Carl Barat was Paul McCartney to Pete Doherty’s John Lennon. Their band The Libertines were the wannabe Beatles of the past decade, but an excess of drink, drugs, and, er, burglary all led to the band’s early demise.
However, the story doesn’t stop there.
After mixed fortunes as solo artists, The Libertines reformed earlier this year, and recently gave a belter of a gig at the Reading & Leeds Festivals. Now Barat has given his first interview to The Observer newspaper, in which he discusses his new CD and his forthcoming autobiography Threepenny Memoir:
He writes well about his childhood spent shuttling between divorced parents – his mother lived in a commune and his father in Whitchurch, Hampshire – and his early days with Doherty, living in squats and stumbling round the pubs and bars of north London. His account of excess – staying up for a week; knocking back handfuls of decongestants in order to unblock his nose enough to snort cocaine – are entertaining. But it’s his ability to analyse his experiences that’s impressive.
He describes his therapy sessions in the book and the process has obviously left a lasting impression. “Oh that chapter got stripped right down,” he says. “It went on for ages about different types of therapy. It’s helpful if you know what you’re trying to achieve or else it just becomes something else to rely on. It gave me perspective and made me more self-aware.”
The sections on groupies and his alcohol and drug consumption are particularly candid. “I do wake up and think, ‘Have I really put that in the public domain?’” he admits.
“The chapter about groupies is the most demystifying thing. I just had to do it – I hope it didn’t come across as misogynistic or gratuitous… I do think it’s counterweighted by the fact that I’m in love now. With the drugs, I’m not going to lie and say I didn’t have a fucking blast, but stupidity with drugs messed up two bands. Even now with hangovers, sometimes I wake up and everything’s rosy. I skip down the street barking like a dog and find it really funny. Then I realise I’m still pissed and the real hang-over is coming. I always feel so negative and depressed then that it’s hard to remember it’s just a hangover. The positive channel in my brain gets cobwebbed from disuse.”
In the book, Barat wrote about his intense relationship with crack and heroin abuser Doherty:
“His reputation precedes him, and I wanted to write without slinging mud,” Barât says. “Obviously things he did really hurt me and if I felt bitter about something it was hard to write objectively. I’m very scared that he’s going to misread it.”
Whether Pete Doherty reads it or not is another question, as he is allegedly shacked up with Rehab singer Amy Winehouse. I guess any Libertine’s album launch party will be round their house?