On the night of July 25 2003, while the rest of the band was touring Japan, Doherty was arrested in London. He had kicked in the door of Barât’s apartment. He pleaded guilty to burglary, but his motives are still unclear. We spoke to Doherty himself in October and asked him about the burglary. He was apologetic but angry. “Carl always had this sacred idea of one day having a place of his own. I entered his space. I had to apologize for that. But if I raped his flat, he raped me by taking the band off without me and playing my songs.” Even with Barât just a few feet away talking to someone else, Doherty was loud. “Carl said he was having to deal with someone he didn’t recognize, but to me that was hypocritical. In the past when I’ve had nothing stronger than weed, and yet Carl has been taking heroin — and I never tried to kick him out of the band. And yet I enter that world, and all of a sudden I’m a social outcast. I couldn’t handle that.
B mag sept 2004
