There's a really interesting line in yesterday's Observer Music Magazine, when Pete Doherty is interviewing Paul McCartney, and Paul says he was: "just trying to, you know, write some songs, and sing..."
You can genuinely believe that with McCartney it was all about the music - the man is a legend, for god's sake. OK, and the girls, and the thrill, but basically about the music. But Pete Doherty? Pete Doherty? He of the crack pipes, punch-ups outside bars, supermodel girlfriends and tabloid frenzy? Do you honestly tell yourself, Pete, that you have anything in common with the genius of Sir Paul? Last night he performed on a barge in Bristol, to universal dismay - apparently, he's on the wagon, and was so disappointing sober that the crowd were distinctly unimpressed with his mumbling 40-minute set. He threw his mic into the crowd and stormed off stage. Genius.
I know people say Pete's talented. But he's also probably the most famous, or notorious, druggie around at the moment. And I have to say that I find it really sad that the OMM has put Peter and Paul, like two Biblical figures, on it's front cover - when for me there is absolutely no justification whatsoever for Pete to be put on a pedestal alongside someone so iconic as McCartney.
It just adds to the anger felt by many that Doherty has got away with so much for so long - how many times has the self-confessed heroin addict managed to worm his way out of a prison sentence? Apparently he's now clean, but how many times have we heard that before? Setting him up alongside McCartney is only adding to his fame and sending a clear message that hitting the headlines for being a vile drug-adled waster is a clear path to fame, fortune and meeting your idols.
Rock has always had it's bad boys, and I'm not naive enough to suggest that they should all be clean-living saintly choirboys. But for such a prestigious magazine to pay him such a tribute is surely endorsing his behaviour - behaviour that is not acceptable, and should definitely not be encouraged.
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