Former Babyshambles drummer Gemme Clarke has released an open letter to Pete Doherty following her announcement she was quitting the band last week. She blames her decision to leave on the company Doherty keeps rather than because of any hard feelings to the former Libertine himself.
In the letter she writes: "Dear Peter, I would like to make it very clear about my reasons for making the stand that I have.
I will not continue to work under the management that you have chosen for the band as I could no longer be part of a machine that I feel is destroying you. I love you, the music, Patrick,
Dru and Babyshambles. Please be safe and be careful. You are a great artist and have been a massive inspiration to me. Thanks for the experience and for a great time - keep safe and don't forget to call me...good luck for the future. Gemma."
Given that you brought up Mr Doherty - loads of Pete related news this morning, most of it relating to the continuing heroin addiction and the various pleas being made to the former Libertine to quit the drug once and for all.
The first plea comes from new (former?) girlfriend Kate Moss. Despite reports on Friday that the model had already dumped Doherty because of his unpredictable ways, the Sun now reports the couple are still together but Moss has threatened to end it if Doherty doesn't quit the drugs. Moss' latest demands apparently follow the publishing of pictures in yesterday's Sunday Mirror showing
Doherty 'chasing the dragon'. One friend of Moss is quoted as saying: "The pictures really hurt her. She made the call to let him know that if he carried on he had no chance of staying with her." Quite why pictures of Britain's most famous young heroin addict consuming heroin came as a surprise to Moss, or anyone for that matter, isn't really clear, especially given that the pictures in question come from a video filmed last
August - but whatever.
Moss isn't the only one putting new pressure on Doherty to quit the drugs this morning. The singer's uncle, Philip Micel, has also made a plea to the singer, saying he will cause his mother Jackie to have a nervous breakdown if he doesn't quit the class As.
He told reporters: "I love Pete immensely, but he's gone way over the top with the drugs. His mum Jackie has cried and cried and cried about it. She sent him to The Priory clinic but he walked out. She's heartbroken. Pete was really well brought up, but got into drugs through a groupie. First of all it was cannabis and then suddenly the stronger stuff. Sometimes he can't go on stage because he's that out of it."
And if girlfriend Kate and Uncle Phil haven't persuaded Mr Doherty that now might be the time to kick the heroin once and for all, perhaps The Who's Roger Daltrey can make the difference. Yep, even he has been dealing out words of advice warning Pete that he is heading the same way as Daltrey's former bandmate Keith
Moon. Daltrey: "He's got the X factor, hasn't he? He's magic to watch. You can't learn that. What's so disarming about
Peter is that he pretends he's in control, or he thinks he is.
But if he's up to everything (with drugs) people say he is, he cannot be in control. He is a genius. But I've known many people like that and they're all dead."
Anyone else? Well, what the hell. CMU says: 'Come on Pete - quit the drugs. We'll be far too busy reporting on Jacko's court case to be wasting time with 'Libertine on drugs' stories in the next few months, so now's the time!'