“This guy’s brilliant!”
Even as a lanky 18-year-old, it was clear that there was *something* about young music fan Pete Doherty. Thanks to freelance television and music consultant Lee Thompson, footage as resurfaced of the Libertines singer-songwriter as a mere slip of a boy, eagerly queuing up for the new Oasis album.
The year is 1997 and the album is the Gallagher brother’s somewhat bloated epic Be Here Now. MTV UK were at the height of their powers as the music and pop culture broadcaster of the time, and decided to go out and interview some Oasis devotees as they queued for the band’s third studio LP.
They came across a very confident and well-spoken young chap scoffing on a croissant (as you do), and decided to gage his excitement. Little did they know that he would go onto be part of one of the most seminal British guitar bands since Oasis with the Libertines. At the time, he was just a very witty interviewee.
When questioned about how long he has been waiting, Doherty nonchalantly responds, “Oh, at least 17 minutes…” He is then asked to describe Oasis in one sentence, and his response is vintage Pete:
“I subscribe to the Umberto Eco view that Noel Gallagher is a poet and Liam’s a town crier. I’ve always seen that as a perfect combination…”
Finally, when asked to sum Oasis up in one word, he gives a silly question a suitably meaningless retort: “Trousers.”
Wondering what 18 yr old Pete Doherty was doing this very day 20 yrs ago?
Queuing up to buy Be Here Now#Trousershttps://t.co/ViQ0A1RSfy
— Lee Thompson (@leethommo) August 21, 2017
Incidentally, Doherty’s line about Eco was predictably enough a product of his own fertile imagination. The Italian novelist/thinker later confirmed that he said no such thing, describing himself as a “musical dinosaur”. You absolute scamp, Pete…
