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[\/et_pb_code][et_pb_text module_class=”article-title” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_font=”||||||||” header_text_align=”center” header_text_color=”#111111″ header_font_size=”68px” custom_margin=”40px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”intro-text” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_orientation=”center” custom_padding=”||0px|||” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n
Before the drugs and the tabloids and the notoriety, Pete Doherty was half of a songwriting partnership in THE LIBERTINES <\/span>with Carl Bar\u00e2t that lit up the early noughties with youthful, poetic exuberance. Quickly, though, the skies darkened and after two albums they split. In 2015 ANDREW PERRY <\/span>travelled to their Thailand base for their first joint interview in over a decade and to discover how bridges were rebuilt \u2013 and where the cracks still lie.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-main” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”||||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n Words by Andrew Perry<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/07\/UK_Q_00072015_Page_031_Image_0001.jpg” title_text=”UK_Q_00072015_Page_031_Image_0001″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n What became of the likely lads?: The Libertines (clockwise from left, Gary Powell, Carl Bar\u00e2t, John Hassall, Pete Doherty), Karma Sound, Bang Saray, 16 May, 2015.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n You see that pack of wild dogs up ahead?\u201d yells Pete Doherty over his shoulder, as his moped whizzes through the dusty backstreets of Bang Saray, Thailand. \u201cWhen they come at us,\u201d he advises, fag in mouth, \u201cdon\u2019t flinch or lash out, yeah?\u201d He gives it some throttle, and Q hangs on for dear life as Doherty accelerates through the mob of rabid mongrels. \u201cRaaaaargh!\u201d he hollers after we pass through unmolested. Your correspondent wimpers: \u201cPlease let me live!\u201d The bike speeds onwards.<\/p>\n For the past month, Doherty has been residing at local recording studio Karma Sound, making the most eagerly anticipated British alternative rock record in years, with his reunited death-or-glory band, The Libertines. The group blew apart in 2004 amid burglary, arrests and a blizzard of hard drugs, chiefly because Doherty\u2019s songwriting spar, co-frontman Carl Bar\u00e2t, wouldn\u2019t tolerate his fledgling addiction to crack and heroin.<\/p>\n In the ensuing years, the two were not on speaking terms, until sporadic reunion gigs finally culminated in Doherty\u2019s first serious effort at cleaning up last October, at the Hope Rehab Centre in the idyllic fishing village of Sriracha, an hour away from his current Thai address.<\/p>\n After completing the programme, he and Bar\u00e2t set about reigniting their creative fire out here. Reports suggested that everything was going swimmingly, but when Q arrives in Bang Saray during the fifth and final week of recording, it becomes clear that nothing is quite so cut and dried in the world of Mr Doherty.<\/p>\n On day one of our stay, a studio visit is cancelled due to \u201ca tense atmosphere\u201d. This, though, proves to be the birthing pains of a new song, and the following afternoon Doherty and Bar\u00e2t bugger off with a demo thereof to Bangkok, with a plan to pen the requisite lyrics on the two-hour drives there and back.<\/p>\n Doherty loves a bit of cat-and-mouse. On our third day, we\u2019re to wait in a bar, while the band have lunch. Time slips by. Back at the studio, Bar\u00e2t holes up in his room, waiting for Doherty to surface. When the latter breezes downstairs, he goes straight to his moped. \u201cJump on!\u201d he says. I, who\u2019ve only been on two wheels twice in my life and come off both times, inexplicably comply.<\/p>\n \u201cRight,\u201d Doherty asks with a sly grin, once we\u2019re on our way, \u201ccan you call Tony [Linkin, Libertines PR] and get Carl to meet us at the Monks In Formaldehyde?\u201d Operating a smartphone would mean letting go. He laughs throatily.<\/p>\n After a journey lasting somewhere between four years and 15 minutes, Doherty pulls up at Bang Saray\u2019s fabulously ornate Buddhist temple. He calls Bar\u00e2t, then marches over to an arrangement of 12 glass cabinets, set in three rows of four, each containing a robed monk statue in cross-legged meditation. Several of the cabinets are missing a pane of glass, leading Q \u2013 jet-lagged, freaked \u2013 to believe that at least some of these dudes might actually be breathing. Doherty gets up close to one, pulling funny faces.<\/p>\n Down some steps, he caresses a statue of Naga, the \u201cwater-snake dragon\u201d from Buddhist scripture, who is surrounded by vengeful Furies, the infernal deities that feature in both Greek and Roman mythology. \u201cKarma Sound used to be a snakepit,\u201d he says, \u201cand the locals still call it \u2018the Naga place\u2019.