A Likely Lad

Product Information

The fact that The Likely Lad, the 43-year-old’s warts’n’more ghost-written autobiography, somehow manages to omit this striking story is surely testament to the overwhelming chaos of Doherty’s life.

This talented artist (or Simon Spence) had forgotten something namely to say a few words about the dangers of drug use especially hard drugs that Pete used to get.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. 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.

He immersed himself in books and poetry - something that is evident in his lyric-writing to this day. Carl describes the Libertines as ‘like catching flashes of sunlight between buildings as you race by on a train.Don't get me wrong, Doherty has definitely been the architect of his own misfortune, but he's also been hounded out of multiple places, just because his "bad-boy" behaviour marked him out as fair game.

For fans, it’s certainly worth a read, particularly for anecdotes about the making of his albums, his memories of concerts (many of which can be found online) and how particular songs were written. I really wasn't expecting to come away from this book liking Doherty, but he just completely challenged my preconceptions about him before I'd even finished the first chapter. An old film reel where the spools are weathered and worn, leaving empty frames on the screen…’ This book is devoid of any such insight. I’m hard pushed to think of another musician who managed to be so prolific with such a sustained drug problem.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. Coke and speed were nice little additions, and benzodiazepines for the come-down were really just a way of helping to get to sleep after being up partying and munching "disco-biscuits" for 3 or 4 days at a time. Not everyone who gets entangled in a life of drug addiction is lucky enough to come out the other side, and I think Doherty is careful not to simply assume that he's now completely out of the woods.