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Pete Doherty: Benders, Burglary, and a Shocking Fall · DISGRACELAND

0:00
Speaker 1: Disgraceland is a production of Double Elvis. This is a
0:22
Speaker 1: story about a rock star. It's got sex or a
0:25
Speaker 1: sex symbol anyways, and Kate Moss and drugs, lots of drugs,
0:30
Speaker 1: heroin and crack cocaine and glorious rock and roll. But
0:34
Speaker 1: it's also a story about brotherhood and a suspicious death.
0:39
Speaker 1: It's a story about Pete Daugherty from the Libertines, a
0:43
Speaker 1: rock star and a rock and roll band that made
0:47
Speaker 1: great music. Unlike that music, I played a few at
0:50
Speaker 1: the top of the show that wasn't great music. That
0:54
Speaker 1: was a preset loop from my melotron called Shambalic Shasha MK.
1:01
Speaker 1: I played you that loop because I can't afford the
1:03
Speaker 1: rights to I Want to Love You by Akon And
1:07
Speaker 1: why would I play you that specific slice of winding
1:10
Speaker 1: and grinding cheese? Could I afford it? Because that was
1:16
Speaker 1: the number one song in America on December two, two
1:19
Speaker 1: thousand and six, And that was the day that an
1:22
Speaker 1: unknown London actor named Mark Blanco fell to his death
1:26
Speaker 1: under mysterious circumstances after an altercation with Pete Doherty in
1:30
Speaker 1: his entourage. On this episode, sex, drugs, rock and roll,
1:36
Speaker 1: a suspicious death and Pete Doherty of the Libertines. I'm
1:41
Speaker 1: Jake Brennan and this is Disgraceland. December two, two thousand
2:13
Speaker 1: and six. It was a late Saturday night in London's
2:16
Speaker 1: East End. In fact, it was just minutes away from
2:19
Speaker 1: Sunday morning. Outside on the sidewalk, everything was dead, silent.
2:25
Speaker 1: Fourteen feet up an apartment on the second floor was
2:29
Speaker 1: a different story all together. Screams cried out from inside,
2:34
Speaker 1: so loud that they echoed throughout the building. And they
2:37
Speaker 1: weren't the joyful, boisterous sounds of a Saturday night rave up.
2:44
Speaker 1: These screams were tense. They were menacing. They had the
2:50
Speaker 1: ring of a school yard fight when the kids starts
2:54
Speaker 1: circling up and the insults start cutting a little bit deeper,
2:58
Speaker 1: when the pushing and shoving gets a little bit more intense,
3:01
Speaker 1: when it feels like violence could break out at any moment.
3:06
Speaker 1: The sounds kept building louder and louder, darker and more phrenetic, agitated, angry,
3:14
Speaker 1: until it felt like something was going to explode. Suddenly,
3:18
Speaker 1: the front door of the apartment building swung open. A
3:21
Speaker 1: tall man was pushed out onto the sidewalk. He was
3:25
Speaker 1: so tall that his head nearly hit the doorway as
3:27
Speaker 1: he was forcibly shoved backwards. He staggered back a few
3:31
Speaker 1: steps from the force of the blow, and then the
3:33
Speaker 1: door slam shut in his face. Down the street, a
3:37
Speaker 1: security camera caught the tall man as he started walking
3:40
Speaker 1: a few steps away from the building. Suddenly he paused,
3:44
Speaker 1: frozen in place for a few seconds. His mind made up,
3:48
Speaker 1: he wheeled around and started walking back towards the building.
3:52
Speaker 1: It was an impulse, a split second decision. Less than
3:55
Speaker 1: a minute later, it was a decision that would cost
3:58
Speaker 1: Mark Blanco his life. Back inside the apartment on the
4:06
Speaker 1: second floor, Pete Doherty, the pop star of Libertine's fame,
4:10
Speaker 1: was waiting for the ketamine to take hold that held
4:13
Speaker 1: the promise of total annihilation, annihilation of all of his
4:17
Speaker 1: thoughts and worries. Soon it would leave a warm, black
4:21
Speaker 1: void that he could float in for a few hours.
4:25
Speaker 1: Because despite his current status as an A list rock star,
4:29
Speaker 1: Pete Dhugherty had a lot of worries on his mind,
4:33
Speaker 1: and despite the scuffle he just witnessed Mark Blanco was
4:36
Speaker 1: far from the top of the list. Pete had court
4:40
Speaker 1: in the morning, which meant inevitably another drug test, Hence
4:44
Speaker 1: the ketamine in place of his preferred fix, a mixture
4:48
Speaker 1: of heroin and crack cocaine. Over the past three years,
4:52
Speaker 1: he had racked up dozens of arrests for possession. He'd
4:55
Speaker 1: been in and out of rehab and probation, and he
4:58
Speaker 1: quickly learned that, unl like heroin and cocaine, ketamine didn't
5:02
Speaker 1: show up on the drug tests. There was his girlfriend. No,
5:07
Speaker 1: not the nineteen year old girl sitting next to him.
5:10
Speaker 1: Pete wasn't sure if he could even remember her name.
