Unbarred Magazine 2002
http://libertines.twinkling-star.com/unbarredprofile2002.html
Unbarred Magazine profile (June 2002)
by James Thornton for www.unbarred.co.uk
A portrait of the piss-artist as a young man
If one million people turned up to The Mall for the Jubilee, then around 999,000 watched the hideous spectacle of the Party at the Palace blissfully uninterrupted on the video screens that line the avenue.
Meanwhile the other 1,000 have turned towards the open windows of the ICA (another resident of the royal road) and are wondering what the fucking racket is. This my friends, is The Libertines.
As the day rolls by we’ll find out that truth is indeed stranger than fiction and, happily, that this week’s flavour of the month are more crazy horse than one trick pony.
The Libertines are at the ICA to play the four-day Future Rock N’ Roll shebang. A superb fuck-you to the Jubilee, the get-together is a celebration of the nastiest and noisiest new bands Britain has to offer. Sandwiched between The Banknotes and 80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster, Libertines hold their own and then some.
Strike a light guv'nor
First however, a little background and a chance to set the record straight. All in their early twenties, The Libertines are far from being the Union Jack-waving cor blimey Eastenders they have been portrayed as in some quarters. The band are from all over England: Birmingham, London, Newcastle and, er, Basingstoke to be precise.
Debut single ‘What a Waster’ has just been released on Rough Trade and has gained notoriety and plaudits in equal measure. With a chorus that goes ‘What a waster, what a fuckin’ waster, you pissed it all up the wall, and round the corner…’ and includes the charming insult ‘you two-bob cunt’ it was bound to attract attention. However, this is no novelty record. Spiteful, straight-backed mod-punk, comparisons with early Jam are already sounding tired but nevertheless realistic.
Single of the week on Mark and Lard and in NME, The Libertines have been cover stars of said magazine (and unbarred most importantly for any new band of course - ed) ) and earlier today were grilled by style-mag The Face. Interestingly however, their rise has been plodding and breakneck by turns.
“As an entity we’ve been together about six or seven years,” explains Carl Barat, one of the band’s twin vocal/guitar strikeforce. “I’ve always written songs and people have drifted in and out. As this line-up we’ve been together about six months. We did our first gig in January and quite quickly after that we got offered support on The Strokes tour so we were in at the deep end from the start really.”
Killers
During those formative years, the band honed their sound in front of anyone who would listen or pay. “We’ve always been a right old rabble,” continues Carl. “We have always been making music and using anything to get people to hear it.”
Bassist John Hassall warms to this chipping in for the first time. “We’ve done everything from playing gigs in kebab shops on a Sunday night to playing an old people’s home in Camden Town.”
Unlikely as this may seem, it turns out that this is a) true and b) the geriatrics loved it. To death. “The old folks thought it was great,” John continues, warming to his theme. “We played a load of old war songs. Unfortunately, during the set one of the old ladies actually died. Ironically enough, it was during a song of our called ‘When The Lights Go Out’.”
Laughing guiltily, we move away from pensioner death to the media glare that has suddenly fixed on the band. “It’s been a bit odd,” concedes X. “All of a sudden people are showing interest and you realise its all a bit of a machine.” X agrees. “In one form or another we’ve been playing together for years and from out of the blue people starting turning up en masse to our gigs. You go from playing, literally, to three people and a dog to full houses.”
However, The Libertines are far from fazed. “Are we worried about the hype? No not really,” says a bullish Carl. “We’re game for anything. It sounds really corny but I love the songs and if other people love them then that’s fair enough. If they don’t, fuck ‘em.”
Gravity
The attitude sums them up. They’re not arrogant but they’ve got the swagger and a finely tuned bullshit detector to see them through. “The whole press thing and whether it spirals or not is frustrating. Writing the songs and having some fucker slag you off…” says Carl before trailing off and then changing his mind (something he does a lot). “Of course, it’s nice at the moment, but there’s always a backlash. It’s Newton’s third law of physics. I think.”
Eminent physicists aside, The Libertines have the small matter of their debut single to worry about. ‘What A Waster’ has been described by the band as ‘the most self-explanatory single ever'. Does this mean the band are worried about ‘pissing it all up the wall’? “We already have to some extent,” says Carl. “We’ve pretty much done everything you’d expect from a band in our time. We’ve been there and lost it all and made it back and we will continue to whatever happens,” he adds by way of vague explanation.
Fellow frontman Pete Doherty joins us, wide-eyed and clutching a post-sound check lager. Fittingly for the jubilee, Carl and Pete are resplendent today in military dress uniform from the days of the Empire. “These were worn in the Crimea,” enthuses Pete. “This one belonged to Lieutenant Corporal Stanley,” he adds, showing unbarred the coat’s name tag. “He fought and died in this.”
Continuing on this line, he goes on to make comparisons with the Libertines’ live set and the aforementioned tear up with the Russians. If you are talking internal power struggles and all out ferocity, then the analogy just about stretches. Onstage, the two vocalists seem locked in competition to see who can play the fastest and the loudest with the ICA’s strobes doing their best to complete the incendiary scene. Working themselves into a frenzy, the performance ends with a wonderfully dangerous twist as Carl venomously hurls his guitar into the crowd, almost skewering the front rows as he does so. Amazingly, no-one seems too badly hurt and the smashed instrument is smilingly passed back to the stage. It has to be said though, that this is good luck rather than good management.
And so it has been across this four-day noise fest. The brilliant accompanying compilation album reads like a who’s who of the so-called ‘No Name’ movement, but the bands, and in particular The Libertines, baulk at anything so crass as a ‘scene’. “Its great that so many new bands are getting coverage but it’s not like we’re all together all the time or anything,” explains Pete, before going on to contradict the statement. “We do get on really well with a lot of the other bands though. It does feel a coming together of young people from al over the world,” he adds with a straight face.
Away from the ICA, 2002 has seen the band on a continual tour of the UK, playing bigger venues as the weeks and months pass. Considering that at times their music sounds more cockney than jellied eels, they’ve been getting good receptions wherever they’ve played. “In places like Nottingham and Northampton we’ve been received really well,” says Pete. “Without being patronising I think less bands play the provinces and so the audience are really up for it. Liverpool was amazing, they’re absolutely mental up there.”
In between gigs the band have been laying down tracks for their debut album, released on Rough Trade later this year. Like the single, a good chunk of the set has been produced by former Suede axeman Bernard Butler. Is he a long time hero of The Libertines? “We didn’t make a deliberate move to get him in,” explains Carl. “Really, he came to us. He had heard the tunes and liked what we played and he came and asked us if he could produce the record. He is a really cool guy though. He can be a bit of a perfectionist, but he doesn’t mess around with our sound.”
And a good thing too, as The Libertines are at their best when smashing out their tunes without restrictions. Right now they are off to sink a few more pre-gig beers, well protected by a thick skin of youthful naïveté. Seemingly unaware of their place at the forefront of this latest crop of noisy bands, the band are unhindered by any preconceptions. Go and buy the single, get the album when that comes out and more importantly, when they come to your town be at the front of the queue. Just watch out for flying objects.