Peter Doherty- Misunderstood?

Peter Doherty, one of Britain's best known faces in music (Perhaps for the wrong reasons) has had his reputation as a musician tarnished due to excessive drug use, which is well documented to this day in the media. Many people however, naively just label Doherty as a 'crackhead', perhaps forgetting that some of the best musicians that have ever lived have written their best tracks under the influence of illegal substances.

Previous to his constant exposure in the limelight, a younger Peter Doherty was regarded by many as the future of British poetry, and is an extremely smart gentleman. At the age of 16, after achieving 7 A*s at GCSE level and 2 As in his A Levels, Doherty won a poetry competition and travelled Russia with the British Council. 

Doherty's talent for poetry has always been apparent in his work, that started with The Libertines in the late 1990s and transferred right through to his solo work. 

'Albion', a track performed by Babyshambles, and one of Doherty's finest , was one of the first songs he wrote.. at only 16 years of age. Albion refers to the idea of a mythical England, his utopia, which is an extremely developed idea for a young man.. a young man who was not under the influence of drugs.

So with this in mind, why does Doherty have the negative reputation stuck to him? The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, David Bowie, Nirvana and Doherty's friend Amy Winehouse have all taken copious amounts of drugs, yet they are regarded as some of the best musicians that have lived. So what is the difference?

The answer to this is that there is no difference at all, apart from the negative media exposure, and it is a deep shame that one of Britain's finest musicians will be remembered for the wrong reasons by many a naive soul.