<\/p>\n \u201cThe song we\u2019ve just written,\u201d he adds, \u201cis called Fury Of Chonburi \u2013 that\u2019s this area of Thailand\u2019s name. It\u2019s about trying to channel that fucking darkness that we have. Amid the optimism and bonhomie and love we\u2019ve got in the band at the moment, I dunno\u2026\u201d \u2013 he gazes skyward \u2013 \u201cthere\u2019s still this fucking anguish and violence going on in us. It\u2019s like, \u2018How do we use that?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Those rock singers today who may plausibly claim to have hellhounds on their trail, can be counted on one finger of one hand: Peter Doherty is that man.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” hover_enabled=”0″ global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content” sticky_enabled=”0″]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n The Libertines have often been cited as the most important British band of their era, bridging the gap between Britpop and Arctic Monkeys. When their peculiar breed of chaos erupted at last July\u2019s British Summer Time concert in Hyde Park, however, in front of an audience many times larger than any they\u2019d played to during their original earlynoughties tenure, the band\u2019s generational significance had to be reappraised.<\/p>\n According to Bar\u00e2t, the gig was \u201cthe most chilling, beautiful, assuring thing I\u2019ve ever done. It made my whole life make sense, just for that hour \u2013 but then I got desperate for the khazi, and everybody started beating each other up and crushing each other.\u201d<\/p>\n It was hardly The Libertines\u2019 fault they had to halt the show, while desperate punters near the front were rescued from terrifying crowd surges. Still, it\u2019s hard to shake off memories of how catastrophically they ballsed things up during their first meteoric ascent. Surely they won\u2019t salvage defeat from the jaws of victory this time?<\/p>\n Some have queried the wisdom of them recording their third album so close to Bangkok, arguably the world\u2019s heroin capital, given that Doherty has bailed on numerous rehab efforts before. Yet Karma Sound, situated five minutes up from Bang Saray\u2019s tranquil beach, offers a zen retreat from Thailand\u2019s stereotypical drugs\/sex industry madness.<\/p>\n When Doherty emerged from Hope in January, he and his manager, Adrian Hunter, had no idea where to go next. Pete, clean? This was virgin territory. A return to London, or Paris, where he\u2019d been living with his girlfriend Katia de Vidas, was not on the agenda, for obvious reasons. \u201cAfter Hope came reality,\u201d he quips.<\/p>\n With a view to ramping up the tentatively mooted Libertines album, Hunter Googled studios in Thailand and discovered Karma Sound. Its owner, Chris Craker, a softly-spoken ex-manager at Sony-BMG, simply told them to come straight over. Doherty and de Vidas have been there ever since.<\/p>\n A sleekly designed brick complex, built around a small \u201clengths pool\u201d and exquisite palmed gardens, it\u2019s got to be one of the most relaxing places on earth. As Bar\u00e2t observes, \u201cYou quickly realise you\u2019re not being chased by a wasp down Holloway Road \u2013 instead, we\u2019ve got pit vipers, scorpions, lizards\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n The Libertines have turned this idyll into a busy multi-media hub. Adjoining a naga shrine, the basement room has been filled with Libs-y clutter \u2013 a pool table, knackered guitars, four ancient typewriters, a biography of poet Arthur Rimbaud, numerous self-painted artworks (in silver pen, spraypaint, action-style splodges, but mercifully none of the syringe-applied blood of Doherty\u2019s junkie years), and a putative set-up for their album cover, with each letter in their band name presented in unmatching frames, fringed with temple candles.<\/p>\n Before recording started, Bar\u00e2t shuttled over four times from North London, where he lives with his cellist partner, Edie Langley, and their two young children, to battery-farm new songs. Neither was certain much would come of it. Signing their first ever major deal with Virgin EMI in December, they had a safety blanket of old demoes, which never made their original two records, 2002\u2019s raggedly furious Up The Bracket and 2004\u2019s brink-of-collapse The Libertines. They didn\u2019t want to fall back on those, and they haven\u2019t had to.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re extremely excited by the new stuff,\u201d says Bar\u00e2t, after his moped screeches up at the temple. \u201cIt\u2019s been great to be in the trenches again, but of course it doesn\u2019t come without the highs and the lows, and the tos and the fros, which are part of the Libertines mantra.