Paris Calling Pete?!

Will Hutchins writing for I V Y paris

According to the Sun newspaper last week, British indie legend Pete Doherty is planning on moving to Paris and has apparently been residing amongst us here in the capital for the last few months. Something my mate Harry can confirm as he posed for a photo with the Libertines and Babyshambles frontman whilst strolling around the 4ème a couple of months ago. Though it seems that meetings like these are a rare occurrence for the singer as a friend told the UK tabloid that:

"Pete is not bothered by people in Paris and finds it creative and romantic. He wants to move there but will keep his place in Wiltshire as his bread and butter and will still be gigging in the UK."

Keen followers of Pete would have already spotted glimpses of his love affair with this beautiful city earlier in his career. His video for his single with Wolfman, ‘For Lovers’, was a low budget film of the controversial star ambling through its little cobbled streets, sitting au bord de la Seine, and running up and down steps in Montmartre.

And if one is prone to spending many hours on Youtube hunting for little nuggets of Doherty gold, as I have certainly been known to in the past, then they may have come across the short video of Pete playing acoustic guitar at a table in a Parisian café.

Whilst the françilien cameraman tries to vaguely converse with him in French, crack cocaine’s most famous fan sits there improvising and playing a version of Guns of Brixton by the Clash. It is actually a rather sweet clip of the songwriter before drug problems and suffocating press attention took over his life.

By venturing to gay Paris to get his creative juices flowing, Pete is following in the grand tradition of artists finding their muse in this here mesmerising city. There are few great western artists and thinkers throughout modern history who have not been attracted by Paris’ grand boulevards, windy cobbled streets, magnificent architecture and liberal café culture. From Oscar Wilde, to Jane Birkin and most recently Pulp singer Jarvis Cocker, many a British artist has moved to ‘sweet Lutetia’ in order to escape the claustrophobic presence of the media in England.

This is definitely the case for Pete who has been hounded by the UK tabloids ever since his relationship with Kate Moss and has been the subject of many an unfair witch hunt by the press due to his drug addiction. Hopefully, he will now be able to relax and start writing great songs again as I personally don’t think any of the Babyshambles oeuvre matches up to the raucous brilliance of the Libertines.

And what of the Libertines now? There were rumours of a reunion since the break-up of Carl Barat’s Dirty Pretty Things but with la Manche separating the songwriting pair will that be a hurdle too high or will the distance make the heart grow fonder? For Pete’s sake, lets hope he finds some creativity and romance in Paris.

Photo features work from Pete's "Art of Albion" exhibited last year at Galerie Chappe.