Pete Doherty is starting a fanzine in 2025

27 December 2024, 17:00

The Libertines' Pete Doherty at O2 Academy Bournemouth in 2024. Picture: Mark Holloway/Redferns/Getty

By Jenny Mensah

The Libertines frontman has revealed that he will launch a makeshift publication for sale next year.

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Pete Doherty is starting a fanzine in 2025.

The Libertines rocker has discussed his plans to create an independent 'zine, which he'll be selling at the band's European shows next year.

"So I’m starting a fanzine," he told NME. "I’m going to try and reignite an analogue people’s front: The People’s Front Of Analogia! My fanzine’s coming out in January, and it’s called On Strap".

Talking about the makeshift publication, which is a nod to his Strap Originals label, he added: "In issue one of On Strap will be a PO Box, where any contributors who believe in the written word still can send in their reviews, cartoons, dreams, crossword puzzles.

"So look out for that! I’m going to be selling it outside the venues of The Libertines’ European shows in February."

Doherty's idea was somewhat borne as a response to digital world and the "hard graft" of making a noise on a music industry, which is so focused on streaming figures.

"It’s a hard graft out there," he admitted, when speaking about supporting artists on his label. "It’s all about streaming, and I can’t get my head around it because I don’t have a phone, and we’re not online. Obviously we’ve got a social media department, but I’m not part of that."

Explaining more about the processes behind Strap Originals, he revealed: "I was there at the inception because I had no one else to release The Puta Madres album.

"The day-to-day running of it, I’m not involved with. We’ve got to a point where I can’t just say, ‘We’re going to sign this band now’. We’ve got a team, and it’s quite democratic, but I’m very much a part of it. It’s in my soul, it’s in my blood. I’m not the label boss, but I’m a part-owner, and I’m very invested in it."

Though Doherty doesn't select all the acts that get signed to his label, he does seem to have a knack of choosing the most spirited artists.

He told the outlet: "Maybe one out of every six bands will be one I chose to sign, but so far, each band that I’ve believed in has got drunk and offered to fight the rest of the team!”

Despite this, Doherty has described it being a "dream" being able to give bands a platform.

"It’s a dream, really," gushed the 45-year-old rocker. "So many times over the years, I’ve believed in bands and longed for them to make it and had them support us, but I was never able to take them to Rough Trade or Parlophone and said, ‘You’ve got to sign this band’. Now I can.

"Now I can have more of an influence in giving someone a real platform, not just a stage. Some songwriters aren’t fame-hungry chancers in the way that we were and just want to write and record. If they haven’t got that drive without industry bods looking after them, then they’ll just disappear."