\u201d<\/p>\n On arrival, Bar\u00e2t doesn\u2019t remonstrate with Doherty for leaving without him, just denies him eye contact. Doherty cackles at him. They decide upon a beachside bar as a location for their first joint interview in 12 years.<\/p>\n After another hairy bike ride, the band\u2019s favourite haunt turns out to be a colonial club-style bar run by Anglo-German expats. Shambling up across its fetishistically manicured lawn, we\u2019re glared at by retired major types with bloodshot eyes. \u201cYou can tell there\u2019s been a few gin and tonics,\u201d stage-whispers Doherty.<\/p>\n We find a quiet table outside, and over three beers and a brandy each (Doherty\u2019s allowed booze), this volatile double act give a guided tour of those highs and lows. They bicker constantly. Bar\u00e2t is surprisingly shy; Doherty\u2019s confident but self-deprecating. Both are passionate, literate, hyper-sensitive, vulnerable, but where Bar\u00e2t bottles up his grievances, Doherty obsessively needles at them. The freshest was inflicted only last night, while they were both on the mic, extemporising lyrics for Fury Of Chonburi in a semi-rap style.<\/p>\n \u201cWe got really low down and dirty, an\u2019 proper havin\u2019 a pop,\u201dDoherty reveals. \u201cWe laughed it off at the time, and it was entertaining for everybody, but actually a lot of it was really dark and hard to bear. He goes, \u2018You think that it\u2019s easy, with a friend that deceives me\u2026\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, you didn\u2019t like that one, did you?\u201d Bar\u00e2t chuckles remorselessly.<\/p>\n A deeper division has opened up over the fittingly entitled Anthem For Doomed Youth.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a brand new belter, the song we\u2019ve never been able to write,\u201d says Doherty, in a pleading tone. \u201cIt was jointly written \u2013 so beautiful, the big moment on the album \u2013 and we were supposed to be singing a verse each. [Flaring up at Carl] Then you were avoiding me, and I had to learn from the engineer that you\u2019d already done the fucking vocal take on your own. [To Q] He took advantage of me sleeping in, and he sang it so well, there\u2019s nothing I can do.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI was making hay while the sun shines,\u201d Bar\u00e2t shrugs.<\/p>\n \u201cI just want a bit of communication,\u201d Doherty retorts.<\/p>\n \u201cYou think I\u2019m not communicative?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, you need a coffee.\u201d<\/p>\n There\u2019s an intense silence, before Bar\u00e2t clarifies: \u201cPete has to choose a new bugbear for the next decade.\u201d<\/p>\n Miraculously, the album is almost finished.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/07\/UK_Q_00072015_Page_039_Image_0001.jpg” title_text=”UK_Q_00072015_Page_039_Image_0001″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_text module_class=”image-gallery-caption” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font=”|300|||||||” text_font_size=”16px” text_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”-10px||||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n Boys in the band: \u201cThis is who we are. We\u2019re proud and honoured by it.\u201d<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n O<\/span>ne little riff, interpolated in the middle-eight of rousing newie Fame And Fortune, apparently dates back to 1997, when Doherty and Bar\u00e2t \u2013 each a university drop-out, from an itinerant upbringing \u2013 first started knocking around together.<\/p>\n \u201cCarl was living in Mortlake, above a furniture shop called Planet Pine,\u201d Doherty recalls. \u201cHe had a Kings And Queens Of The Realm tea towel on the wall, and an open fire. The first night I went over, I took my four-string guitar, and we\u2019ve actually had that riff ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n The Libertines had a messy genesis, but were signed in December 2001 by Rough Trade, as a British answer to The Strokes. As muscular New Jersey-raised drummer Gary Powell recalls, he joined barely three months earlier, while bassist John Hassall, who\u2019d quit the band in disillusionment, was beggingly recalled once their deal was struck. Meeting those two \u2013 Powell, the eldest by eight years, a brash, garrulous character; Hassall, a teetotal, cryogenically-spoken Buddhist (even back then!) \u2013 you realise how, like countless classic groups, The Libertines were an alchemy of conflicting personalities, not just a dominant couple.<\/p>\n In their songs, though, Doherty and Bar\u00e2t often wrote about \u2013 and to \u2013 each other, mythologising themselves and their shared dreams.