Looking Towards the Future with Optimism
CARL BARAT claims there is no war now with Pete Doherty but he loves Dirty Pretty Things too much to re-form The Libertines.
This year Libs fans have started to believe the impossible could happen after the fighting friends got back together for a gig and to record a Beatles track.
But Carl has poured cold water on a full-scale reunion saying: "That will do for now, won't it?
"We are both busy and there's no war. I think we've done our best to dispel that."
Carl, who was studying for a drama degree at Brunel University, and Pete met in the late Nineties through Pete's sister Amy-Jo. Along with bassist John Hassall and drummer Gary Powell, they formed The Libertines.
Their mix of punk and indie sounds made them England's hottest band after the release of debut album Up The Bracket in 2002.
But in 2003, Pete's heroin addiction put the first nail in the band's coffin after he broke into Carl's Mayfair flat and stole items including an antique guitar while the rest of the band had flown to Japan.
He was convicted and sentenced to six months in prison. The sentence was later shortened to two months and Carl met Pete at the prison gates.
But the damage was done and the friendship doomed, with bodyguards rumoured to have been needed to keep the pair apart during the making of second album, The Libertines.
Before it was released in 2004, Pete was dumped from the band again while The Libertines continued touring to fulfil contractual obligations. Pete formed Babyshambles and hooked up with Kate Moss until recently when she dumped him for cheating on herwith a South African model. Carl, with Gary, formed Dirty Pretty Things.
And that seemed to be that. Pete's police busts and battle with drugs made headlines while Carl returned to the pages of the indie rock press.
But on April 12 this year during a solo gig from Pete, Carl joined him on stage for the first time since 2004 to play tunes like What A Waster, Time For Heroes and Don't Look Back Into The Sun.
Then in June Pete and Carl got together for the first time since April 2004 to record a cover of The Beatles' A Day In The Life for Radio 2's 40th anniversary celebration of Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
And then The Libertines were to play at Glastonbury - they did, but Pete was in Babyshambles and Carl in Dirty Pretty Things.
Carl, 29, said: "The Libertines don't really have any purpose right now.
"Going back to them would feel like a step back at the moment because the Dirty Pretty Things are doing well.
"Myself and Gary are both doing something that we love in the Dirty Pretty Things."
And while Carl prepares for next week's inaugural Live At: Loch Lomond festival alongside Paul Oakenfold, Faithless, Calvin Harris, Carl Cox, Feeder and Pete Tong, Pete's descent into oblivion continues as he struggles with life without Kate and battlinghis addictions and court cases.
Carl is obviously concerned and says Pete is like a brother and his drug addictions could cost him his life.
But while they have settled some demons, it doesn't seem like they are as close as they once were.
Carl said: "We don't talk regularly. But friends can be like that. When you are cell mates you don't need to chat on the phone all the time. You just pick up where you left off when you see them next."
While they will always be connected, Carl has a great second shot with Dirty Pretty Things.
The band, which also includes Gary, Anthony Rossomando - who filled in as guitarist following Pete's departure - and Didz Hammond, formerly of The Cooper Temple Clause, on bass, went to number three last year with debut album Waterloo To Anywhere.
Currently writing the follow-up, they are hoping it'll be released in January.
And Scots fans will get to hear some of the new songs at Loch Lomond.
Carl said: "We will play a few tasters of the new album.
"It's great to be able to choose your favourite songs on a set list rather than play the same songs because there's only one album."
The band have been gigging since the release of Waterloo but have been trying to stop to finish off the new album.
Carl added: "It's been really hard to write, record and tour so we are stopping everything to beat this album into shape.
"We have been demoing on the road which is why the tracks aren't 100 per cent, but it's looking good. We've got a computer and take that on tour with us.
"On the whole the new songs are more melodic than the first album, although they are born of a similar intention."
While Waterloo spat bile - although Carl claims not at Pete - in tunes like Bang Bang You're Dead, Blood Thirsty B*******, Deadwood and The Enemy. He says the new album "has a lot less anger, but it's impassioned."
He added: "There's a lot of catharsis in song writing and I don't feel so down right now."
Managed by Alan McGee, the Scot who discovered Oasis and managed The Libertines, Carl has become a frequent visitor to Scotland.
Although he admits as a kid born in Basingstoke, and growing up in the Hampshire town of Whitechurch, he never thought he'd love Scotland.
He admitted: "When I was a kid I thought it would be the last place I would love.
"In England as a kid you learn that the Scots hate the English and it's all backwards, full of poverty and people eating neeps.
"But the people are different and more down to earth than in England."
So it's no wonder that Dirty Pretty Things recorded part of their album in Glasgow and he's good pals with one of Scotland's best new bands Glasvegas.
We chat while he's sitting with the Glasgow band in London's Hyde Park and he's looking forward to coming back up to Scotland next weekend.
The last time Carl was up for a festival he admits he was in a bad way.
Dirty Pretty Things played the Isle of Skye Music Festival in May but Carl was desperately unwell. The singer, who in 2005 had surgery to remove a tumour behind his right ear, leaving his partially deaf and prone to mumbling, said: "I didn't appreciateSkye as much as I could because I was really ill.
"I'd overdone it and f***** my voice up. "I still managed to get trollied but I had to go on a nebuliser for an hour before the gig and inhale adrenaline. I sounded like James Brown for about two minutes then I was back to croaking again.
"But Loch Lomond should be great. Dirty Pretty Things usually get a pretty spirited reception in Scotland so I'm sure there will be a lot coming out to see us and making us feel welcome."
It'll be a big change from a gig he did earlier this month - playing at his mum Chrissie's wedding. After his parents divorced, Carl spent part of his childhood living in a commune in Somerset.
And he reveals it was a hippy wedding - until Dirty Pretty Things played.
He laughed: "It was one of the dirtiest gigs we've done all year. We did very well for the police not to come.
"It was just a noise with hundreds of people in a tent in my mum's back garden in Whitechurch.
"The kids were getting pretty wild." And he added: "I didn't walk my mum down the aisle, that's not my job.
"It was a hippy wedding. They had a female bishop and it was all about earth, air and fire. Not really my kind of thing. It was nice but by no means a traditional wedding.
"Maybe I had a tear in my eye."
Carl also "married" his girlfriend Annalisa Astarita at Glastonbury's Lost Vagueness field's Chapel Of Love And Loathing in June, with The Charlatans' frontman Tim Burgess officiating.
But he said: "It was just a bit of fun, we were just messing about. Honestly being married by Tim Burgess. He could have said anything and I'd have said 'I do', he's got a tendency to mumble.
"I pretended to do it but I couldn't understand anything he was saying, he could have been reciting the shipping forecast.
"Getting married just is not up there on my list."
Live At: Loch Lomond is on Saturday August 4 and Sunday August 5 at Balloch Country Park. Tickets are available through Ticketmaster 24 hr hotline 0870 169 0100 or online from: www.ticketmaster.co.uk
For more information, visit www.liveatlochlomond.com
By Rick Fultonk
Source:
cineplex.com
