PETE DOHERTY - DOHERTY SNUBS NME AWARDS ON ADVICE OF HIS MOTHER

Troubled rocker PETE DOHERTY pulled out of last night's (17FEB05) NME AWARDS in London - after his mother phoned organisers to let them know he wouldn't be coming.

Doherty had been expected to attend the Hammersmith Palais event to collect the Best British Band award for his former group THE LIBERTINES. He was also due to play a brief solo acoustic set.

However, JACKIE DOHERTY begged her son not to attend the event because she feared he was too weak physically, having spent the last week in a nearby drugs rehabilitation centre.

An hour before the NME Awards began, organisers received a call informing them of Doherty's decision not to go.

An insider says, "Jackie first phoned Pete and said he would blow it if he went to the awards.

"But she was still so concerned that she drove to see him and had a tearful heart-to-heart, begging him not to go.

"She thought the police would take a dim view of him turning up and told him it would be better to stay with him in rehab in (London district) King's Cross."

Doherty is due in court on 21 February (05) to answer bribery and robbery charges following an alleged incident on 2 February. His stay in a rehab clinic is a condition of his bail.