5:13
Speaker 1: He'd only met her a few hours ago at a
5:15
Speaker 1: party at the hotel where he was staying. Instead, Pete
5:18
Speaker 1: was thinking about his fiance, the supermodel Kate Moss. The
5:23
Speaker 1: pair had just gotten engaged two months ago, but their
5:26
Speaker 1: on again, off again relationship was already hanging by a thread.
5:31
Speaker 1: The last thing Pete needed was Kate finding out about
5:34
Speaker 1: another dalliance with another young girl. Then there was his friend.
5:38
Speaker 1: It wasn't the stout and muscular man standing across the
5:41
Speaker 1: room from him. Johnny Headlock was a live wire, especially
5:45
Speaker 1: when he'd been using cocaine earlier. At dinner, Johnny stabbed
5:49
Speaker 1: Pete's guitarist in the hand with a fork when the
5:51
Speaker 1: musician made a comment that he didn't like. It's true
5:55
Speaker 1: Johnny Headlock was completely unhinged, but with the number of
5:59
Speaker 1: scrapes Pete got into, it was good to have a
6:01
Speaker 1: man around with Johnny's particular talent for violence. However, as
6:06
Speaker 1: the ketamine began to overtake him, Pete's thoughts weren't on Johnny. Tonight,
6:11
Speaker 1: like almost every night, Pete's thoughts were I'm the only
6:15
Speaker 1: man he'd ever loved his former best friend, roommate and
6:19
Speaker 1: co founder of the Libertines, Carl Barrett. Only a few
6:26
Speaker 1: years ago they'd been inseparable. They dropped out of school
6:29
Speaker 1: together to form the band. They moved into a dingy
6:32
Speaker 1: squat they called the Albion Rooms and started writing songs,
6:35
Speaker 1: spinning out a detailed mythology for themselves as marauding pirates
6:39
Speaker 1: sailing on the good ship Albion heading for an imaginary
6:42
Speaker 1: rock and roll utopia they called Arcadia. It was a
6:46
Speaker 1: mythology the British music press was only too happy to
6:49
Speaker 1: run with. They saw Pete and Carl as the next
6:52
Speaker 1: and a long line of competitive co leads of British
6:55
Speaker 1: bands such as The Beatles and the Rolling Stones, the Kinks,
6:58
Speaker 1: and Oasis. When The Strokes and other American bands kicked
7:02
Speaker 1: off the early two thousands garage rock revival, British critics
7:06
Speaker 1: quickly found their answer in the Libertines. The band appeared
7:10
Speaker 1: on the cover of British Music magazine and Amy the
7:12
Speaker 1: week they dropped their very first single. It didn't matter
7:15
Speaker 1: that the song what a Waste was laced with so
7:17
Speaker 1: many profanities that it could never make it onto the radio.
7:21
Speaker 1: When their debut album Up the Bracket came out a
7:23
Speaker 1: few months later, the magazine gave them its Best New
7:26
Speaker 1: Band award for two thousand and three. But success bred
7:30
Speaker 1: competition between Pete and Carl. Pete was furious when a
7:34
Speaker 1: song featuring Carl on lead vocals was selected for the
7:38
Speaker 1: band's performance on The Late Show with David Letterman. Carl
7:41
Speaker 1: raged when the Pete written single Time for Heroes went
7:45
Speaker 1: higher on the charts than his songs. Add into the
7:48
Speaker 1: mix copious amounts of drugs, alcohol, and every other rock
7:51
Speaker 1: and roll excess, and soon their brotherhood was curdling into bitterness.
7:56
Speaker 1: By two thousand and six, Pete and Carl were mortal
7:59
Speaker 1: and Pete's new band, Baby Shambles, was in constant competition
8:05
Speaker 1: with the group Carl was leading, Dirty Pretty Things. They
8:08
Speaker 1: competed for airplay, for tour dates, for chart position, and
8:12
Speaker 1: in two thousand and six it looked like Carl was winning.
8:15
Speaker 1: Dirty Pretty Things hit the top three of the UK
8:17
Speaker 1: album charts and put three singles into the top forty,
8:19
Speaker 1: while Pete's band had only managed a brief stint at
8:22
Speaker 1: number ten. So between tour dates, court dates, women troubles,
8:28
Speaker 1: and a frantic attempt to outdo Carl with his next
8:30
Speaker 1: Baby Shambles album, Pete had a lot on his mind
8:34
Speaker 1: that night. After the party at his hotel started getting
8:37
Speaker 1: out of hand, Pete went looking for a place to
8:39
Speaker 1: get stoned and chill out for a few hours to
8:42
Speaker 1: try to get his head on straight before he had
8:44
Speaker 1: a head back to Court in the morning. That's what
8:47
Speaker 1: he hoped to find at his friend Paul Roundhill's apartment
8:50
Speaker 1: that night. Paul was an artist and his apartment was
8:53
Speaker 1: a hangout for a certain group of the in the
8:55
Speaker 1: No London Bohemians. It was a place where Pete could
8:59
Speaker 1: sit for a few hours or for a few days
9:01
Speaker 1: and write songs or match wits with the painters, the poets,
9:05
Speaker 1: and musicians constantly circling through the apartment that Paul liked
9:09
Speaker 1: to refer to as a literary salon. Of course, the
9:12
Speaker 1: neighbors referred to it differently. They called it a crack den.
