The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living

The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living is the third album by The Streets, released on 10 April 2006 in the United Kingdom and 25 April 2006 in North America. It is also the shortest The Streets album released so far, with a running time of just 37 minutes and 12 seconds. The Mitchell Brothers and Ted Mayhem, two of Skinner's protégés, make guest appearances on the album.

The final track, "Fake Streets Hats", is about an incident that happened during the 2004 edition of the Dutch Lowlands Music Festival, where a drunk Mike Skinner openly protested against the handing out of white hats with "The Streets" written on them, because he thought they were fake, and thus illegal merchandise. The hats actually were a gift from his label, Locked On. Mike Skinner also sees the song as a personal reflection on plagiarism in general.

Critical reception

The Streets

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The Streets were an English hip hop and UK garage project from Birmingham, England, led by the vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mike Skinner.

The project released five studio albums: Original Pirate Material (2002), A Grand Don't Come for Free (2004), The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living (2006), Everything Is Borrowed (2008), Computers and Blues (2011), an internet-only album Cyberspace and Reds (2011) and a string of successful singles in the mid-2000s, including "Has It Come to This?", "Fit But You Know It", "Dry Your Eyes", "When You Wasn't Famous" and "Prangin' Out".

History

2001–2003: Original Pirate Material

In 2001, the Locked On label, which had success with The Artful Dodger featuring Craig David, released "Has It Come to This?" under the name The Streets. It was a breakthrough hit for The Streets, reaching number 18 on the UK charts in October 2001.

Pete Doherty

Peter Doherty (born 12 March 1979) is an English musician, songwriter, actor, poet, writer, and artist. He is best known for being co-frontman of the Libertines, which he formed with Carl Barât in 1997. His other musical project is indie band Babyshambles. In 2005, he became prominent in tabloids, the news media, and pop culture blogs because of his romantic relationship with model Kate Moss and his frequently-publicised drug addictions.

Early life

Doherty was born in Hexham, Northumberland, to a military family. His father, Peter John Doherty, was a sergeant in the Royal Signals, while his mother, Jacqueline Michels, was a lance-corporal in Queen Alexandra's Royal Army Nursing Corps. His paternal grandfather was an Irish immigrant from Cheekpoint in County Waterford; his maternal grandfather was Jewish, the son of immigrants from France and Russia. He was raised Catholic. He grew up at a number of army garrisons across Britain and Europe, with his sisters Amy Jo and Emily. Doherty was the second of the three children. It was while living in Dorset, aged 11, that Doherty began playing guitar, originally in an attempt to impress a female classmate, Emily Baker. He achieved 11 GCSEs, 7 of which were A* grades, at Nicholas Chamberlaine Comprehensive School in Bedworth and four passes at A-Level, two at grade A. At the age of 16, he won a poetry competition and embarked on a tour of Russia organised by the British Council.

Streets

Streets are the plural of street, a type of road.

Streets or The Streets may also refer to:

See also

Jools Holland

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Julian Miles "Jools" Holland, OBE, DL (born 24 January 1958) is an English pianist, bandleader, singer, composer and television presenter. He was an original member of the band Squeeze and his work has involved him with many artists including Sting, Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, George Harrison, David Gilmour, Magazine and Bono.

Since 1992, he has hosted Later... with Jools Holland, a music-based show aired on BBC2, on which his annual show Hootenanny is based. Holland is a published author and appears on television shows besides his own and contributes to radio shows. In 2004, he collaborated with Tom Jones on an album of traditional R&B music. He also regularly hosts the weekly programme Jools Holland on BBC Radio 2, which is a mix of live and recorded music and general chat and features studio guests, along with members of his orchestra.

Education

Holland was educated at Shooters Hill Grammar School, a former state grammar school on Red Lion Lane in Shooter's Hill (near Woolwich), in the Royal Borough of Greenwich in southeast London, from which he was expelled for damaging a teacher's Triumph Herald.