Pete Doherty: Culturetheque video interview

There are plenty of musical acts over the years who have take their influences from French literature and culture, from the likes of Bob Dylan and Patti Smith's making reference to Rimbaud to Malcolm McLaren borrowing ideas from the Situationists and the '68 movement, so it's no surprise to see these connections alive and well.

Pete Doherty, member of The Libertines and Babyshambles and sometimes solo artist is one performer who certainly makes the connection with French literature as this brief interview by Culturetheque shows.

Brassens, Genet, Baudelaire and Huysmans all get a mention in the short clip, filmed while he was promoting his From Albion to Shangri-La: Journals and Tour Diaries 2008 - 2013 book in London.

It shouldn't be a surprise though, Doherty lives in Paris and  one of the tracks on Down in Albion was À rebours, taking its title from Huysmans' best known work.

Doherty is probably best known outwith music  as a tabloid news figure in the UK, with his A-list former girlfriend and his well-documented drug issues and problems with the law.  But I've always thought that beneath the fog of celebrity and infamy there's a very interesting  artist who might not get it right every time, but who certainly gets it right more than most do.