9:16
Speaker 1: Copious amounts of drugs were bought, sold, traded, and consumed
9:20
Speaker 1: in the flat, and the police were called more than
9:23
Speaker 1: once to break up a gathering. In just a few
9:25
Speaker 1: years earlier, another British singer songwriter named Paul Cunafy wandered
9:30
Speaker 1: out onto Paul's balcony after taking drugs and plummeted to
9:34
Speaker 1: his death. The police ruled it was a freak accident
9:37
Speaker 1: and no one was charged. Still, the neighbors whispered to
9:41
Speaker 1: each other about the drugs and the wild behavior. They
9:45
Speaker 1: all knew it was just a matter of time before
9:47
Speaker 1: something like that happened again. Pete Daherty heard the sound
10:14
Speaker 1: of metal grinding on metal as a prison guard slid
10:17
Speaker 1: open the heavy iron door of his cell. He and
10:20
Speaker 1: his three cell mates looked up in confusion as the
10:23
Speaker 1: guard stepped aside and the prison chaplain walked in. Pete
10:27
Speaker 1: had only been in lock up for a few days,
10:29
Speaker 1: but He recognized the older man's salt and pepper hair
10:32
Speaker 1: and his kind smile, a rarity in the grim atmosphere
10:36
Speaker 1: of Sheppy prison. He was surprised as the chaplain stepped
10:40
Speaker 1: toward him, but Pete was intrigued by what he carried
10:43
Speaker 1: in his hand, not the hand with the Bible. Sure,
10:47
Speaker 1: Pete had grown up going to church with his parents
10:49
Speaker 1: and sister. His father was a major in the British Army,
10:52
Speaker 1: so church was a familiar comfort as the family bounced
10:55
Speaker 1: from one base to another, but it had been years
10:58
Speaker 1: since he stepped foot inside one. It was what the
11:01
Speaker 1: chaplain carried in his other hand that caught Pete's attention,
11:05
Speaker 1: a battered acoustic guitar. The instrument was scratched and scuffed,
11:10
Speaker 1: and it was missing two strings. But after a month
11:13
Speaker 1: without touching a guitar, Pete was jones in when he
11:19
Speaker 1: reported for lock up. Pete was terrified about going through
11:22
Speaker 1: heroin withdrawal in prison, but he didn't need to worry.
11:26
Speaker 1: It turned out scoring drugs in jail was even easier
11:28
Speaker 1: than on the street. But what he hadn't counted on
11:31
Speaker 1: was how hard it would be to withdraw from music. Now,
11:35
Speaker 1: the chaplain was holding the guitar as he bent down
11:37
Speaker 1: to look Pete in the eye. Pete's mom had written
11:40
Speaker 1: him a letter begging him to check in on her son.
11:43
Speaker 1: His explanation had Pete's cell mate snickering with laughter, but
11:47
Speaker 1: Pete pretended not to hear it. It was two thousand
11:50
Speaker 1: and three and Pete was only a few days into
11:52
Speaker 1: his first stint in jail, but he was quickly learning
11:55
Speaker 1: to keep his head down. There were some people in
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Speaker 1: this prison eager to make a name for themselves by
12:00
Speaker 1: thrashing a quasi famous musician, like the guy who came
12:03
Speaker 1: after him with a sockfull and nuts and bolts on
12:05
Speaker 1: his first night in lock up. Fame put a target
12:09
Speaker 1: on his back, so did his well publicized heroin problem.
12:13
Speaker 1: On his second day at Shepy, three prisoners burst into
12:16
Speaker 1: his cell while he was alone. They backed him into
12:18
Speaker 1: a corner and then strongly implied that they could score
12:21
Speaker 1: him heroin as long as Pete was willing to. Shall
12:24
Speaker 1: we say, return the favor. So Pete ignored the laughter
12:29
Speaker 1: from his cellmates and accepted the chaplain's invitation to take
12:32
Speaker 1: a walk. He knew a sermon was coming his way,
12:35
Speaker 1: but it was worth it if he got a few
12:37
Speaker 1: minutes with the guitar. As they walked across the prison grounds,
12:41
Speaker 1: the chaplain launched into a speech about Pete's drug use.
12:44
Speaker 1: Pete pretended to listen, but his eyes were locked on
12:47
Speaker 1: the guitar, until finally the chaplain handed it over. He
12:52
Speaker 1: told Pete he could play for twenty minutes before he
12:54
Speaker 1: had to go back in his cell. Pete grabbed the
12:57
Speaker 1: worn down instrument and sat on a sunny patch of
12:59
Speaker 1: grass outside the prison's ugly stone chapel. He tuned up
13:03
Speaker 1: the four strings as best he could and started strumming
13:06
Speaker 1: through the first song that came into his head. It
13:09
Speaker 1: was a song still bouncing around the UK Top one
13:11
Speaker 1: hundred singles chart, a velvet underground oasis mashup that he
13:15
Speaker 1: wrote with Carl that they called Don't Look Back into
13:18
Speaker 1: the Sun. Tears welled up in his eyes as he
13:21
Speaker 1: remembered the last time he heard it, a few weeks ago.
