For Pete's Sake NME HEROES #2: Pete Doherty

"OK, so we're a bit surprised by your choice on this one...yes, there was a time when Peter Doherty lived his life with unrivalled romantic zest, when he represented a truly anti-establishment voice...but is he still your hero?... Surely he's no longer anti-establishment, surely he's just a worn-out drug addict who needs help again if he's ever going to make decent music again. Don't you deserve better?"

While the block-headed opinions of the NME's readership (expressed in illiterate, bile-spewing, incoherent, ill-thought out diatribes weekly in the letters pages) must frequently depress & frustrate the staff of that paper (who are constantly reminded that they are writing for a bunch of shmucks) , it is almost unheard of for the NME to openly lambast and despair at them in print. Pete Doherty was voted this week by NME readers as their #2 ALL TIME HERO OF ROCK & ROLL, (A Mr K Cobain of Seattle, Washington, was first) beating off competition from arguably more deserving artists like Bob Dylan, Elvis, that kid from The Arctic Monkeys etc etc.

I certainly shared the surprise expressed by the NME. Like; 'Doherty? Still? Really?' Even if they had chosen not to respond in the exasperated way that they did, I would have strongly suspected that behind the scenes they were throwing their hands up in disbelief that their readers were that dumb. But to have that image confirmed by a lengthy, sustained rant at their expense...jeez, that was quite a shock. I don't doubt for a moment that the diatribe was penned with some intention of provoking venomous death threats from Pete-o-philes, but the overall feeling I got from the piece was something much more than simple button-pressing - ie a genuine desire to HAMMER HOME how much the NME disagrees with it's readers continued deification of a character that they themselves have recognised for some time as the washed up, sad, junkie scumbag that any right-thinking person knows he is.

In NME world this is, I think, a pretty big deal. This was a poll voted for by thousands of readers. The NME didn't treat any other rock star it's readers voted for with anything but the sort of un-blinking reverence you would expect from this sort of exercise. It wasn't like the whole thing was like:

#6 - Thom Yorke
Thom York? That whiney guy from Radiohead? Are you frikking kidding us here? We bring you exciting new bands every week and you're still voting for this chump? What the hell's wrong with you people?

#24 - Bono
Bono?

I mean, Bono, fercryingoutloud. Y'know, if the NME had wanted to make a point of disagreeing in print with all the reader's choices they considered ill judged, they woulda been there all week. But they didn't. Which is why the 'WHY THE HELL DO YOU GUYS STILL LIKE THIS JERK' Doherty thing is so remarkable. However...at Number One is none other than Kurt Cobain, the BIGGEST HERO OF NME READERS TODAY, who of course was a smack addled rock star so messed up that he shot himself, making him arguably a man even less deserving of our reverence that Doherty, and therefore even more deserving of the NME's frustration at it's readers reverence of him...

And Captain Beefheart didn't even place. Shocking.

  ¶ 11:53 AM