Pete Doherty on being loyal to his beloved football team: the Queen’s Park Rangers

“Imagine a relationship that went wrong but you held on in there for years: that's what it is like supporting a football team. Your loyalty to a team can never die. Ties are stronger than they could ever be with a woman. If she goes and sleeps with your best mate, it's over. If the Rs' boss, Ian Holloway, slept with my best mate, QPR would still be my team. Even if many of the things that you loved about going to matches have gone - terraces, team shirts without sponsors and being able to smoke at grounds - you still stick with your team.

“When I was a boy, I couldn't imagine anything other than going and living in Ellerslie Road or on the White City estate, near Loftus Road, where Rangers play. That's how central to my existence QPR was. I used to write a QPR fanzine, 'All Quiet On The Western Avenue'. I was brought up in lots of different places, so there was a rootlessness to my life and the team gave me an identity. Playing football brought people together - we'd play against any brick wall, on any kerb, or see if we could put the window through in the art department.

“My fondest memories involve things that happened off the pitch. I would climb into Loftus Road in the summer when the stadium was empty and sit there with my little book and pen, smoking a spliff behind the goal. One time, my girlfriend and I got into the dressing room and I stole a pair of shorts. That was one of the most romantic days of my life - snogging in the dressing room at QPR.