Babyshambles will have to rock on another time.
The British band canceled a Wednesday concert date on the Spanish island of Ibiza after frontman Pete Doherty decided to give rehab another try.
So instead of heading to party central next week, the 27-year-old Doherty will check into a London clinic on Monday, his tour's concert promoter, Andy McKay, announced.
"We were all really looking forward to welcoming Babyshambles back to the island this year for Ibiza Rocks but, at the end of the day, we love and support Pete and it's his health and happiness that are important," McKay said.
It's good that someone thinks so, because it doesn't seem as if Doherty himself has been giving his health much thought this year. He pleaded guilty to drug possession charges in January and was sentenced to rehab and a year of drug testing but, as of July 13--his last court appearance--he hadn't had one clean test yet.
The former Libertine finally told a judge last week that he would get a chemical implant in his abdomen to help him kick his various addictions. In the last year Doherty has been caught with heroin, cocaine, morphine and marijuana and has been arrested more than a handful of times. Meanwhile, he has continued to plead guilty and manages to avoid jail, although his "it" accessory of the spring was definitely handcuffs. Kate Moss's on-again, currently off-again beau has even been commended at times for his "positive progress."
Did that include being detained by Barcelona police in June after evidence was found that suggested he had just shot up in an airplane bathroom? Or being taken off a plane in Sweden in a wheelchair with traces of cocaine in his system?
Even during times of decline, though, Doherty has simultaneously been traveling the long road to recovery. He checked into a treatment facility in Portugal last month a week after the Barcelona incident, missing a court-ordered progress report hearing but still winning points with the presiding judge, who said that her charge was "not moving backwards."