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were just children,\u201d Bar\u00e2t reflects, \u201cand in finding the world, we became tangled up in one another, and we learnt and grew together.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWe both had this romantic vision of life,\u201d adds Doherty, \u201ca world we\u2019d seen in books and films. But no matter what dream we had, or what angle we came at it from, it was always scuppered. The only place where we could succeed and triumph every time was in a song, with guitars. That was the power and the glory \u2013 the only place where we were ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n Charged by such idealism, The Libertines\u2019 sound referenced The Smiths, skiffle and The Clash, whose musical leader, Mick Jones, recorded their two albums in breathless live takes. Their live shows were total anarchy, some among the first \u201cguerilla gigs\u201d, held in fans\u2019 front rooms.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was just, \u2018Come round and have a knees-up, tenners on the door, bring a bit of what you fancy,\u2019\u201d Doherty remembers, his face darkening. \u201cAt the same time, we were getting a bit of status, and we were on this conveyor belt, having to toe the line in order to reap the reward \u2013 basically, the money.<\/p>\n \u201cSo, it was a bit twisted, to be honest. It felt like we were betraying ourselves, and it was a dark energy that was being created \u2013 it wasn\u2019t a celebratory thing. It was getting to the point where every gig was a riot. Everything was getting kicked over and destroyed. You couldn\u2019t play some beautiful melodic song in the middle of the set, like Radio America \u2013 well, you could, but you\u2019d get a fucking bottle in your face.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt was me making everything fast,\u201d Bar\u00e2t admits, \u201cI loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n So, as documented in the second album\u2019s Can\u2019t Stand Me Now, the disagreements which saw Doherty sacked from the group were about more than just his narcotic preferences. In the ensuing months, Doherty pursued his other band, Babyshambles, dated Kate Moss, and, as his addiction escalated, became tabloid shock-horror material. Bar\u00e2t was ostensibly left to carry the can for the band\u2019s failure.<\/p>\n \u201cEvery time I went out to buy a pint of milk, I\u2019d get asked how Pete was, and when we were getting back together,\u201d he recalls, unhappily, \u201cbut I taught myself to consider it a blessing that it was part of my past.\u201d<\/p>\n Doherty, who\u2019s been listening impassively, suddenly rises and launches over the pub table at his compadre. \u201cHere, give me your tattoo!\u201d he orders, putting his inner left forearm skin-to-skin with Bar\u00e2t\u2019s right bicep \u2013 the spots where both have the word \u201clibertine\u201d inked.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is who we are,\u201d he says, eyes a mixture of fire and water. \u201cIt\u2019s so deep, so much who we are. We\u2019re proud and honoured by it. And if it\u2019s an off day, just fuck \u2019em all anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n He sits down, simmering.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”pull-quote” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_text_color=”#111111″ header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”pullquote-name” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” header_2_text_align=”center” header_2_font_size=”46px” header_2_line_height=”1.2em” header_3_text_align=”center” header_3_text_color=”#111111″ header_3_font_size=”38px” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image src=”https:\/\/flatplan-plus-content.s3.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/7\/2024\/07\/UK_Q_00072015_Page_033_Image_0001.jpg” title_text=”UK_Q_00072015_Page_033_Image_0001″ _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_image][et_pb_divider color=”#111111″ module_class=”custom-divider” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” custom_margin=”||0px||false|false” custom_padding=”||0px||false|false” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”][\/et_pb_divider][et_pb_text module_class=”text-with-dropcap” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n B<\/span>ack at the ranch, tracks from the album, newly entitled Anthems For Doomed Youth, are aired by Jake Gosling, its producer. Eyebrows were raised when Gosling landed the job: his CV includes Ed Sheeran\u2019s + and One Direction\u2019s Little Things. Virgin EMI, explains Doherty, \u201cwere determined to get in somebody who\u2019d sold records.\u201d To their surprise, he clicked on a personal level. \u201cThe fella\u2019s really buzzy,\u201d Doherty enthuses.