Hellraiser Pete Doherty returns! Singer launches first solo project since getting clean in 2019 - after weight battle and admitting he was at risk of having toe amputation
(4 STARS)
When he was revitalising British indie-rock in the 2000s as frontman of The Libertines, the band he started with his friend Carl Barât, Pete Doherty cut a dishevelled figure.
A gossip column fixture thanks to his relationship with supermodel Kate Moss, he somehow survived years of hard partying, drug abuse and brushes with the law.
At 46, he's living a different life — in rural Normandy, where he has set up home with his French wife Katia de Vidas, their toddler daughter Billie-May and two dogs.
These days he goes by Peter rather than Pete — and this newfound, if belated, maturity underpins his vibrant new solo album Felt Better Alive.
His first solo release since he quit drugs in 2019, it's a homespun affair that exudes a ramshackle charm as it skips between poetic acoustic fare and string-soaked pop.
There's a buoyant detour into jaunty jazz on The Day The Baron Died (an alternate version of a recent Libertines track) and a nod to country in the title track's pedal steel guitar.
It's a well-timed return. The wave of indie-rock groups Doherty originally inspired have found a new audience thanks to TikTok and streaming. The Kooks are headlining UK arenas in October on the back of a sunny new album, Never/Know, and Hard-Fi are playing next month's Glastonbury.
The Libertines themselves topped the albums chart last year with All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade.
A fresh start in France has also fuelled Doherty's restless imagination.
Calvados, one of two folky tracks that bookend this album, takes its inspiration from a Norman couple who make the local apple-based brandy. 'Slow and steady is the way,' sings Doherty. He's talking about the cart horses that deliver the apples, but he might as well be singing about his simpler life.
There's more French polish on Stade Océan, inspired by his local football team Le Havre AC (currently fighting relegation from Ligue 1).
But these tuneful, sometimes melancholy songs are also the work of an old-fashioned English romantic: Pot Of Gold is a harassed dad's lullaby for his daughter; Ed Belly is the tale of 'a 20-something kid in Coventry' who dreams of a road-trip across America.
Some tracks, such as Fingee, feel a little slight. But it's impossible to deny Doherty's storytelling skill or — as on the title track — his self-deprecating humour in admitting that his old life wasn't always the high-octane ride it seemed.
'I dreamt of gunfights in Toledo,' he sighs. 'When I opened my eyes, I was in the lay-by north of Telford.'
It comes as Pete took to the stage in Brighton on Wednesday after making a candid admission about his family life.
The Libertines star, who welcomed his first child with his wife Katie de Vidas, a baby daughter called Billy May in June 2023, performed at day one of The Great Escape Festival.
His on-stage appearance was the first time he has been seen wearing normal shoes after months of stepping out in slippers and medical boots after he revealed he was at risk of having his toes amputated after being diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes last year.
It came after he revealed that baby Billy May, his wife Katie and the family dog all join him out on tour while speaking to Josh Widdicombe and Rob Beckett on the Parenting Hell podcast earlier this month.
But as well as welcoming Billy May in 2023, Pete is father to son Astile, 21, with singer Lisa Moorish and daughter Aisling, 14, with South African model Lindi Hingston.
And elsewhere in the interview, Pete revealed that while he now speaks to son Astile more than he used to, he doesn't see his daughter Aisling at all.
Discussing bringing Billy May on tour, he said: 'If she didn't feel comfortable, if she wasn't happy, I just wouldn't be able to do it because I don't I want to not be with her. I've missed opportunities in the past to to be a father and I... I don't want to miss this one, you know, I mean.'
He was then asked about Aisling, to which he replied: 'Yeah, I don't... I don't see her at all.'
Pete continued: 'But I have an older son. He's 21 now. And we are... we probably speak and see each other more now than we ever have.
'And even then it's not that much, but it's... he's met Billy May as well.
'He's been doing a few, he's doing something, he's getting involved in bands and he got up and did a poem before one of the Libertine shows.. so Billy May has seen him.'
