Pete Doherty has spoken about his friendship with Amy Winehouse and performed an acoustic version of his song ‘Flags Of The Old Regime’ in a new video. Scroll down to watch now.
The video, posted onto Youtube, sees Doherty discussing his writing sessions with Winehouse, as well as his forthcoming single ‘Flags Of The Old Regime’ – which he wrote about the singer in the immediate aftermath of her death in 2011.
“She was quite a harsh critic. Sometimes we’d get together to write songs and she’d say ‘come on then, play us what you’ve got’ and I’d play a particular chord progression and she’d be like ‘nah, it’s not really good is it Pete?’ So I was determined to use that particular chord progression,” Doherty says.
He continues: “I’m clean, but when I wrote the song and the first time I played it, it was very… it was almost impossible actually to get the words out […] there was a strange contradiction between wanting to bare your soul and to also put it in a catchy melodic form.”
Doherty also spoke about the fact that he and Winehouse attempted to write songs together, but never managed it. “We’d get together to make some music but we never really did, not properly.”
‘Flags Of The Old Regime’ will be released on March 9 via Walk Tall Recordings. All proceeds from the track go to the Amy Winehouse Foundation, which aims to give young people a better understanding of drug and alcohol misuse.
Recommended
Produced by Stephen Street, the song features Drew McConnell from Babyshambles and Helsinki on bass, Jamie Morrison on drums, Stephen Large on keys and Street on acoustic guitar and percussion, with strings arranged by John Metcalfe (Durutti Column).