Guitars or drugs: which way do you jump? For a long time, Pete(r) Doherty, The Libertines frontman and charismatic solo artiste, chose the latter more often than the former. And I swear it wasn’t me who brought up his notorious and already very well-documented drug days. ‘Addiction is such a big problem in music because you’ve got creative people who are just sat around,’ Doherty says via Zoom, indicating his bandmates scattered about the rather grand backstage environs of Hitchin Priory... that’s a fancy country house hotel in Hertfordshire, by the way, not to be confused with any rehabilitation facilities which might bear a similar name.

In fairness, none of his fellow musicians are ‘just sat around’. In fact, most have an instrument to hand, including Doherty. ‘I like to have a nylon stringed guitar about but they break so easy and inevitably you end up with a four-string guitar with the arse hanging out of it, pardon my French.’ Next, he’s serenading me with The Jesus And Mary Chain’s ‘April Skies’ and admitting to ripping off ‘Never Understand’ for ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’, The Libertines’ classic from 2004. ‘If you’re addicted to playing the guitar and writing music, that’s amazing because it can only be a positive thing and no one gets hurt,’ he reckons. ‘Well, very few people get hurt by guitars.’

Interviewing Doherty is a little chaotic, a lot of fun and eloquently insightful, not unlike his music career. Last year, The Libertines released All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade, inspired by their Margate base. This year, Doherty has released his first solo album in nearly a decade, Felt Better Alive. True say. Doherty’s personal life is more stable than it’s been in a long time. Since the pandemic, he has married, become a father and swapped coastal Kent for his wife’s family home in Normandy. ‘There’s less burnt-out scooters on the beach where I live now,’ he remarks. ‘I don’t know if I’d still be here if I was still in England. I was very lost, deep into crack and heroin, and I didn’t even want a way out; but I found a way out and it suits me.’

As is his troubadour way, he cannot help but hymn the neighbourhood street life, with songs on the new album about a local priest and the fine art of brandy-making written in time snatched off daddy daycare duties. ‘The babby doesn’t want to hear me fiddling around with new ideas,’ he says. ‘Her favourite song is “Happy Birthday” and she expects me to play it 30 times on the trot. I’m thinking of cutting my losses and doing a children’s album.’

Fatherhood may be hectic but Doherty is looking forward to six weeks off in the autumn when he is hospitalised to receive a wholesome carpal tunnel operation. As we round off the interview, his wife drops off his daily supplements, dampening further those rock’n’roll credentials. ‘I was going to launch into my celebration of all things brandy-related, getting lost in dreams of laudanum,’ says Doherty, ‘and my wife’s given me a Vitamin D shot and a vitamin pill.’

Peter Doherty, La Belle Angele, 12 & 13 August; main picture: Bridie Cummings.