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Going down the Tube... Pete Doherty helps sell TfL mugs
04.08.09
He is the bad boy of rock, whose drinking and drug-taking would not go down well under Mayor Boris Johnson's clean-up of the Tube, which bans passengers from drinking alcohol.
But Pete Doherty's song lyrics are being used to promote the Underground, under a deal signed between music publisher EMI and Transport for London.
Lines from his song Albion, which he recorded with his band Babyshambles, feature on mugs selling for £7.50 and T-shirts retailing at £14.99 in TfL's online shop. They talk about waiting for a friend in a photo booth in an Underground station, preparing to travel to “Deptford, Catford, Walford...” - though none has a Tube station and Walford only exists on EastEnders, though Doherty may not have noticed.
Another Doherty song, The Boy Looked At Johnny, which he recorded with The Libertines and which name-checks Tottenham Court Road, also features on TfL merchandise.
Ironically, the video for another Libertines song, Time Fort Heroes, shows Doherty and then band-mate Carl Barat jumping over the ticket barriers - apparently without having bought tickets - at a foreign station.
Four other artists also have their songs used on the mugs and T-shirts. Arguably the most famous is Electric Avenue by Eddy Grant, which reached No2 in the charts in 1983 and sold more than a million copies. Electric Avenue is a short walk from Brixton station.
Madness singer Suggs has his song Camden Town featured, and Itchycoo Park by The Small Faces is also used - the park is in East Ham. The little-known Towers Of London, written by Sir John Johns in 1980, makes up the numbers.
But there is no place for The Jam's Down In The Tube Station At Midnight - perhaps because of its references to violence on the Underground. Paul Weller's lyrics refer to “madmen on the rampage” and his protagonist is attacked by fascist thugs who “smelt of pubs and Wormwood Scrubs”.
Reader views (3)
The song is called 'Time for heros', not 'fort'. And I always thought he sang Watford not Walford in Albion.
- Ryan, Bedford
I don't know what TFL have printed on the mug but in the song Doherty sings Watford not Walford, Digbeth also gets a mention and thats in Brum not London
- Lo, nottingham
I suppose it makes sense, the tube is unpleasant as is Doherty. I can't understand why the Jam have been excluded though, everyone's experienced something similar, especially on the outer reaches of the tube.
- Bob, Cheam
