No Rock And Roll Fun

THIS IS THE SOUND OF SOMEONE LOSING THE PLOT: We're keeping our eyes open for a dishevelled Pete Doherty, as he's clearly taken over the role of that anti-smoking bloke, hanging around outside the offices of tabloid newspapers holding a huge sign. Only instead of a big sign reading "ciggies kill", Pete's got a "will emote for cash" notice, and the papers - usually so firm in their condemnation of drug dealers - seem happy to hand him a few bob which he doubt he'll be heading off to use to settle his milk bill. The latest paper bidding cold hard cash for what it probably secretly hopes will be "The Libertines: The last interview" is The Sunday Mirror.

"I’ve got to start getting clean straight away. But I can’t do it in the Priory or places like that. I have to do it in the environment I live in because I am always going to be surrounded by drugs when I’m making music. I’ve just got to find the inner strength to control it."

While we wish him all the best, where, exactly, does he think this "inner strength" is going to come from? Jesus, if he can't find it in himself to go through the softly, softly approach of the Priory without running away, how does he expect to do it in an uncontrolled environment?

And then, of course, there was the Monastery experience:

"“I’d only come out of the Priory a couple of days earlier so I’d been through all the shakes, vomiting and (sleepless) nights with cold turkey. Foolishly I didn’t do any research about Thailand before I went, and it was hardcore. On the third day I left and went to Bangkok. I booked into a hotel where they offered room service of heroin with my bacon and eggs. I told them I didn’t have any money but they said I could have it on tab. I notched up a £280 bill in three days. If I’d done the same amount of brown in England it would have cost me thousands.”
So, the good news, then, is that he managed to save himself a few quid on getting his head screwed up worse, so Alan McGee's money and June Brown's charity funds were entirely wasted, then. You'll also notice that inner strength showing itself there, too, with a whole two nights' chance given to the Monks.
"There are three things that I know a bit about in my life and that’s QPR, my guitar and drugs. I know QPR are the best football team in the world, my guitar is the most beautiful thing I own and that I don’t take enough drugs to kill me. It isn’t drugs that I need to get rid of; it’s the demons that fill my head. Once I have come to terms with my demons, maybe I’ll be able to get clean."
Someone who clearly believes with all his heart that Queens Park Rangers are the best team in the world really needs to re-assess the way he relates to the world. We're afraid that there might be no way back for Pete - "it's not the drugs, it's the demons"? Come on, Pete, how many casualties have you heard say that? Are you really trying to suggest that if you cure these (oddly non-drug related) "demons", you'd be able to have a happy life, with a regular arm and a half-full of smack everyday a part of it? The world is sick of hearing excuses. Soon you're going to find the tabloids are sick of running them. You're way beyond running out of chances, mate.