Pete revealed that one of Billy May's first words was 'gig' because she spends all of her time in the tour bus and out on tour, when the family aren't at their base in France.
'She's got her little headphones and she just what takes everything in really,' he said as he described a day on tour with baby in tow.
'She's obsessed with the guitar stands, she loves the guitar, she loves guitar stands, mic stands, drums, she loves to bang with the drums. There's always a support band with a set of drums.
'There's obviously a lot of chaos involved, so hopefully she'll have a nap around that time [when the gig starts].
'But if not, she'll probably - we try not to let her have too much screen time - but there's the lovely big TV on the bus. So for most of the time on stage, she'll be watching Peppa Pig.
'And then, I don't know, she's just really, she's kind of part of the team, really.'
Pete married Katia, who performs in his band, in a private ceremony at a lavish French retreat in September 2021 - just two days after confirming their engagement.
The couple wed at the Domaine Saint Clair hotel in the French city of Etretat - their home for the last three years - while The Libertines and the couple's band Puta Madres provided music.
Pete who has been clean of heroin for three and a half years, has settled down with his Puta Madres bandmate Katia in France after ditching his bad boy lifestyle.
He shot to fame in the mid-2000s as the frontman for indie band The Libertines, but found nationwide attention when he dated supermodel Kate Moss.
Pete met Kate Moss at her 31st birthday bash in January 2005, and he declared soon after that he'd 'really found love.'
Their turbulent romance briefly ended when Pete failed to complete a stint in rehab in Arizona, USA, with Kate saying at the time she has 'various personal issues I need to address.'
He even drew a portrait of himself and Kate using crayons and his own blood in 2005.
Pete also famously scrawled 'I love Kate 4 eva' on the windscreen of his Jaguar after leaving court following a drug-related offence.
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At the restaurant, we make our babas in large traditional kugelhopf moulds, but at home you could also make individual ones in a six- or eight-hole muffin tin. Prep 10 minProve 1 hr Cook 2 hr 15 minServes 10 For the quick marmalade2 large oranges 200g caster sugar30g lemon juice For the rum syrup750g caster sugar 375ml dark rum For the chantilly100ml double cream 100ml whipping cream 1 vanilla pod, split lengthways and seeds scraped out and reserved 40g caster sugar For the baba7g fast-action yeast, or 15g fresh yeast160g beaten egg (from about 3-4 eggs) 250g strong white bread flour 7g salt 20g sugar 50g unsalted butter, melted, plus extra softened butter for greasing For the orange and rum glaze200g orange marmalade (see above and method) 30ml dark rum First make the quick marmalade. Using a small, sharp knife or peeler, peel the oranges, taking care not to take off too much of the white pith, then cut the skin into fine julienne strips. Pare off and discard the pith from the oranges, then segment the orange flesh. Put the peel in a small saucepan of water, bring to a boil, then fine-strain. Return the peel to the pan, cover with fresh water and repeat the process twice more. After the third strain, put the orange peel back in the pan, add the orange segments, sugar and 420ml cold water, and bring to a boil. Turn down to a simmer, and leave to cook for about 45 minutes, until thick, sticky and jammy. Take off the heat, stir in the lemon juice and leave to cool. Now for the glaze. Once the marmalade is cool, measure 200g of the cooled marmalade into a small pan, add the rum and bring to a simmer. Strain to remove the solids, then set aside. Put all the ingredients for the chantilly cream in a clean bowl, whisk to soft peaks, then cover and refrigerate until needed. Now for the baba itself. Heat 90ml water to 28C (just above room temperature), then stir in the yeast. 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Put the sugar and rum in a medium saucepan with 750ml water, bring to a simmer, then leave to cool to lukewarm (40C). Slowly pour syrup all over the baba, letting it soak in first before adding any more, until it's fully soaked all the way through, then put on a rack to cool. Once the baba is completely cool, brush it all over with the orange and rum glaze, then slice and serve with the chantilly cream. Claude Bosi is chef/patron of Joséphine, Brooklands at the Peninsula and Bibendum, all in London.
