability at times and oblivious, or unwilling to confront, the issues his lifestyle caused for so long. But that was before he found his drug use move from recreational dabbling, to crippling dependency and an addiction that took many attempts at recovery before finally getting clean.

Obviously rock stars, actors, actresses and artists tend to have access to more money, attend wild parties, have tumultuous affairs and are able to enjoy many interesting experiences; but their day to day lives are always equally interesting to me. You can change your choices at any time by visiting Cookie preferences, as described in the Cookie notice. the time Doherty ran into Iggy Pop at Coachella and was devastated to find he was jogging (“he was drinking through a straw from a bottle of water. You can enjoy slumming it for a few years, hanging about with dodgy characters and having a non-stop stream of strangers coming and going from your flat, with parties that last for as long as the drugs do.Hard drugs, tiny gigs on the hoof, huge stadium shows, collaborations, obliterations, gangsters and groupies – Doherty has led a life of huge highs and incredible lows. He's finally happy with the direction his music is now going, and after reading this book I truly couldn't be happier for the guy.

A classic example is when he mentions the birth of his daughter in passing, the way someone would mention eating a Mars bar: 'Oh yeah, my daughter was born around then. Doherty comes across as a loveable rogue at heart, who just made the mistake of staring too deeply into the void for too long, only for the void to then hold him in its death-grip for nearly two decades. Doherty has made it out the other end of flashbulb infamy but, as A Likely Lad makes clear, it was touch and go. The real disappointment is anyone who's seen an interview with Peter Doherty knows there's a beautiful natural poetry to the way he speaks and that is missing.I think he almost had to do that, go through everything he did, and come out the other side to truly discover who he is as a man; a father; a husband; a son; a whole person. I was saying, ‘Yeah, I’ve taken it, but it’s all right, it’s quite nice,’ and it all kicked off and went downhill from there, really, with Mum and Dad. Doherty describes the well-documented incident in which he burgled Barât’s home, which led to his first prison sentence and first exile from the Libertines, as “a bit naughty, really”. With his wildest days behind him, Doherty candidly explores - with sober and sometimes painful insight - some of his greatest and darkest moments, taking us inside the creative process, decadent parties, substance-fuelled nights, his time in prison and tendency for self-destruction.

Common people often regard rock and roll stars and artist such as Pete Doherty as someone who’s opinion attitudes words etc are important . Peter's music is as eclectic as it is introspective, and is consistently thought of one of the leading lights on the British rock scene. Perhaps this shows the effect such an enormous amount of hard drugs can have on a person – inviting all manner of chaos into their orbit, but diminishing their ability to find meaning outside their addiction, in their passions, their loved ones, or their selves. Hard drugs, tiny gigs on the hoof, huge stadium shows, collaborations, obliterations, gangsters and groupies - Doherty has led a life of huge highs and incredible lows.

Elsewhere, the singer “fell asleep on the motorway hard shoulder on my way to Heathrow in my Jag… I was woken up, with a crack pipe in mouth, by a policeman banging on the window. Some gritty parts such as the chapter about the death of an associate which Pete was implicated in which left a bad taste in the mouth. It was great to be able to hear his take on those situations and how he got out of them by the skin of his teeth! And much akin to Coleridge's epic narrative paradise Kubla Khan, offering a literary association to opioids of intrigue and luxurious spaces of nirvana and accomplishment.