FAO Red Kendall..

I never do FAO. Can’t send photos on private message. But just to show Steve, I’m trying.
The Only Ones at Hebden Bridge, for all you nosey ****s.
Done my best mate, but we’ll check with box office before setting off. Pete isn’t the most organised.

 

Fck it, this has to be done..
It’s

 

Very pleased for you @Mr C Did you ever meet Pete Doherty when you lived in London? I know that he did a few gigs with the Perrett boys when he broke away from the Libertines and in limbo, an early version of Babyshambles.

 

Yes mate. I only knew him briefly. He was working as a gopher (go for) studio assistant, when I was making some solo stuff at Odessa in Hackney. He did that in return for free rehearsal space & Glynn made the early Libertines demos, which got them signed.
He was interested in what I was doing & that I’d played with Kusworth. He played a bit of guitar on one song, but it was crap, so I mixed most of it out. Nice kid though, could charm the pants off anybody.
This is so fcking funny. He had just bought a van/tour bus with an advance from Rough Trade, I think? He was around on my session, not doing much. Filling out insurance forms for his van. He said Paulie, what’s my occupation? I don’t drive, but I know enough. So I says, put plumber, builder, like a honest trade.? He wrote ‘poet’. Wtf? Hilarious..!!
I auditioned for Peter Perrett in 93, I think. Didn’t get the job, was short listed. My pal Jay got it & was brilliant.
Little Pete & Jamie played with Doherty, yes. I only saw one little pub gig in Shoreditch. Darrell Bath joined on guitar & they did this beautiful take on Baby Baby by the Vibrators. Darrell plays on my solo stuff too. Good lad, wonderful player, passed away last year. Same age as me..

 

What year was the Odessa recordings? I was a real fanboy growing up and finally met him last year He went to Russia to read poetry when he was 16 ('poet'), a real A* student (which goes against the potrayal in the media as he found fame ) - that is a funny story with the trade, I can imagine that!

 

He’s a very smart lad. That would be 2003? 20 years ago, fck!!
Like I said, charming as fck. Drug troubles, but a privileged kid. Darrell (heroin addict too), said & I quote..- you just know that slag is gonna come up smiling. True words..
I’ve not had the smoothest of lives. There’s always someone in trouble. Who I have to look after..

 

Yeh, funnily enough he got me into Hancock's Half Hour (he'd always reference it in interviews), and Oscar Wilde, Verlaine etc. It was before the internet really took off, so it was updates in the NME, tv appearances, and a very old internet forum (not dissimilar to the bbs in its current form actually!) on which he used to post under the name 'heavyhorse'. I was worried for a while I'd get the NME and they'd announce he'd died, but thank God it never happened. He said himself he was never a nihilist, but obviously he ran the risk.

Thank you for sharing your stories, fascinating stuff and I wish I'd been in London during that time, but unfortunately I was too young by about 2 years.

 

Understatement to say I’m looking fwd, Only Ones on the Friday, Port Vale on the Saturday. How good is that!

 

He knows a lot about William Blake, I remember talking about that when finishing off some lyrics in the studio. He even rumbled me for stealing a title from Raymond Carver. *******.

When the Libertines got biggish, they left a lot of people behind. Glynn Mathias loved Pete, was like a father to him, free recording & rehearsal space, early on. The least they could have done was go back to Odessa & spend some real money there. It would have boosted business & maybe have saved the studio..

 

That's a shame mate. I wonder if that was steered by management (they had a manager come in, an Iranian(?) woman called Bani), who orchestrated their move towards becoming more like an 'English Strokes' rather than the village green Kinks Englishness they'd previously showcased. Things got messy after the first album anyway, with Pete doing time for a month, and then alleged bodyguards to keep the two frontmen at arms length during the recording of the second album. The debut Up The Bracket was recorded at RAK with Mick Jones, I agree it's a shame they couldn't have gone back to Odessa as it's nice to repay loyalty that way, but maybe it wasn't Pete's call. Or maybe it was..

 

I love Raymond Carver (I have the collection Where I'm Calling From)!

