Babyshambles dropped

Pete Doherty's band Babyshambles have been dropped by Rough Trade for being ‘too difficult to deal with'.

Doherty's persistent drug problems, constant brushes with the law and general unreliability have finally broken Rough Trade's patience, after seeing Babyshambles' debut album sell a disappointing 110,000 copies despite massive publicity surrounding the singer.

A spokesperson for the label tells the Independent newspaper, “He doesn't have a contract with us. We are obviously very fond of him, but at the moment we are not working with him."

A source adds, “Rough Trade were in the process of renegotiating a deal, but the talks broke down because it just proved to be so difficult to deal with Pete and the people he surrounds himself with."

However, Doherty's high profile should ensure there will be no shortage of labels willing to offer a new deal for a musician who, despite his troubles, has managed to retain a reputation as potentially one of Britain's most talented songwriters.

But future employers should beware that even the man himself has made a rare admission that his life has been “too dark” recently.

He tells next month's issue of Word magazine, “For a little while things were too dark to even begin to get my head around. Spending all my time dropping my trousers to the police. Sat in cells,” before ominously adding, “What I want is a little bit of self-control. But plans are the last thing you want."document.write(unescape("