13:24
Speaker 1: He was crashing at a friend's apartment waiting to be sentenced.
13:28
Speaker 1: He flipped on the television one night and saw Carl
13:31
Speaker 1: and the rest of the Libertines with another guitarist in
13:33
Speaker 1: Pete's place, bashing through the song on BBC's Top of
13:36
Speaker 1: the Pops. Seeing the band on television without him was painful,
13:41
Speaker 1: but now strumming the song alone in the prison yard,
13:44
Speaker 1: the reality of what he had done finally began to
13:46
Speaker 1: sink in. Pete was in jail for a crime so bizarre,
13:50
Speaker 1: so shocking, so utterly stupid, that he wondered if he
13:54
Speaker 1: would ever play with the Libertines again. Back in July,
13:59
Speaker 1: the rest of the Libertines were out playing the Fuji
14:02
Speaker 1: Rock Festival in Japan, but Carl had insisted Pete's stay
14:05
Speaker 1: home until he could clean up. Rather than taking Carl's advice,
14:09
Speaker 1: Pete took the opportunity to go on a bender, all
14:12
Speaker 1: the while getting angrier and angrier at the demand from
14:14
Speaker 1: his friend. Finally, he convinced someone to drive him over
14:18
Speaker 1: to the central London flat that Carl shared with his
14:20
Speaker 1: sister to see if his bandmate really was off in Japan.
14:25
Speaker 1: The apartment was empty when Pete arrived, but after three
14:28
Speaker 1: days of smoking crack, he was convinced he could see
14:30
Speaker 1: shadows moving inside of the room. He banged on the
14:33
Speaker 1: door and demanded that Karl come out and face him,
14:36
Speaker 1: and when there was no answer, he kicked in the door,
14:39
Speaker 1: leaving a size eleven Rebok print clearly visible. He wandered
14:43
Speaker 1: through Carl's living room, in between paintings and pictures of
14:46
Speaker 1: the band, where there was a large framed poster from
14:49
Speaker 1: a Libertines gig Carl had played without him. Rage boiled up,
14:54
Speaker 1: Pete wanted to burn the poster. He wanted to ransack
14:57
Speaker 1: the apartment instead. He quickly grabbed one of Carl's vintage guitars,
15:01
Speaker 1: a harmonica, a laptop, and some cash from Carl's sister's
15:05
Speaker 1: room and he threw the items in the back of
15:07
Speaker 1: his friend's red Ford Fiesta and they headed home, where
15:10
Speaker 1: Pete promptly passed out. When he woke up the next day,
15:14
Speaker 1: he barely remembered the break in until the police showed up.
15:18
Speaker 1: Thanks to a tip from Pete's girlfriend, who thought he
15:21
Speaker 1: needed a wake up call. As well as the shoeprint
15:23
Speaker 1: from Carl's front door, cops had all they needed to
15:26
Speaker 1: book Pete for burglary. In the memory came roaring back.
15:32
Speaker 1: As Pete finished playing the song on the battered acoustic guitar,
15:36
Speaker 1: he felt fat tears rolling down his face, but he
15:39
Speaker 1: also felt the wood of the instrument reverberate against his
15:42
Speaker 1: skin and the steel strings against his fingertips, pure uncut music.
15:48
Speaker 1: After what seemed like an eternity without it, for just
15:51
Speaker 1: a moment, he could imagine a world where music was
15:53
Speaker 1: all he needed. He could repair his relationship with Carl,
15:57
Speaker 1: he could reunite the band, he could leave the drugs behind,
16:01
Speaker 1: and for the rest of his time in prison, that's
16:03
Speaker 1: more or less what Pete the already did. On October eighth,
16:07
Speaker 1: two thousand and three, when he was released after serving
16:09
Speaker 1: two months, he was as clean as he had been
16:11
Speaker 1: in years, and when he walked out of the prison gates,
16:14
Speaker 1: paparazzi were waiting to snap his picture. There was someone
16:18
Speaker 1: else waiting for him as well, Carl Barrett. Carl hugged
16:22
Speaker 1: Pete in an embrace and tossed him into the passenger seat,
16:25
Speaker 1: and the pair tore asked toward Kent, and they weren't
16:28
Speaker 1: going to take it easy on Pete's first night on
16:30
Speaker 1: the outside, not by a long shot. They were headed
16:35
Speaker 1: for a small pub and music club called the Tap
16:37
Speaker 1: and Tin. A young booking agent who worked there had
16:40
Speaker 1: been writing letters to Pete while he was locked up. Together,
16:43
Speaker 1: they planned a small acoustics show informally billed as the
16:46
Speaker 1: Pete Daugherty Freedom Gig, But now the buzz was building
16:49
Speaker 1: that this is going to be much more than the
16:51
Speaker 1: solo acoustic performance from Pete. Tonight would be a full
16:54
Speaker 1: blown Libertines reunion. When the pub opened, more than three
16:59
Speaker 1: hundred people squeak into a space designed for half that number,
17:03
Speaker 1: and by the time the band hit the stage, it
17:04
Speaker 1: was pure pandemonium. Kids were everywhere Poe, going up and down,
17:08
Speaker 1: climbing onto the stage, and working themselves into a frenzy
17:11
Speaker 1: while the band ripped through a dozen cathartic songs. It
17:14
Speaker 1: was free wheeling rock and roll chaos at its best.