<\/p>\n By contrast with Mick Jones\u2019s warts-and-all live takes, Gosling has honed Doherty and Bar\u00e2t\u2019s pop smarts, allowing their every melodic hook to shine through. Doherty\u2019s dissatisfaction with their early repertoire\u2019s hurtling speed has clearly been addressed. Up against four upbeat tunes, a further seven are slow-building anthems, or emotionally ravaged ballads, in the vein of his pole-axingly heartfelt solo elegy for Amy Winehouse from earlier this year, Flags Of The Old Regime.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a different pace,\u201d Doherty reasons, \u201cbut all in the same frame. Otherwise it\u2019d be like a film noir where you had nothing but gunshots all the way through, and no beautiful dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n For his part, Bar\u00e2t possibly burnt off any habitual rowdiness with his recently debuted new band, The Jackals. For Doherty, it\u2019s as if he\u2019s emerging from 15 years of addiction and surveying the collateral damage to his dreams, feelings and friendships. One song, Dead For Love, is a sublime lament for his pal Alan Wass, who died, aged 33, during the sessions.<\/p>\n Doherty\u2019s rehabilitation is an ongoing process. It would be naive to expect an addiction that\u2019s dominated nearly half his life to be \u201ccured\u201d by three months in a clinic. On our final evening, indeed, his counsellor drops by. Asked about his progress, he starts to talk, then starts again:<\/p>\n \u201cI was gonna say, \u2018The problem is\u2026\u2019 \u2013 but it\u2019s not a problem,\u201d Doherty says. \u201cThe dilemma is: life is better without it. It\u2019s just understanding that, and remembering that, in those moments when you feel the need. If you succumb, five seconds later you realise it\u2019s too late, and you\u2019re just going through the same motions.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s why it is a disease. It\u2019s an abnormality, a malfunction of the brain. It\u2019s like skiing down the same path so many times that you\u2019re no longer capable of going in any other direction. Financially, it\u2019s fucking expensive, too, but in other ways that\u2019s just as well, because it\u2019ll cost you your health, your teeth, all your loved ones, your family, your children\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n As Nick Cave points out: drug use per se isn\u2019t \u201cthe demons\u201d \u2013 people use drugs to shut the demons up. Doherty has an exceptionally lively mind \u2013 he\u2019s quite possibly the most articulate and searching interviewee in all of contemporary rock. Now 36, his second bite at the cherry with The Libertines is his big shot at redemption, at reacquiring that sense of purpose, which might adequately occupy his time, talent and intellect.<\/p>\n As I leave Karma Sound, Pete Doherty and his allies are laughing, goofing and looking great in a variety of suits and hats for the camera \u2013 an ever-fractious but unified gang, who now, says Gary Powell, have a mature \u201ccombat mechanism\u201d for overcoming their differences. Here\u2019s hoping.<\/p>\n This article originally appeared in issue 350 of Q.<\/em><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][et_pb_text module_class=”credit-names” _builder_version=”4.20.4″ _module_preset=”default” text_font_size=”14px” text_orientation=”center” global_colors_info=”{}” theme_builder_area=”post_content”]<\/p>\n Words: <\/strong>Andrew Perry Images: <\/strong>Rachael Wright<\/span><\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Amid the optimism, bonhomie and love we\u2019ve got in the band at the moment, there\u2019s still anguish and violence going on<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1651,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1701","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mojo-presents"],"acf":[],"modified_by":"kschwarz","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1701"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1708,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1701\/revisions\/1708"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1701"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1701"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/flatplanplus.io\/mojo\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1701"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\u201cAmid the optimism, bonhomie and love we\u2019ve got in the band at the moment, there\u2019s still anguish and violence going on.\u201d<\/h2>\n
Pete Doherty<\/h3>\n
\u201cEvery time I went out to buy a pint of milk, I\u2019d get asked how Pete was and when we were getting back together. I taught myself to consider it a blessing that it was part of my past.\u201d<\/h2>\n
Carl Bar\u00e2t<\/h3>\n
\u201cThe only place where we could triumph every time was in a song. That was the power and the glory \u2013 the only place where we were ourselves.\u201d<\/h2>\n
Pete Doherty<\/h3>\n