Peter Doherty is an English musician, composer, actor, poet, writer and artist. He is best known for being co-leader of the Libertines, which he formed with Carl Barât in 1997. His other musical projects are the independent band Babyshambles and Peter Doherty and the Puta Madres.

Early life

Pete Doherty was born in Hexham, Northumberland, to a military family. His father, Peter John Doherty, MBE, was a major in the Royal Signals, while his mother, Jacqueline Michels, was a lance-corporal in Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps. His paternal grandfather was an Irish immigrant from Cheekpoint in County Waterford; his maternal grandfather was Jewish, the son of immigrants, Moise Michels and Chana Peress, from France and Russia. He was brought up a Catholic. He grew up at a number of army garrisons across Britain and continental Europe, with his sisters, AmyJo and Emily. Doherty was the second of the three children. While living in Dorset, aged 11, Doherty began playing guitar, originally in an attempt to impress a female classmate, Emily Baker. He achieved 11 GCSEs, 7 of which were A* grades, at Nicholas Chamberlaine Comprehensive School in Bedworth, North Warwickshire, 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. In a clip later available on YouTube, an 18-year-old Doherty can be seen in an interview with MTV, on the day of the release of Oasis' third studio album Be Here Now (1997). He attended Queen Mary, a college of the University of London, to study English literature, but left the course after his first year. After leaving university, he moved into a London flat with friend and fellow musician Carl Barât, who had been a classmate of Doherty's older sister at Brunel University.

Career

The Libertines

Doherty and Barât formed a band called the Libertines in the late 1990s, although it was not until 2002, with the release of their debut studio 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 up whilst Doherty was in prison. He was originally sentenced to six months, but his sentence was cut to two 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; known among Libertine fans as "The Freedom Gig".

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 programme for crack and heroin users. 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 Libertines second studio album 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 had 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 remaining members became involved in other projects (see Yeti and Dirty Pretty Things). On 12 April 2007, Doherty and Barât played 13 songs together at the second of Doherty's "An Evening with Pete Doherty" gigs at the Hackney Empire, London.

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 2004. 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 English electronic music 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 studio album City.

In 2005, Doherty collaborated with the English alternative 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 studio album The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living.

Solo work and guerrilla gigs

In 2004, Doherty was voted the joint No. 1 on NME's 2004 Cool List. The following year he was placed at No. 6, and on 10 May 2006 was voted No. 2 in their poll depicting 50 of rock's greatest heroes.

On his own, and often with his band, Doherty has 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. On 12 July 2008, Doherty played a solo gig at the Royal Albert Hall. It was his biggest solo show so far. The concert was originally scheduled for 26 April, but had to be rescheduled due to Doherty's being sentenced to 14 weeks in prison for breaching probation on 8 April. The solo show received mixed reviews. Jon Swaine of The Daily Telegraph criticised that "whole chunks of the set ... passed by as listless noodling, with neither Doherty nor the audience appearing to know quite how to behave" and that – without a full band – Doherty seemed out of place at such a big venue. Betty Clarke of The Guardian described Doherty as "focused" and "on good form". Friend and collaborator Peter Wolfe had a guest appearance on stage when Doherty performed "For Lovers". Swaine stated Wolfe ruined the song with "some especially tuneless backing vocals". The gig was forced to an abrupt end during the encore due to a stage invasion by the fans.

Personal life

Relationships and children

Doherty had a tumultuous relationship with Kate Moss that was frequently covered by the press. They met in January 2005 at Moss' 31st birthday party and had an on-off relationship for several years. Moss had 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. Moss and Doherty later broke up.

In October 2007, Doherty was briefly engaged to Romanian-born Canadian model Irina Lăzăreanu. On 28 September 2021, Doherty announced his engagement with his Puta Madres bandmate, Katia de Vidas. The couple married two days later.

Doherty has a son, Astile (born 13 July 2003), with singer Lisa Moorish. Doherty's second child, a daughter, Aisling Erin, was born 26 December 2011 to South African model Lindi Hingston. In May 2023, Doherty's third child and second daughter, Billie-May Doherty, was born to Katia de Vidas.

Interests

Doherty is a socialist. In 2004, he said, "I do have utopian fantasies. A lot of them are more – I wouldn't say spiritual, but they relate more to the imagination and the individual. But for me socialism is a way of trying to put far-fetched ideas into everyday use, trying to find a way to bridge the gap between that fantasy and reality, and reaching out across that gap to the people who can actually do something to make the change." Prior to the 2019 United Kingdom general election Doherty endorsed Jeremy Corbyn while performing and chanted "oh Jeremy Corbyn" and "fuck the Tories"

Drug use and legal problems

Doherty has been repeatedly arrested for drug offences and offences arising from drug use, such as drunk-driving, car theft and driving with a suspended licence. He has pleaded guilty to possession of crack cocaine, heroin, cannabis and ketamine. His addictions have resulted in jail time and multiple trips to rehabilitation facilities. Drugs had been so important at some points in his life that in his younger days Doherty worked as a drug dealer to pay for his drug habit, as he admitted to author Peter Welsh in his biography. Doherty stated that he had been a rent boy, and that during that time he robbed one of his male clients.

Death of Mark Blanco

In December 2006, actor and magician Mark Blanco died after falling from the first-floor balcony of a flat in Whitechapel belonging to Doherty's friend and literary agent Paul Roundhill, during a party at which Doherty was present. After an altercation, Roundhill set Blanco's hat alight, punched him and evicted him from the flat. Blanco returned to the flat and was shown on CCTV falling to his death less than a minute later. After initial police investigations concluded there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding Blanco's death, a coroner's inquest in October 2007 recorded an open verdict and requested that police reopen the investigation. Doherty's bodyguard at the time, Jonathan Jeannevol, revealed he had confessed to police that he pushed Blanco to his death after Doherty had asked Jeannevol to 'have a word' with him; Jeannevol later retracted his confession. Doherty, who was not called to give evidence at the inquest, was also seen on CCTV footage passing by Blanco's body and jogging away from the scene before an ambulance arrived. Four months after Blanco's death, Doherty recorded the video for his song "The Lost Art of Murder" in the same flat.

An eight-month BBC Newsnight investigation in 2012 concluded that CCTV evidence suggested Blanco had been dropped from the balcony rather than jumped or slipped. In 2014, Blanco's friend, the comedian Jerry Sadowitz, played a video appeal at the beginning of his UK tour dates from Blanco's mother for the Crown Prosecution Service to reopen the case. In 2023, Channel 4 released a documentary about Blanco's death titled Pete Doherty, Who Killed My Son?