17:18
Speaker 1: Enemy would eventually declare the Freedom Show the gig of
17:20
Speaker 1: the decade. They sent a photographer to document the night.
17:23
Speaker 1: He snapped the backstage picture of Karl with his arm
17:26
Speaker 1: around a bleary looking Pete Dharerty, both showing off their
17:29
Speaker 1: matching Libertine tattoos. It was an iconic indie rock image
17:33
Speaker 1: that would eventually adorn the cover of the second Libertines album.
17:37
Speaker 1: Not Everything ended on a high note, though someone in
17:40
Speaker 1: the crowd passed Pete some heroin and he shot up
17:43
Speaker 1: in the bathroom despite promising that he wouldn't. Later, the
17:47
Speaker 1: party spilled out into the street in an improvised congo line,
17:51
Speaker 1: and Carl tried to jump a parking meter and missed.
17:54
Speaker 1: He landed on his chin and skidd it a solid
17:56
Speaker 1: ten feet across the sidewalk. When he stood up, Bood
18:00
Speaker 1: was soaking his white T shirt and there was a
18:02
Speaker 1: hole in his chin so big that he could see
18:04
Speaker 1: his teeth through it. A few dozen stitches and a
18:07
Speaker 1: small scar seemed a worthy price for a memorable night.
18:11
Speaker 1: Pete and Carl both felt hopeful about the renewed partnership
18:15
Speaker 1: and a second Libertines album. For a moment, things seemed bright,
18:19
Speaker 1: but darkness was looming for Pete. More drugs, more chaos,
18:24
Speaker 1: and more bloodshed. We'll be right back after this. We're
18:34
Speaker 1: We're where. March two thousand and four. Mick Jones of
18:42
Speaker 1: The Clash was feeling it. He had his hands up
18:45
Speaker 1: in the air and his hips were swinging in that
18:47
Speaker 1: little dance that he always did During a great studio take.
18:51
Speaker 1: In the tracking room, the Libertines were slamming their way
18:54
Speaker 1: through a new song called Can't Stand Me Now, their
18:57
Speaker 1: first of the day. Signed on to produce the album.
19:01
Speaker 1: Was listening in the control room and he liked what
19:03
Speaker 1: he heard. The song was written by Pete as a duet.
19:07
Speaker 1: It was a song about a love gone wrong. It
19:09
Speaker 1: wasn't about Kate Moss, who Pete wouldn't meet for another year. Instead,
19:13
Speaker 1: it was about the love between him and Carl. It
19:16
Speaker 1: was structured like an English indie rock version of Johnny
19:19
Speaker 1: Cash and June Carter's Jackson, only instead of a married
19:23
Speaker 1: couple bickering about the flame going out, it was two
19:26
Speaker 1: brothers calling each other out for controlling behavior and rampant
19:30
Speaker 1: smack addictions. Mick was nervous about starting with this one.
19:35
Speaker 1: The lyrics were so raw, direct, but it quickly became
19:39
Speaker 1: clear he didn't have any choice. Although the band booked
19:42
Speaker 1: a week of rehearsals before the session, this was the
19:45
Speaker 1: only song they had ready. Watching Pete and Carl leaning
19:49
Speaker 1: into their lines, shouting back and forth, he knew it
19:52
Speaker 1: was worth the risk. The electricity of their performance was
19:55
Speaker 1: impossible to miss. Standing practically nosed to nose, two frontmen
20:00
Speaker 1: conjured up years of frustration in three and a half minutes,
20:04
Speaker 1: Mick knew the song was a winner. That's why I
20:07
Speaker 1: was working with Pete and Carl again despite all the hassles,
20:11
Speaker 1: because they made great music. Mick had also produced the
20:17
Speaker 1: band's debut album, Up the Bracket. Back then. Pete and
20:21
Speaker 1: Carl have been a handful, but Mick had been through
20:24
Speaker 1: his share of tense studio sessions with Joe Strummer and
20:27
Speaker 1: they still managed to make plenty of great albums. He
20:29
Speaker 1: could handle the tension, and his steady hand and umpeccable
20:33
Speaker 1: rock credentials kept Pete and Carl relatively restrained during sessions
20:37
Speaker 1: for the first album, which snuck onto the top forty
20:40
Speaker 1: of the UK album charts a year later. The follow
20:43
Speaker 1: up album was hotly anticipated by fans in the music press.
