Babyshambles Singer Pete Doherty Charged

Pete Doherty, singer for the much-hyped London rock outfit Babyshambles, was charged with cocaine and heroin possession on Monday following a November arrest. The former Libertines co-frontman, 26, is scheduled to appear in court in London on Wednesday, according to British authorities.

Doherty has had repeated run-ins with the police for drug possession. Last September British police raided the nightspot where the controversial rocker and his band were partying and discovered the singer with blue pills, which Doherty claimed aided the Naltrexone implant he has in his abdomen to counteract the damaging effects of his long-term heroin use. But police suspected the singer may have been under the influence of narcotics.

"When the police took me in [for questioning] they thought I wasn't in a fit state to be interviewed," Doherty told Rolling Stone shortly after the raid. "But they realized by the next day that that's what I'm like." Doherty was later released on bail.

Doherty rose to fame in the U.K. as the singing and songwriting partner of Carl Barat in the Libertines, whose two albums, 2002's Up the Bracket and 2004's The Libertines, were produced by Mick Jones of the Clash. But just as the group was poised for their U.S. breakthrough, bolstered by the modest alternative hit "Can't Stand Me Now," Doherty found himself serving a month in prison for breaking into Barat's apartment.

The rocker has famously been linked in recent months with British supermodel Kate Moss, who was videotaped using cocaine during a Babyshambles recording session. Moss, currently in the U.S., is being requested to return to the U.K. for questioning.

Babyshambles' debut, Down in Albion, also produced in part by Jones, hits the U.S. this week. Moss makes a guest appearance, singing vocals on "La Belle et la Bete (Beauty and the Beast)," while the track "Pentonville" features a Jamaican-style rap by "General Santana," a man Doherty met in Pentonville Prison.

The group launched their U.K. tour Monday night with a show at London's Koko venue, at which Doherty announced that he would be appearing in court on Wednesday. Guitarist Patrick Walden did not perform with the band.

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Song Stories

“Let My Love Open the Door”

Pete Townshend | 1980

A peppy, hopeful love song, "Let My Love Open the Door" became a U. S. Top Ten hit for Pete Townshend in 1980, anchored by the kind of repeating synthesizer figures that he'd used in some of the Who's recordings in the previous decade. Although Townshend brushed the song off as "just a ditty" in Rolling Stone shortly after its release, in 1996 he revealed it was about love of the holiest sort. "It's supposed to be about the power of God's love," he remarked. "That when you're in difficulty, whether it's major or minor, God's love is always there for you."

More Song Stories entries »

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