Maybe you already saw it at babyshambles.net
If not, there you go:
http://www.socialistworker.co.uk/article.php4?article_id=2937
here in parts:
SW:
Tell us about your new band, Babyshambles
Pete:
I’ve been in a band with Patrick before. So I’ve known him for a long time. I always knew he was a brilliant guitarist. He’s got so many ideas and a real talent. I think he’s a genius actually.
In a way there are similarities to when I met Carl from The Libertines, in that there is this huge untapped resource of creativity that’s never been given the opportunity because he’s quite shy.
I’ve known Gemma about four or five years. She used to work at her dad’s rehearsal studio where we rehearsed years ago. And Pat said, “What about Gemma?” Drew, who plays bass, was a friend of theirs who they suggested.
I feel like for the first time I’m facing up to everything in my life, like drugs.
People say I look happy. But traditionally The Libertines in its public form, doing gigs, going on tour, was never a particularly happy place.
It’s always been a war with people that you’re under the same banner with, but you’re not really united with, apart from on stage.
So even though Babyshambles are singing quite a lot of sad songs, it’s positive—we’ve got a group mentality. There’s a lot more openness and trust.
SW:
It’s pretty unusual, though. Babyshambles have only released one single, and you’ve just done a tour and filled big venues.
Pete:
I belonged to a band that was just starting to achieve success really. Since I’ve left the band, the press attention over drugs and various shenanigans has helped to make The Libertines a public band—probably even helped sales of a record that people wouldn’t normally buy.
You can’t knock it in a way, because there seem to be a lot of genuine music fans at Babyshambles gigs. But with songs like “What Katy Did”, which Babyshambles do but which is on The Libertines album, you notice the difference in their reception because everyone knows the words.
I wasn’t going to put “What Katy Did” on The Libertines, or “Tomblands”, or “The Man Who Would Be King”, or “The Ha Ha Wall”. But we were a band—that’s the way I looked at it.
It was important to feel that we were making a record—not like I was giving them my songs. I said to Carl, “You sing them well—we’ll do them together. They’re ours.”
And I remember telling Carl that I wanted him to sing “What Katy Did”, and he thought I was winding him up.
I said, “I don’t want to end up out the band again, with you going round the country and on TV doing these songs and I can’t play them,” and he said, “No, we are in it together—you’ve got to believe.”
So I did, and it was great and I threw myself into it. We had our fallouts, but we made the record. I feel a little bit duped because I want to do those songs.
They’re not anti-Libertines songs, but they were never written for The Libertines to sing because the words, the things we’re singing about, they were feelings that had been stifled by The Libertines, and those songs were a way out.
I think this is interesting...
what do you think?
-Julia-