20:47
Speaker 1: No one had any doubt that it would hit number
20:49
Speaker 1: one if they could actually get it made. That is,
20:52
Speaker 1: Mick knew that the last time Pete and Carl spent
20:54
Speaker 1: more than forty eight hours together, they were supposed to
20:56
Speaker 1: work on new songs for the album at the home
20:59
Speaker 1: or their manager, Alan McGhee. Instead, they got into a
21:03
Speaker 1: fight and Carl got so drunk that he bashed his
21:05
Speaker 1: face into a bathroom sink until his eye was literally
21:08
Speaker 1: hanging out of the socket and he needed seventy stitches
21:11
Speaker 1: to repair the damage, so Mick was more than a
21:14
Speaker 1: little concerned about the prospect of Pete and Carl spending
21:17
Speaker 1: a week recording together in the same room. The bodyguards
21:21
Speaker 1: would help, though, Alan McGee, who had dealt with a
21:23
Speaker 1: share of combustible brotherhoods as the manager of Oasis and
21:27
Speaker 1: the Jesus in the Mary Chain, decided to hire bodyguards
21:30
Speaker 1: for Pete and Carl to make sure they didn't try
21:32
Speaker 1: to kill each other during the recording sessions. The presence
21:35
Speaker 1: of the two burly men unnerved Mick, but fortunately, the
21:38
Speaker 1: vibes have been great so far, and the bodyguards had
21:41
Speaker 1: spent most of the morning shooting pool. In the tracking room,
21:45
Speaker 1: the band brought the song to a thunder and climax.
21:48
Speaker 1: The ending was so good that Mick made a mental
21:50
Speaker 1: note to try cutting it and using it as a
21:53
Speaker 1: song's intro. It seemed like the right move for a
21:56
Speaker 1: song that was about an ending. Mick motioned for the
21:59
Speaker 1: band to join him in the control room. He lit
22:01
Speaker 1: a spliff and inhaled as he sat back in a chair.
22:05
Speaker 1: The band, the pair of studio engineers, and the bodyguards
22:08
Speaker 1: all filed into the room and stood around a long
22:10
Speaker 1: glass coffee table, Hearing the song again through the speakers,
22:14
Speaker 1: it was clear to Mick that they had just captured
22:17
Speaker 1: lightning in a bottle. The song practically jumped out of
22:20
Speaker 1: the speakers. It felt like a number one song. Not
22:23
Speaker 1: wanting to lose momentum, Mick quickly asked Pete and Carl
22:26
Speaker 1: what song they wanted to do next. Carl threw out
22:29
Speaker 1: a suggestion and Pete shot it down. Pete suggested another,
22:32
Speaker 1: but Carl spat back that that song didn't seem finished.
22:36
Speaker 1: Mick felt the tension rising in the room. Pete suggested
22:39
Speaker 1: they set up a small digital recorder at Carl's apartment
22:42
Speaker 1: so the two of them could flush out a few
22:43
Speaker 1: of the songs between sessions. Carl's eyes narrowed into slits.
22:49
Speaker 1: You mean the apartment that you broke into, he asked.
22:53
Speaker 1: Everyone was silent. That's the question hung in the air,
22:57
Speaker 1: and Carl continued, My sister won't even let you step
23:00
Speaker 1: foot in the apartment. Mick stubbed out the spliff in
23:03
Speaker 1: an ashtray and jumped up from his seat. Time to
23:06
Speaker 1: jump in before things got worse. So he walked across
23:10
Speaker 1: the control room and saw Pete staring speechless at Carl
23:12
Speaker 1: from across the glass table. He looked like he might
23:15
Speaker 1: break into tears or possibly rip Carl's head off. Better
23:19
Speaker 1: to start off with a gentle approach, Mick thought to himself.
23:23
Speaker 1: He reached an arm toward Pete and Carl. Boys, boys,
23:27
Speaker 1: what's all this about? He asked softly. Carl looked at
23:31
Speaker 1: Pete with a sneer, his eyes were still burning with anger.
23:35
Speaker 1: It's nothing, Mick, he said. Pete just can't handle his brown.
23:39
Speaker 1: Before Mick could react, Pete launched himself across the glass
23:43
Speaker 1: table at Carl. As he tackled Carl, they both went
23:46
Speaker 1: down in a heap, and Pete started punching him wildly
23:48
Speaker 1: in his face and stomach. Mick was shocked. In the past,
23:52
Speaker 1: Carl had been the more aggressive one. Pete would rather
23:54
Speaker 1: run than fight, but maybe prison had changed him. Fortunately,
23:59
Speaker 1: the two bodyguards rushed in. One easily lifted Pete in
24:02
Speaker 1: the air by the waistband of his genes, and the
24:04
Speaker 1: other held Carl back as he screamed about wanted to
24:07
Speaker 1: finish things outside. After struggling for a few minutes, eventually
24:16
Speaker 1: both Pete and Carl calmed down. Mick shared a few
24:19
Speaker 1: choice and anecdotes about scrapes he and Joe Strummer got
24:22
Speaker 1: into while recording Combat Rock, and they even managed to
24:25
Speaker 1: lay down a few more songs that day. But after
24:29
Speaker 1: the fight and the emotional drain of recording Can't Stand
24:31
Speaker 1: Me Now, Pete's heart wasn't in it. Something about hearing
24:37
Speaker 1: the words he had written for Carl being sung back
24:40
Speaker 1: at him. He'd always imagined that Carl hated him on
24:43
Speaker 1: some level. After recording the song, he knew it was true,
24:47
Speaker 1: and thanks to the tenacity of his bodyguard, Pete showed
24:50
Speaker 1: up for the next few sessions, but his partnership with
24:53
Speaker 1: Carl had fractured beyond repair. Besides, Pete was looking forward
24:58
Speaker 1: to new bands, new experience. It's his new friends, like
25:02
Speaker 1: the ones who were hanging around his apartment every morning
25:04
Speaker 1: when his bodyguard showed up, the crack dealers and groupies
25:08
Speaker 1: and another so called artists that inhabited his world now.
