'Can someone get me a cardigan please?'
Photograph:Dan Chung
There's no denying that some pop stars' images are enhanced by drug use. Say what you like about Pete Doherty, his oft-cited "edginess" appears so desirable that he was voted sexiest man at last week's NME Awards. Keith Richards, who coined the term "elegantly wasted" during his 1970s crazy days, was once similarly revered. George Michael, on the other hand: grey-bearded, slightly portly, sleeping it off in his car after a dinner party ... after his recent arrest on suspicion of drug possession, he appears neither mad nor bad, but simply sad.
Despite the industry's reputation for hedonism, Michael is probably more representative than Doherty of rock drug users. Though he could afford financially to indulge in a daily menu of Class As, he apparently shuns anything stronger than cannabis and something known as "liquid ecstasy." As such, the "Careless Spliffer" - as the tabloids dubbed him - is the banal face of drug use. Although rock is a profession that encourages people to act out their messiest fantasies, most don't bother: once they've gone through an initial phase of whooping it up, most realise it isn't compatible with having a career. Those who do, such as Kurt Cobain, Sid Vicious or Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan, either die, or quietly check into rehab when age 35 looms.
There was undoubtedly more drug abuse among rock's biggest names during the 60s, when nobody realised that using narcotics every day might have repercussions. When three major stars - Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin and Jim Morrison (the last after rigorously following a lifestyle of "delirious ecstasy") - died within 10 months of each other in the early 70s, it seemed to spell the beginning of the end for that particular kind of culturally-sanctioned abandon.
Thirty-five years later, the charts are ruled by a macrobiotic vegetarian in the form of Chris Martin, the Arctic Monkeys have been told off for "promoting smoking" on their album cover and Michael soon won't be able to find a pub that allows Marlboros, let alone his preferred sort of cigarette. His moderate, un-"sexy" drug consumption is in tune with the times. The funny thing is that, as a teenaged Wham!ster, Michael was a picture of glossy-haired abstinence; why did he leave it till his 40s for a drug bust?
