Welcome to Wiltshire Pete (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Welcome to Wiltshire Pete

7:03pm Wednesday 10th October 2007 in An Editor's View By An Editor's View

We've spent the last couple of days chasing Pete Doherty around Marlborough, though given the slow-motion speed he moves at this should have been a no-contest.

The problem was the reporter covering the story was probably the one person in our organisation who didn't really know who the singer was or what a furore he has caused in his short life.

That was why he couldn't understand why we were getting excited when he said he'd met and chatted to the singer in a pub in the town 24 hours earlier.

He hadn't even thought to mention this to anyone because he didn't think they would be that bothered.

I could weep sometimes.

Of course, in the grand scheme of things he is right. One under-nourished musician should not be worthy of such fuss (and I'm sure Mr Doherty thinks the same too).

But he is one of Britain's biggest celebrities and he is living on our patch and by God we are going to make the most of it.

If you want a guage of just how bothered anyone is about Mr D, we put the story up on our web site this morning and it went straight to number one in the most read list, where it has stayed all day.

Pete has moved into Back Lane, one of the most sought-after areas of the town and will doubtless have consultants, stockbrokers and lawyers as his new neighbours.

I wonder what they will think when he starts doing impromptu gigs in his living room like he did in London?

Most people, when they think of Pete, will have visions of him being poured out of some nightclub at 3am, three sheets to the wind and in an advanced state of chemical alteration.

So it would have been a bit of a shock to see him wandering out of the genteel front door of the Polly Tea Rooms in Marlborough, where the stiffest thing on the menu is the meringue.