25:13
Speaker 1: While the rest of the Libertines were mixing the album,
25:16
Speaker 1: Pete was in rehab and when the band was playing festivals,
25:19
Speaker 1: Pete was in court on a series of drug possession charges,
25:23
Speaker 1: and by the time the second album hit number one
25:25
Speaker 1: on the charts. Pete was out of the band indefinitely.
25:29
Speaker 1: Without Carl trying to rein him in, Pete's drug use
25:32
Speaker 1: spiraled even further out of control. Chaos followed him everywhere,
25:37
Speaker 1: violent altercations with paparazzi, trashed hotel rooms, canceled gigs, and
25:42
Speaker 1: on one fateful December night, for an unknown actor with
25:45
Speaker 1: dreams of stardom, a brush with Pete Doherty would mark
25:49
Speaker 1: his last night on Earth among the living. Mark Blanco
26:19
Speaker 1: started off his Saturday evening on December two, two thousand
26:22
Speaker 1: and six, like he did most Saturdays, at the George Tavern.
26:26
Speaker 1: Mark was intelligent, Cambridge educated. He was a trained actor,
26:31
Speaker 1: and his friends said he had real talent, but he
26:33
Speaker 1: struggled to land roles. He also struggled to connect with
26:37
Speaker 1: people off stage. He had a hard time finding his
26:40
Speaker 1: place in the vast London arts scene at the George Tavern,
26:43
Speaker 1: though he finally felt like he'd found a community here.
26:47
Speaker 1: He made friends with artists like Paul Roundhill, whose so
26:50
Speaker 1: called literary Salon was just around the corner. The George
26:54
Speaker 1: Tavern was where Mark Blanco decided to put on a play.
26:57
Speaker 1: He was thirty years old, and tired of feeling like
26:59
Speaker 1: life was slipping by. He was tired of waiting for
27:02
Speaker 1: some director to cast him. Instead, with the helpsome friends,
27:06
Speaker 1: he would put on his own production right there at
27:08
Speaker 1: the Tavern. For his debut, he chose Accidental Death of
27:12
Speaker 1: an Anarchist, an Italian play based on the real life
27:15
Speaker 1: death of Giuseppe Pinelli, an anarchist who fell to his
27:18
Speaker 1: death under suspicious circumstances while in police custody. Mark threw
27:23
Speaker 1: himself into the production. He acted in the lead role,
27:26
Speaker 1: he directed, He did the marketing, which is why as
27:29
Speaker 1: he put away a few pints at the George that
27:31
Speaker 1: Saturday night, he had a stack of flyers for the
27:33
Speaker 1: show tucked into his jacket pocket. As he ordered another round,
27:37
Speaker 1: a friend popped into the pub with an excited look,
27:40
Speaker 1: and he said that the rock star Pete Dahart he
27:42
Speaker 1: had just turned up at Paul Roundhill's apartment. When Mark
27:46
Speaker 1: heard the name, his ears perked up. He knew from
27:49
Speaker 1: the tabloids about Pete's reputation as a druggie and as
27:52
Speaker 1: half of a celebrity couple with Kate Mosss, but he
27:55
Speaker 1: also read that Pete was a true artist, someone with
27:58
Speaker 1: deep knowledge of poetry, book and plays hell. He'd named
28:02
Speaker 1: his band after a Marquis de Sade novel in short,
28:06
Speaker 1: Pete Dahert. He was the kind of man who might
28:08
Speaker 1: be interested in a new do it yourself theater production.
28:12
Speaker 1: If you could get Pete to attend the play, then
28:14
Speaker 1: he had no doubt that attendance would go through the roof.
