{"id":7521,"date":"2025-04-10T09:49:07","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T09:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/7521\/"},"modified":"2025-04-10T09:49:07","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T09:49:07","slug":"pete-doherty-adds-the-smiths-mike-joyce-to-solo-live-band-shares-new-weird-jazz-number-the-day-the-baron-died","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/7521\/","title":{"rendered":"Pete Doherty adds The Smiths’ Mike Joyce to solo live band, shares new “weird jazz number” ‘The Day The Baron Died’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Pete Doherty<\/a> has confirmed that The Smiths<\/a>\u2018 Mike Joyce will be joining his solo band for select dates on his 2025 UK and European tour, and shared a new single called \u2018The Day The Baron Died\u2019. Listen below.<\/p>\n

The singer-songwriter is due to hit the road later this month in support of his upcoming album \u2018Felt Better Alive\u2019<\/a>, which is released on May 16 (pre-order\/pre-save here<\/a>).<\/p>\n

Today (April 9) Doherty has given fans a third preview of the record with another new track, \u2018The Day The Baron Died\u2019. It follows on from the \u2018Felt Better Alive\u2019 title track and the single \u2018Calvados\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI always thought it was a weird jazz number, with a silly, catchy little melody,\u201d Doherty explained of his latest offering.<\/p>\n

Speaking to NME about the track<\/a>, he revealed: \u201c\u2018The Day The Baron Died\u2019 is one of the songs that The Libertines wanted, but on The Libertines<\/a>\u2018 album [\u2018All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade\u2019<\/a>] it\u2019s called \u2018The Baron\u2019s Claw\u2019. For publishing and legal reasons, we had to change the title. This is the original vision of the song. It\u2019s quite unusual. We did an amazing version of it with The Libs, but this is the same song but with a slight variation of lyrics.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Doherty added: \u201cI had to do it again because the whole idea of the chorus was to use the mad, [John Lennon<\/a>] \u2018Instant Karma\u2019 drum fill. The Libs didn\u2019t want to go with that because they thought it was too pastiche-y and corny. Originally I had the sample from \u2018Instant Karma\u2019, but we re-recorded it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018The Day The Baron Died\u2019 is accompanied by a gothic official video, filmed at Doherty\u2019s home and on a cliffside in \u00c9tretat, Normandy. Directed by Thad & Numa, the clip stars Doherty (The Baron) and his wife Katia deVidas (The Lady).<\/p>\n

Additionally, Doherty has confirmed that former Smiths drummer Mike Joyce will be behind the kit at select gigs on his forthcoming solo tour in the UK and Europe. The musician is set to appear in the line-up as an \u201cextra special guest\u201d.<\/p>\n

Joyce is scheduled to perform with Doherty at his show at The Great Escape in Brighton next month<\/a>, during his slots at Port Talbot\u2019s In It Together Festival, Bolesworth\u2019s Together Again Festival, Southend\u2019s Lazydays Festival, Hitchin Priory, East Brighton Park, and at other concerts in Europe.<\/p>\n

Speaking to NME about the songs that make up his forthcoming solo album<\/a> in January, Doherty explained: \u201cThey all just sit well together. They were all written around the same time; around the time I was working on The Libertines<\/a>\u2019 new album,\u00a0but they didn\u2019t seem right for it.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that they were rejected by the band, but in order for it to be a Libertines song, it has to be really me and\u00a0Carl [Bar\u00e2t]<\/a>. These are songs that are me, really.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI was going to call it \u2018If You Can\u2019t Fight, Wear A Big Hat\u2019 but the label didn\u2019t it, so I caved. If you do buy the vinyl copy, you\u2019ll see it engraved into the inner rim of the groove. On the other side it says, \u2018QPR FC RULE\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

The full tracklist for Pete Doherty\u2019s \u2018Felt Better Alive\u2019 is:\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. \u2018Calvados\u2019<\/strong>
2. \u2018Pot Of Gold\u2019<\/strong>
3. \u2018The Day the Baron Died\u2019<\/strong>
4. \u2018Stade Oc\u00e9an\u2019<\/strong>
5. \u2018Out Of Tune Ballon\u2019<\/strong>
6. \u2018Felt Better Alive\u2019<\/strong>
7. \u2018Ed Belly\u2019<\/strong>
8. \u2018Poca Mahoney\u2019s\u2019<\/strong>
9. \u2018Fingee\u2019<\/strong>
10. \u2018Pr\u00eatre De La Mer\u2019<\/strong>
11. \u2018Empty Room\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

In other news, last month saw Doherty reunite with his former Babyshambles bandmates on stage for performances of \u2018Albion\u2019 and \u2018Fuck Forever\u2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Elsewhere, the singer shared a health update and reflected on the \u201churtful\u201d comments people had made about him<\/a>. Doherty confirmed that he now wears orthopaedic shoes after sharing that\u00a0he was at risk of having his toes amputated<\/a> because of his type 2 diabetes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Pete Doherty has confirmed that The Smiths\u2018 Mike Joyce will be joining his solo band for select dates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7522,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[77,481,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-7521","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-indie","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114313046591245010","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7521"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7521\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}