February 11 2006 at 1:39 AM No score for this post
Anonymous (Login misslibertine) from IP address 81.159.232.146
-
Andy Stevens reports. After yesterday's explosive and frankly unbelievable news report, today comes the news that it's not true. Carl Barat, former co-front man of Pete Doherty's first band The Libertines, called this newspaper to set the record straight.
“It's not that I'm seeking to take any more credit than I'm due,” said Barat. “But what the KLF have neglected to mention is that this whole operation was entirely my own idea. It was meant to be a small and easily-controlled scam to get us off a club circuit which had frankly become a living hell and an embarrassment to both of us, and I regret not mentioning it to Pete before it got quite so out of hand as it did.”
Barat and Doherty, as he's now legally changed his name, were indeed on the holiday circuit in the late 1990s, performing as Chas and Dave impersonators. Barat shows me photographs -- I can see from the expression that it now seems less hellish in retrospect. He points in one photograph to the silver caravan behind them. "That's how we lived, then. Before it all went wrong." He slides the pictures back in an envelope and I resist the temptation to take it and examine them more closely. "It wasn't perfect, though, not by a long shot, and that's why we took the opportunity to get out."
Barat takes issue with most points in the KLF's version of events. “This affair Pete's supposed to have had with an 80's rock singer, for instance - it was me that had that. He just came to London with me every so often and wrote poetry on Waterloo Bridge while I was, uh, otherwise occupied.”
Barat refuses to be drawn on the details except to confirm that the duo's 'discovery' of Doherty did indeed take place at a West End backstage party. “I'd taken him along, you know, on the condition that he behave himself. And he did - well, by which I mean, he was acting like he normally acts. For some reason, people took him for a Buddy Holly impersonator. Anyway, at the bar I kept getting brought drinks by these two older blokes and at first I thought I knew what their game was. But then I offered to go round the back with them and they didn’t seem too keen.
“I figured, if that wasn't their game, I wasn't going to leave Pete alone with them--he can take care of himself, um, like that, you know--but other things... well, frankly, he's not always the sharpest knife in the drawer. Anyway, that's when they started on about their plans, something ridiculous about proving something about celebrity. I'm not sure now what it is they said, but I can tell you, it wasn't them who decided on the image. That was me.
“A couple of weeks before this, I'd been seeing this market trader bloke in Camden - I mean, the 80's singer was clearly never going to be a serious thing, you know? Well, one night I was round at his and he'd taken delivery of a load of Crimean military tunics, BBC costume department cast-offs or something. Offered one to me, said he wanted to see me in it and wanted me to speak Russian in bed – yeah, bit odd, but you get used to these things. Anyway, I’d kept the tunic and while talking to these two blokes it all came to me in a flash, like a vision, you know? The type of thing the music industry would really go for.
“Before I knew it, it just all unfurled in front of me--I mean, everyone's always looking for something to follow. Bill--Drummond, I mean--he had that right, anyway. So, once I figured that out, it was a simple enough thing. They had the connections, I had the idea and a few tunes, and we were off. Sure, I figured we'd make a few quid. Who would that hurt, anyway? We needed to eat. It's a great deal more expensive, living in this shithole of a city than in a caravan in Cornwall."
Barat trails off, staring mistily into the middle distance, before clearing his throat. ‘Well, we had a couple of disagreements, obviously. I wanted to tone down quite a lot of the homoeroticism that kind of became our hallmark, and they wanted to play it up. Bit of a risk, I thought, but then I did a hell of a lot of Jean Genet plays at drama school and I thought it was a bit of a shame to let that go to waste. And Pete, well, he didn’t seem to mind at all.”
I risk a question at this stage. I know of the band's reputation and now seems a good time to clarify where the line between the fiction and fact lies. "So you and Doherty--the relationship there was real?" Barat looks out the window and then down at his feet. He doesn't seem to want to answer the question. I press for a response. "The break in at my flat was staged." He doesn't go on.
“And,” I venture, “everything else? That was genuine?” Again, there's nothing but silence. Barat clears his throat again and looks up. “You can't fake everything, can you?”
"Surely it's what you wanted, though--that controversy." It is, after all, that incident that first brought Doherty and Barat to the attention of the national press. I myself remember seeing the copy just before it went out in the summer of 2003. "No one expected that they'd send him to prison though, did they?"
Barat is angry now, and I wonder if our interview is about to be abruptly cut short.
“Yeah, of course no one expected that. This is what I meant about it getting out of hand.” Barat stands and reaches for another envelope, this time with images of the band's now-notorious Freedom Gig.
“Luckily, while we did the tour as a three-piece I used the time to read up on my Situationism - society of the spectacle and everything, you know? I figured the way to make the most out of the way things were going was to concentrate on providing spectacular imagery, playing directly to our contemporary fixation on the iconic and the eroticized.”
He turns and jerks his head to indicate the framed cover of the Libertines’ second, self-titled album. “That seemed to work a treat. Pete wasn’t too happy, I think he’d rather have just gone home and gone to bed, but you know, needs must.”
"And now?" I have to ask. "Now that you're both lead singers in separate bands--was that part of the plan, or...?"
“Of course!” Barat snaps. “Every step of our career has been calculated to illustrate the nature of contemporary Western celebrity. Bands characterised by rivalry and tension have always attracted greater and more intense interest than... bands like fucking Coldplay, for example.”
He pulls out yet another envelope, and scatters a handful of Babyshambles press cuttings across the table. “Come on, do you honestly think a three-week tour can be naturally that shambolic? Do you think the likes of Alan Wass aren't highly skilled actors playing up to contemporary expectations?”
Barat draws a deep breath, and I wonder if this is my cue to withdraw. “Seriously,” he sighs. “It's not over yet. I mean, do you think I'm stupid?”
Given everything Barat's just said, stupid is the last word one would use to describe him. I have one last question, though, one last thing that I and all the fans must be wondering.
"So, you've shown us incredible skills of manipulation. Why should fans continue to support you and Doherty? Surely you'll be expecting a backlash now, one serious enough it might well... scupper the Albion ship, to use your parlance."
“I don't think you understand,” says Barat. “Research has shown that people don't mind being lied to, in the context of celebrity. In fact, they expect it.”
“And more to the point,” he continues, slipping a mobile phone out of his pocket, “One of the most difficult charades we've managed to maintain is the idea that Pete and myself haven't spoken for over a year. We've actually been fucking each other senseless on at least a weekly basis.”
He smiles, and while he punches a number into the phone he indicates with another tilt of the head that it’s time for me to leave. “Now if you’ll excuse me, it’s been long enough and tonight’s my turn to use the cane again.”
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
but the thing is, who gives a shit if it is a hoax? i wouldnt. the fucking pistols were a hoax, you know. besides, you cant tell me that 'delaney', '7 deadly sins', 'what katy did', 'what a waster' and the rest arnt all pop gems cos they are. and you cant say to people that the feelings they got seeing a libertines gig werent really real, because they were. i hate shit like this, it's so fucking patronising. so piss off with ye, you stirring bastard. you know it's all bull, i know it's all bull - why bother even posting stuff like this in the first place. it just gets a series of pointless reactions (like this) which dont really do anyone any favours
Scoring disabled. You must be logged in to score posts.