28:17
Speaker 1: Then the play would be a success. And Mark was
28:20
Speaker 1: determined to make it a success. So Mark set off
28:26
Speaker 1: for Paul Roundhill's apartment, arriving just around midnight, and whether
28:30
Speaker 1: it was the excitement, the pints, or his all consuming
28:32
Speaker 1: desire to make the play a success, witnesses say he
28:36
Speaker 1: was drunk and aggressive, or at least overly enthusiastic when
28:39
Speaker 1: he began talking to Pete about the play. He cornered
28:42
Speaker 1: Pete badgered him about attending, and then when Paul and
28:46
Speaker 1: Pete's bodyguard, Johnny Hedlock, tried to back him away from Pete,
28:50
Speaker 1: he refused to leave. Pushing and shoving broke out. Witnesses
28:54
Speaker 1: from the apartment building heard screams, and then Johnny Headlock
28:57
Speaker 1: and Paul forcibly pushed him out of the building. Taking
29:00
Speaker 1: a few steps away, Mark Blanco decided to return. Why
29:05
Speaker 1: Maybe he left something behind, Maybe he wanted to get
29:08
Speaker 1: the final word. Maybe, as Pete suggested, he wanted to
29:11
Speaker 1: make a dark, artistic statement with the brutal final act.
29:16
Speaker 1: What we do know is that just fifty seven seconds later,
29:20
Speaker 1: the same security camera that captured him leaving the building
29:23
Speaker 1: showed his body plummeting to the ground and hitting the sidewalk.
29:27
Speaker 1: What happened to Mark Blanco? The police were quick to
29:31
Speaker 1: rule the death a suicide and later an accident, but
29:35
Speaker 1: there's no evidence that Mark Blanco was suicidal. Toxicology reports
29:39
Speaker 1: didn't show any drugs in his system, although his blood
29:41
Speaker 1: alcohol level was elevated. A forensic analyst claimed that reverse
29:45
Speaker 1: projection techniques indicate a second person was on the balcony
29:48
Speaker 1: with Mark Blanco before he died. The security camera shows
29:52
Speaker 1: Pete Daugherty, a young woman, and his bodyguard all running
29:56
Speaker 1: from the scene moments after Mark's body was discovered. They
30:00
Speaker 1: stepped right by the prone body, paused to yell something
30:03
Speaker 1: up at the balcony, and then sprint away. Was this
30:07
Speaker 1: because Pete already wanted to avoid another arrest for drug
30:10
Speaker 1: possession and another negative tabloid headline, or was it because
30:14
Speaker 1: they knew something more about what happened to Mark Blanco.
30:20
Speaker 1: There's also this. Two weeks after the death, Johnny Hedlock
30:24
Speaker 1: walked into a police station and confessed to murdering Mark Blanco.
30:28
Speaker 1: You heard that right. He confessed to the crime, but
30:32
Speaker 1: an hour later he recanted. During his interrogation, he was
30:35
Speaker 1: so high on cocaine that the police questioned the validity
30:38
Speaker 1: of his confession from the start. Meanwhile, just a few
30:43
Speaker 1: weeks after Mark Blanco's death, Pete made the extraordinary, some
30:47
Speaker 1: might say, extraordinarily tasteless, decision to make a video of
30:51
Speaker 1: himself singing a brand new song in the same flat
30:55
Speaker 1: where Blanco died, in the name of the song, The
30:59
Speaker 1: Lost Art of Murder. The Libertines reunited in twenty ten.
31:05
Speaker 1: Since twenty fourteen, they've put out two new albums and
31:08
Speaker 1: toured with more regularity than in their early two thousand's Heyday.
31:12
Speaker 1: Pete Doherty, for his part, says he's clean. He says
31:16
Speaker 1: French cheese has replaced heroin as his drug of choice.
31:19
Speaker 1: He also says he knows nothing about what happened to
31:22
Speaker 1: Mark Blanco. During the latter's final fifty seven seconds in
31:25
Speaker 1: that apartment, and maybe there's nothing to know. Maybe it
31:30
Speaker 1: was just a freak accident, just another in a series
31:33
Speaker 1: of horrific events that accompanied Pete doherty slide into darkness.
31:37
Speaker 1: To the surprise of many. Somehow, Pete managed to make
31:41
Speaker 1: it out the other side, alive, to repair his fractured
31:45
Speaker 1: relationship with Carl Barrett, to continue making great music. But
31:49
Speaker 1: not everyone who followed him into the darkness would be
31:52
Speaker 1: that lucky. Then that's a disgrace. I'm Jake Brennan in
31:59
Speaker 1: this is Disgraceland. All right, guys, thanks for listening to
32:15
Speaker 1: this episode of Disgraceland. Pete Doherty, listen, I want to
32:18
Speaker 1: know a question of the week this week? What do
32:19
Speaker 1: you think happened? Do you think Pete already had anything
32:21
Speaker 1: to do with the death of Mark Blanco six one
32:23
Speaker 1: seven nine oh six sixty six three eight voicemail and
32:26
Speaker 1: text let me know what you think. Can also email
32:29
Speaker 1: me Disgrace Lampod at gmail dot com, hit me up
32:32
Speaker 1: on the socials at disgracelandpod, or in the Patreon check.
32:36
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32:38
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32:47
Speaker 1: Disgraceland was created by Yours Truly and is produced in
32:49
Speaker 1: partnership with Double Elvis. Credits for this episode can be
32:53
Speaker 1: found on the show notes page at disgracelampod dot com.
32:57
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33:00
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33:02
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