Ps Pete always talked about hating the corporate side of The Libertines and what they became. He wanted to do more guerilla gigs (in flats, on boats, in squats etc) and Carl was more the industry figurehead. One of the reasons he broke away from the band and formed Babyshambles. He looked content in that first crossover year (2004), by 2005 the drugs had taken over, he'd got with Kate Moss, and the smile was gone.

 

I really don’t know mate. It’s a sick business. I like their stuff a lot actually, I bought a cd (with my own money!!)..
& I read a brilliant thing in the Guardian when they were falling apart. But I hardly followed their careers.
I bumped into him a while later at the Boogaloo in Highgate. We were playing, doing an off the cuff tribute to Nikki Sudden who had just died. I said hello to him, but he didn’t remember me, gave a blank expression, until I jogged his memory. Then it was all mockney greetings & hugs. I’m just thinking fck you..
He had come to see us, Dave Kusworth mainly I suppose, but fcking hell?
He was off his face. Kate Moss was with him. I saw him talking to Dave, later on. Then later that night back at my flat, Dave said - who the fck was that kid? I think Dave was more interested in his bird, who he didn’t recognise either..
Max Desharne played with us that night & Pete’s a big fan of Gallon Drunk, Flamin Stars etc. But Max had no time for him. Which is a shame, because there’s similarities there. Max has zero tolerance for addicts. He’s seen enough, so have I.. Rock n Roll etc..

 

Where I’m Calling From is the title I stole. I first recorded it on Steve Hands’ home 4 track, portastudio job. Then we did it again at Odessa. Steve on drums & his partner Caroline on backing vocals. Steve was Peter Perrett’s drummer in the 90s & played on everything I did solo..
I’ll try to email that tune to you later. It’s a big file, 7 minute song..

 

Saw the Only Ones guitarist John Perry do a gig with Martin Stephenson at The Dorothy Pax in Sheffield earlier this year. Superb night, both on top form. Perry is a seriously talented musician.

 

Yes mate, I saw the adverts for the tour. I don’t know much about Martin, but John is probably my favourite British guitar player from that era..

 

I really like this one. It feels like a song John & Paul should have written together, instead of bitching on solo records..

 

Yeh I remember reading about him frequenting the boogaloo with her back then. His demeanour definitely changed around that time, you can see the tension and angst in his face in a lot of photos. Was better when they separated haha. But yeh sucks that he didn't recognise you and then put it on etc. As you say, drugs.

 

I like the version they did on jonathan ross, though it's intense, maybe what makes it great.

This is probably my fave (deffo the one I played on guitar the most when i was young anyways - has a nice solo, and I like the lyrics/imagery of the May day riots):

 

It’s a great day when Gallon Drunk get a mention on the BBS!

Technically the second band I saw when I moved to Portsmouth in 1991, I went to see Lush and they were supporting along with a band called
Passing clouds who were first on.

 

Gary Powell is a lovely fella. He loaned us some beanbag padding for Steve’s bass drum, he had stored at Odessa. Those two drummers got on great. Such mutual respect..
I met him for 5 minutes, I was messing about with a vintage vocal microphone which belonged to Sting & had been used by Billie Holiday, apparently. Big thrill for me that. I used it on Calling From & Sky Blue Pink.
Gary was always around Odessa, his Nan lived locally & he was Glynn’s go to drummer. Jazz sessions & stuff.
Then a year later, I went to see the New York Dolls at Morrissey’s Meltdown at the Royal Festival Hall..
It was a closely guarded secret who would sit in for Jerry Nolan on drums & Johnny Thunders on guitar, who had both died years previously.
I couldn’t believe it, Gary comes on gets behind his drums, wearing a Dolls t shirt. Played amazingly & you could tell the original members adored him.
If you can, watch New York Doll, the Arthur Kane story. It’s the build up to those gigs & the sad aftermath. Though it’s a different drummer at the New York rehearsals. That fella had another job on & Gary had to step in, at short notice. On Morrissey’s recommendation, apparently..