Bands make jailhouse rock

Indie bands Dirty Pretty Things and The Enemy have been spending time in jail - to perform for inmates at Pentonville Prison, north London.

And clearly, this Johnny Cash-style gig needed more security than your average night out.

"The first automatic door would have to close, before the other one opens," explained the prison guard.

The gig, behind the barbed wire-covered 20ft walls, was in support the Wasted Youth campaign which aims to reduce the high number of suicides among young men.

With the lyrics of Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues ringing in my ears, I suddenly understood why he wrote the song about a 'lifer' tormented by seeing the outside world carry on without him.

But I knew that when I wanted to leave, I just had to ask.

The prison gig was the brainchild of Dan Fulvio whose 22-year-old brother Steven committed suicide last year.

"His death really hit everyone hard. We then discovered that suicide was the biggest killer among young men so I created Wasted Youth to say, look, you dont have to suffer in silence.

"It's great too, that Dirty Pretty Things and The Enemy have joined the campaign."

Last year, 67 British prisoners committed suicide - so far this year, the number stands at 59.

"When you get inside you already feel that heavy sense of being alone, that there's no hope", said Pretty Little Things frontman Carl Barat.

"So if we can bring inside a piece of the outside and put a smile on prisoners' faces by playing a few songs, then that's got to be worth it."

With the interviews, sound checks and governor's "thank you" out of the way, it was down to business.

I was taken through another couple of security doors before arriving in the prison chapel. On stage under the huge cross, the first 30-minute set was The Enemy's.

Okay, there weren't the cheers and yelps that can be heard when Cash played the penitentiary, but the mood certainly lifted among the 150 or more prisoners there to soak up the deafening noise.

And all this minus Babyshamble's Pete Doherty who was due to have topped the bill. A "no-goer," said the Prison Service, and so he was uninvited.

I had to leave before the end of the gig - the drum beat softened every time another door closed as I got closer to the outside. It was their event after all.

So goes the Cash song: "I know I had it coming, I know I can't be free. But those people keep a'moving and that's what tortures me."

I was one of "those people" and could feel the eyes all over me.

By Paul Harrison
Source:Sky News