“You can’t sing first of all and you clearly can’t write songs well or play guitar” The Libertines frontman Pete Doherty reveals scathing review his dad gave him
Libertines frontman and guitarist Pete Doherty has had a rollercoaster and often troubled musical career, but if he’d listened to his dad’s early advice, he might never have become one of the most recognisable faces in the early 2000s UK music scene.
READ MORE: The Libertines on keeping it analogue on new album All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade
In a new interview with BBC Radio 4’s Young Again programme, Doherty is asked by presenter Kirsty Young about the advice he’d give to his younger self, and his experience with being a young musician at the height of the UK’s guitar band boom in the early 2000s.
In the episode, the 45-year-old Doherty recalls playing his army major father an early version of what would become The Libertines’ biggest hit – What a Waster.
“I played him this really early acoustic version of a song called ‘What a Waster’ and remember he said, ‘Look, you can’t sing first of all and you clearly can’t write songs well or play guitar’” Doherty recalls, as transcribed by Female First. “But two years later, that song had been released and was single of the week.
“And then when he seen it was single of the week in NME, he was like, ‘What’s that song?’ ‘What a Waster.’ He made me go around to play it to the neighbour, and I was so fuming!”
Doherty’s music career has been blighted by addiction and related criminal behaviour – The Libertines broke up in 2004 due to Doherty’s drug use and a famous episode where he burglarised bandmate Carl Barât’s flat in 2003 for which he was sent to prison.
Afterwards Doherty formed Babyshambles, and embarked on a solo career before reforming with Barât in 2014 and releasing two studio albums since then, including 2024’s All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade. Doherty plans to release another solo album this year, and he reflected to Young about how the process differs from his work with The Libertines
“Sometimes with The Libertines, there’s more compromises you have to make,” he explains. “We do do slower songs, but it’s still very upbeat. Sometimes just playing acoustic stuff, solo stuff, I just like that, you know? And it’s more about, you can actually hear the lyrics as well, like, whereas at The Libertines gig people know them, it doesn’t matter if they can hear them or not, everyone sings them.”
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