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Terrible blurbs of our time

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Or: How to make a book sound as unappealing as possible…

The long-awaited, candid memoir from Peter Doherty, whose talent as a musician has more often been eclipsed by a Herculean appetite for selfdestruction: drugs, prison, prostitution, court, murder, death, robbery, car crashes and hospital emergencies.

Peter Doherty’s is the last of the great rock ‘n’ roll stories. As an icon, he is on par with the early Rolling Stones and Sid Vicious – bad boy and public enemy. To his devoted fans, he is a cult hero, a modern-day Rimbaud. Musically, there is no doubt he has defined the past twenty years of British rock ‘n’ roll with his sound, lyrics, lifestyle and aesthetic. Since The Libertines rose to international fame, Doherty has proved endlessly fascinating. A whirlwind of controversy and scandal has tailed him since his first spell in prison in 2003. He divides critics; for every award and accolade, there is a scathing review. All too often his talents as a songwriter and performer have been over-looked. Hard drugs, tiny gigs on the hoof, huge stadium shows, collaborations, obliterations, gangsters and groupies, Doherty has led a life of huge highs and incredible lows.

In A Likely Lad, Doherty explores his darkest moments. With astonishing frankness – and his trademark wit and humour – he takes us inside decadent parties, substance-fuelled nights, prison and his self-destruction. Doherty also reflects on the turbulent relationships with various significant people in his life across the years. He discusses poetry, Paris, philosophy, politics, the music business and his key influences (from Hancock to Baudelaire). There is humour, warmth, insight, baleful reflection and a defiant sense of triumph. This is Doherty’s version of the story – the genuine man behind the fame and infamy. This is a rock memoir like no other

https://geni.us/alikelylad

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Comments

  5. When he/the Libs were on the front cover of Q, I read it in the queue outside the Chinese embassy in That London, waiting for a visa.

    I remember thinking “what a f***ing twunt, no wonder the records are shit”.

    Nearly 20 years later, and hearing several more of his records, my view has not changed.

  6. Imagine being out over the sea in a hot-air balloon drifting landward with him and Russell Brand on board, rapidly losing height, and trying to decide who to heave over the side of the basket first. He’d have to go first, as there’s a chance Brand could generate enough hot air on his own to keep the lightened vessel aloft long enough to reach solid ground. Mind you, if you reached the coast still at a decent height, you’d have another chance to ditch Brand as well. Two of the least likeable tossers of the past two decades.

    • You forgot Piers Morgan and William Rees Mogg.

      Mind you, if you were stuck in a hot air balloon with all four of them
      you’d probably throw yourself over the side first

  7. A less wordy blurb, because it had to fit on a section of a poster. Some time at the end of the 90s I was in Lyme Regis for the day. There is a small theatre near the harbour and their summer season line-up was advertised on posters head ‘Summer of the Legends!’ That may have behave been overselling it as by some way the best known of these legends was Isla St Clair, whose appearance was promoted with the hyperbolic line, ‘An engaging personality and a pleasant voice’.

  9. Vaguely knew the 60s dodger, having bought a few of his QPR fanzines – actually, I must have bought all of them. Binned ’em even after his “fame” (f*** me – a top 10 “hit” in the 21st Century!) ‘cos it was too much bother to try and get some dosh, and I’d have to admit to buying the things in the first place to sell the buggers.
    I couldn’t live with that. Too embarrassing.

  10. I was jet-settin’ from LHR about 5 years ago and there were repeated PA calls for a “Mr Peter Doherty to PLEASE make his way to the boarding gate”. It might have been someone else with the same name, but I like to think it was him.

    I used to work with someone who said that he waits for his name to be called before he boards a plane. This would stress me out immeasurably. I am a model passenger and I want to be liked by the staff.

  11. Am I the only AWer who likes the chap? I think he comes across as sweet, sensitive and vulnerable in interviews and I like the fact that he used to date supermodels but is now fat. That’s fun. And huskies and France and blood and Albion and breakfast, it’s all good. I’ve never listened properly to The Libertines as what little I’ve heard was a bit rubbish, but I like his songs ‘The Lost Art of Murder’ and ‘Paradise Is Under Your Nose’. I prefer him to loads of other people, including Ted Moult, who I found depressing.

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