- Culture
- 21 Apr 22
Pete Doherty to publish first memoir A Likely Lad in June
Frontman of Libertines and Babyshambles, Pete Doherty, co-wrote the book with journalist and author Simon Spence.
Pete Doherty’s first memoir A likely Lad will be out June 16th via Little Brown Book group.
The book will take readers inside the singer's creative process and experiences in the music industry as well as his many self-destructive substance-fuelled nights of debauchery and time in prison.
In addition to his new memoir, Doherty has also released a new album, The Fantasy Life of Poetry & Crime, with the French artist Frédéric Lo earlier this year.
"Frédéric suddenly arrived here just before the pandemic," Doherty told Hotpress last month from his new home in France. "He asked if I’d like to cover a song by a fella called Daniel Darc for a tribute album he’s been putting together. Fréd had been in a band with Daniel, but left when it got a bit too intense."
"I hadn’t been musically creative for a while and had shunned the guitar a bit. I felt the tingle of enthusiasm for songwriting… and to be challenged. Can I possibly still write songs? It was the middle of 2020 and a time of great upheaval in my emotional landscape. I’d been clean at this point for about six months, a bit longer maybe. It was still a time of white knuckling. It was the longest I’d been clean in twenty years from heroin, so yes I was in a bit of a fragile state. And then Frédéric came along with his hat and his guitar."
The two artists bonded over their shared appreciation for The Clash, Claude Debussy, Arthur Rimbaud, Neil Young, Arséne Lupin, Edgar Alan Poe and Bob Dylan.
Last month also saw Pete Doherty reunite with The Libertines for the first round of gigs celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the band's debut album Up The Bracket’s. The album had a heavy influence on the resurgence of the British indie/alternative scene in the early 2000s.
Listen to Pete Doherty’s latest album The Fantasy Life of Poetry & Crime below:
