You Talk: New Details

From NME.com:

Babyshambles have revealed that their next single will be 'You Talk'.The single will be released on December 3 on CD.The song is the second track to be lifted from Pete Doherty and co's latest album, 'Shotter's Nation', and will feature acoustic versions of songs from the album as b-sides.The CD release of the song will feature acoustic versions of 'UnBiloTitled' and 'Carry On Up The Morning', while the seven-inch vinyl version will feature new track 'Revelations' as a b-side.

Aaaarggghhh Peter is revealing everything! At last! I can't wait!!!

Ahem. Sorry. Better.

Two bits

From MTV.co.uk:

Pete Doherty has arrived in Germany ready for his performance at the Europe Music Awards. Babyshambles are playing live in the Olympiahalle and the group flew into Munich today (Tuesday) in preparation. MTV News has spotted the newly plump singer looking around the huge arena before the group soundcheck.

From Uncut:

Babyshambles and The Kooks are the latest additions to be confirmed for Mencap's Little Noise Sessions taking place in November.The intimate for-charity shows are at the Union Chapel in Islington, London and will see special accoustic shows take place.Babyshambles headline night will take place on November 20, supported by Jack Panate, Laura Marling and Joe Lean and the Jing Jang Jong.The Kooks will perform on November 24, supported by The Pigeon Detectives and The Metros.The Little Noise Sessions run from November 20 - 28 and also feature appearances by Snow Patrol, Keane and Kate Nash.

More information is available from: www.Mencapmusic.org.uk

The full line-up announced so far is:

Babyshambles, Jack Penate, Laura Marling, Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong (November 20)

Athlete, The Hoosiers (November 21)

Will Young, Newton Faulkner, Adele (22)

Biffy Clyro, We Are Scientists, Young Knives (23)

The Kooks, The Pigeon Detectives, The Metros (24)

Snow Patrol, Cajun Dance Party (25)

Kate Nash, Robyn, The Ting Tings (26)

The Enemy (27)

Keane, Rilo Kiley (28)

About MTV and other things

There's an audio interview with Babyshambles made in Scotland last week. Four parts in all (First, Second, Third, Fourth).

Babyshambles are definitely playing the MTV Europe Music Awards next Thursday.
A statement on behalf of the band said: "Babyshambles are very excited to be playing the EMAs and looking forward to their trip to Munich". The ceremony will be hosted by Snoop Dogg, with Wyclef Jean fronting a special backstage show for MTV. For British readers who don't have Sky TV: the show, which airs live on MTV One at 9pm on November 1, will go out on Channel 4 as a 75 minute programme on November 11 as part of T4 Sunday. In the rest of Europe the show will be aired live by the various national MTV channels.
Babyshambles are also playing on the previous night (Wednesday) at the MTV Allstars Night at the Circus Krone as part of the MTV.de music week. Other bands playing are Maximo Park and Sportsfreunde Stiller (I believe the show will only be aired on German TV).
My beloved Drusillo has written another blog.

LMHR Roundtable Part 2

There you go.

LMHR Roundtable

Volume's very low but both Carlos and Drew are in it, so enjoy!

Paint a vulgar picture

So, that’s it. The infamous Libertines Best Of, Time for Heroes, is out next Monday, October 29th, in every record store of Euroland (some countries might even have it a few days earlier, whereas the US release is scheduled on December 4th). If you can’t wait till Monday you can listen to the affair on line at Gigwise. It should be a great event for all the Libertines fans in the world. Sadly, it is not. “The Libertines are releasing a Greatest Hits” screamed Gigwise one month ago “but fans don’t want it”.
"No surprise, Libertines fans are the usual sad, whining, capricious mummy’s boys".
No, no mummy’s boys this time. First of all, this release has been smelling like a total pisstake since the first day it was announced. And the first thing that has to be said is that the Libertines aren’t releasing anything. Someone else is, though, and they have nothing to do with Pete Doherty, Carl Barat, John Hassal and Gary Powell. Let’s make it clear: Time for Heroes is the third Libertines album released by Rough Trade, or better, it’s the third Libertines album the Libertines should have released with Rough Trade (according to their contractual obligations) and never did, because they broke up soon after the release of the second album.

And, of course, when we say Rough Trade we say Geoff Travis. If we still needed some more evidence showing who’s the real man behind this operation, Travis himself swept away all our doubts putting up a myspace page to promote the release of Time for Heroes.

This is what you read in his page:
“Rough Trade Records are proud to announce the release of Time For Heroes - The Best Of The Libertines, on October 29th. Bringing together the tracks that defined a generation and sold a million records, produced by The Clash's Mick Jones from their epochal debut Up The Bracket and feted, self-titled follow-up (and No. 1 album), Time For Heroes is a timely reminder of the unique talent of Albion's favourite sons Pete Doherty, Carl Barât, John Hasall and Gary Powell. Rough Trade's Geoff Travis and Jeanette Lee: "The Libertines were the best and most influential band of the last decade, please forget the hype and just listen to the music."

Geoff Travis is considered by many people as the man who “discovered” the Libertines in 2001, in the same way he is still considered as the man who “discovered” the Smiths in 1982. So he’s no newbie, he’s an old fox. At the end of the Smiths short career, and after the band had already moved to EMI (oh history repeating!), Morrissey penned two gorgeous, bitter songs dedicated to Travis, You just haven’t earned it yet baby, and of course Paint a vulgar picture, describing his former record company (once hailed as the gem of the indie labels) as a money grabbing machine, totally incapable of promoting their jewels as they deserved and only able to squeeze them like a lemon for their mere interests only. But at least, in the Smiths’ case, Rough Trade had the decency to release a beautiful live album after the band’s demise, Rank. In the Libertines’ case decency has totally gone to the wind. And yet they should have some good live recordings in their archives, that’s for sure. But a Best of? Of a band who just released TWO albums? What’s the point of all this? And most of all, who’s going to buy this damn record?

Let’s listen to a sample of Libertines fans:
“I have no intention of buying it; this seems pretty pointless, rough trade just making some easy cash”
“I already have all the songs on officially released copies so I really can't see the point in buying this”
“Absolutely not. I don't want anything to do with it”.
At first I wanted it, cos I'm a completist, but I find it hard to get behind when the band themselves didn't even know about it. Upon reflection, I'll probably skip it”.
“Nope, I'm actually kind of pissed off that they're releasing it. I hope nobody buys it”.
“If I see it in stores here for a reasonable price, I'll probably pick it up just because that encourages them to carry other such items in the future, but I'm not going to go out of my way to get it. Would be a completely different story if there was anything particularly interesting on it”.
“...I really don´t get this release. Do they [=rough trade] want to make some new fans? But why, if this group doesn´t exist anymore? Do they want "old" fans to buy it? Why, if there´s no extra on it and most do have the original 2 albums anyway? And, both of the 2 albums together would be still cheaper then this best of... I don´t get it. But I don´t have to anyway. I won´t buy it”.
“No, I wont buy it, I guess it just a way to make money”.

Of course, if we had to judge by these replies, Time for Heroes is probably going to be the flop of the century. But not all the fans are so critical. The myspace page has also messages from people who appreciate this release (I hope Travis didn’t send those messages himself!):
“Cant wait to get it. One of the greatest bands ever. nuff said”
“The Libertines were a great great band!!! Anyone who has not listened to them before should certainly buy this album, Long live the memory!!!”
Now, this last message. Actually somebody might argue that people who “weren’t there” when the Libertines were in full flight could benefit from the release of this album and then discover their back catalog. Yes, this would have some sense if the band had released at least four or five albums, as was the Smiths’ case. But the Libertines only released 2 CDs, and both of them are easily traceable in any record store in the world. Besides, we have internet now. Which means iTunes, and myspace, and Youtube. With lots of official and unofficial recordings, footages, bootlegs etc. Anybody who really wants to know who and what the Libertines were, have only to switch on their PCs and a whole new world is at hand.
I understand Rough Trade’s point of view in this matter. The Libertines were their last jewels, they let them go without skipping a beat (first they got rid of Carl Barat because they thought he was a hopeless case then they kicked out Peter too after the alleged flop of Down in Albion) and they’re probably still eating their hands for that. But maybe it’s too late, Mr. Travis. Maybe you should start looking around and find another lemon to squeeze.

To me, the Libertines Best Of was released 5 years ago and is called Up the Bracket. However, I would be happy if the much anticipated “The Arcadian Dream”, featuring the old recordings of the 1999-2000 era, was finally released. Mr. Razzcocks assures us it will but “negotiations” are still taking place. If a third Libertines album must come out, then The Arcadian Dream could be a candidate. BUT I’m an incurable optimist, and I’m still convinced that a third Libertines album will come out one day and it will feature at least a dozen of new songs, because as much as I like Babyshambles and Dirty Pretty Things I still see them as pure spin off bands, and having witnessed the happiness on Peter’s and Carl’s faces during the legendary reunion of last April, I don’t think anything could be better for those two (and for us) than going back to writing songs together again.

Reviews of Times for Heroes are starting to appear in the papers. The NME gave it a 7/10 rating (here’s the review). There are no words yet from any of the members of the band, but that’s understandable. Peter is busy enough promoting Shotters Nation, John is struggling with his band, and Carl and Gary are busy fighting UFOs and fires. Another evidence that the Libertines have nothing to do with this release, if we ever needed it.

Progress in Shambleland

What you see here is a photo of Peter taken today outside Thames Magistrates Court, where the Shambles leader's drug order was revoked by Judge Jane McIvor. All seems to be going well in Shambleland, as the lovely Drew wrote in his 5th blog.
The next single is going to be You Talk (not too sure about the release date), which is a sensible choice to me. The video for the song was shot last Sunday in Somerset, which is also Carl Barat's birth place.
Talking about the mighty Carlos, we're told that Dirty Pretty Things are safe in their Californian residence but joy is not something I can feel right now, with 5 dead so far and thousands of people who lost their houses and were forced to escape leaving everything behind them. Such a great tragedy.
Oh the Libertines official site is back. At last.
We're back tomorrow with something about (and against) the Libertines Best Of.
Stay tuned.

Hot Tips

Watch the Libertines photo gallery in the NME!

Read this random review of Shotter's Nation!

See Peter at the Barfly gig in the Sun!

Get ready to dance tonight in Sheffield where Adam's dj-ing! (at The Hubs, S1)

Very very hot tip: Babyshambles are off to Deutschland next week!

Up the Shambles and fuck Tokio Hotel! (ahem - of course some of you might even like to).

Babyshambles hit Scotland

From MTV UK:

Pete Doherty has hit Scotland in style with a very special secret gig for MTV Two’s Gonzo Tour.
The notorious frontman and Babyshambles played their smallest show in years at the Glasgow Barfly running through much of their new album Shotter’s Nation.
Doherty was not announced as the headliner for the final Gonzo 5th Birthday Tour gig - though many fans seemed to know the band were in town.
Looking healthier than ever the frontman wrecked the stage at the end of the set, the group also sounded better than during previous shambolic shows.
The four-piece played a 45-minute starting with Delivery- their current single- and fitting in old favourites like Kilamanjaro and a raucous F*ck Forever.
Before being interviewed by Zane Lowe Babyshambles typically caused problems by becoming locked on their bus.
Luckily Pete- sporting new red hair- and the gang escaped to play a mental show to the 200 baying punters.
Earlier Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong supported along with superb pop-punks Operator Please.
We Are Scientists were the original headliners for the Scotland show but pulled out late on.

Waiting for pictures, a huge thank you (and lucky you!) to Milly who sent the setlist:

Delivery

Unstookie

Unbilo

I Wish

You Talk

Fuck Forever

Side Of The Road

Pipe Down

Killamangiro

Baddies Boogie

Video time!

• Babyshambles Paris roundup
• A new LMHR photoshoot clip
• This is not a proper video, just 9 Lives on the LMRH banner (thanks to Slowdean). I don't know you, but I hear 9 Lives and think Road to Ruin.

Have fun tonight.

DPT withdrawal?

I know I know, too much Babyshambles and too little Dirties... well, if you're going DPT-cold turkey here's a silly snippet for ya!

Bye bye Paris

We say farewell to Paris with a series of beautiful pictures taken by Babybear (Babyshambles manager), and one more by our friend Anjali.

More European dates:

10.01.2008: Madrid (La Riviera)

11.01.2008: Barcelona (Apolo)

31/01 21:00 Milano - Rolling Stone

01/02 21:00 Roma - Teatro Tendastrisce

A new Babyshambles DVD is going to be released, showing Pete Doherty and co playing a show at the Ritz in Manchester in September 2004.

The DVD is entitled 'Up The Shambles - Live In Manchester' and it's due on November 5.

The show saw the band previewing tracks from their debut album 'Down In Albion', play several songs by The Libertines and feature singer Dot Allison on guest vocals on several songs.

Tracklist:

'The Man Who Came To Stay'

'Do You Know Me'

'In Love With A Feeling'

'Babyshambles''

Gang Of Gin'

'Fuck Forever'

'I Mean You No Harm'*

'Sheepskin''Tearaway'*

'Don't Look Back Into the Sun'*

'Time For Heroes'*

'Albion'*

'I Wanna Break Your Heart'*

'What Katie Did'

'Killamangiro'

'My Darling Clementine'

'Blackboy Lane'

'Wolfman'

*featuring Dot Allison on guest vocals

Another busy day in Paris

Babyshambles played a showcase at the FNAC record store in Les Halles shopping mall this afternoon. Read the report.

Later, Peter and the gang went to radio ouifm where they played a live session visible via webcast (Unstookietitled, Belle et la Bete, Back from the dead and I wish).

The 2008 European tour is slowly taking shape.
Here are the confirmed dates so far:
13.01 Lille - L’Aéronef FR
14.01 Paris - Olympia FR
15.01 Lyon - Transbordeur FR
17.01 Eindhoven - Effenaar NL
20.01 Brussels - Ancienne Belgique BE
22.01 Köln - Live Music Hall GER
23.01 Berlin - Postbahnhof GER
24.01 München Backstage - Werk GER
26.01 Graz - Orpheum AUT
27.01 Vienna - Arena AUT
28.01 Zürich - Mascotte CH
29.01 Basel - Kaserne CH

An English date has also been announced: Babyshambles are playing at the Bournemouth International Centre on November 26.

In the meantime, Drusillo keeps writing his blog.

Oh and one more thing...

I'm not a rocket scientist in French but I guess this means we can see the band playing live at www.ouifm.fr? (French people where are you?)

Pete Doherty - Hugo The Hippo - Babyshambles at C+ 16-10-2007

Peter singing I love the Hippo on French TV, 16 October 2007.

Bonsoir

• The mighty Carlos and the lovely Drew (plus other stars) are on the cover of the LMHR NME special issue.
• More pictures of the two hunks at the NME photo gallery.
• "Pete Doherty and Carl Barat reunite for anti-racism CD!!!" screams the NME. I thought Peter and Carl had already reunited many months ago, but hey anything for the anti-racist campaign.
• In any case Peter said "Count me in!" even if he was in rehab.
• Babyshambles are in Paris to promote Shotters (a few videos will follow).
• Gigwise reviews the BLANK gig.

I just can't keep up with these guys

Too much information. Innit?

So, some quick updates on the run:

• Peter was on Xfm Scotland last night. Our mate W1lko was quick with the recorder and here's his rip (I haven't had the time to listen to it yet but I hope it works).
• Peter was also on French Dog Writtles last night, kindly giving us some insight on his current lifestyle.
• Some other insight on the sensual Anthony Rossomando's pad in London is at the NME website.
• The Doherty/Winehouse future collaboration seems to be real. Check it out.

Semi-serious round up

• According to GIGWISE, Peter will be at Zane Lowe show tomorrow from 7pm-9pm on BBC Radio 1. The Babyshambles frontman will also perform some acoustic tracks.
• Peter will also be on XFM from 10 pm to 1 am to discuss Shotters Nation track by track.
• Apparently the XFM interview was made at Peter's rented home in Marlborough and it was also filmed by one Blake Fielder-Civil, husband of Amy Winehouse (this seems to be his full time job at least) and Peter copycat/wannabe.
• Admist all this, Shotter's Nation has dropped to number 16 in the Top 40 official chart.
• The photo above is from the BLANK gig in Bristol of Saturday night, which was held in a boat called "Thekla".
• The lovely Drew has started a blog in The Guardian. Band off to France next week.
• Don't forget tomorrow the new NME issue is out, featuring the LMHR CDs, with one Babyshambles song (Stone me) and one DPT song (9 lives).
• The Libertines official site is still down. If you're suffering from Libertines forum withdrawal symptoms you can register here and ramble on as much as you like.
• As if all this wasn't enough for your tender little hearts, Alan McGreed in his last delirious post to his mystupidspace let it slip that Carl Barat was in UK last week (but nobody has seen him).

That's all for now. Next time we're going to be serious. Promise.

Pete Doherty meets Paul McCartney

Just who would Paul McCartney choose for a chat about fashion, favourite bands and the cost of infamy?

Sunday October 14, 2007

Observer Music Monthly

The idea has been put to Sir Paul McCartney and out of everyone he could have picked to interview him, he's chosen the Babyshambles singer and tabloid fixture Peter Doherty. Only trouble is, Pete is currently in rehab, but after some tactful negotiations, he is allowed out of his clinic for the afternoon. So it is, with only OMM otherwise present in the hotel suite, that the two sit down to talk one recent Thursday afternoon. But first, Pete wants to give Sir Paul a present ...
Sir Paul: Wow! I'm terrible like that. People are really sort of nice at bringing me things. So someone said: 'Would you like to do an interview? And who would you like to do, and I said: 'Pete'. 'Cause otherwise it's just some real boring person who you're not interested in.
We've met briefly once before, backstage at a Little Britain show, and I'd seen you on the Jonathan Ross Show, which I thought was very cool. To me, there was all the newspaper stuff saying, 'He's out, he's out of it,' so I was like, 'He's going to miss a few notes here,' but you were spot-on; really nailed the piece you were playing.
Pete: Yeah, I remember asking you on the stairs at Little Britain about [the Beatles song] 'I Will'. I just love that. A minor, D minor.
Sir Paul: That's great. I do a lot of Beatles stuff now, and revisiting it is really interesting - just looking at what chords you were using and revisiting the lyrics, you know, 'cause some of them back then you thought, 'Well you're just writing a song of straight love lyrics maybe.' But playing them now, some of them have a different significance for me, you know, they just seem a bit deeper. I was just some young guy and, you know, pretty hot, pretty on the ball. It's nice to do the songs for that reason. 'That was good, did I say that? Yes, you did.'
Pete: I wanted to ask about some of your old clobber ...
Sir Paul: My what?
Pete: Your clothes ...
Sir Paul: Well, we started off in Hamburg. Before that it was, like, teddy boys, you know. Then Hamburg, it was leathers. That was after Gene Vincent really, we were just mini Gene Vincents. That was one of the great things about Hamburg, you would get these guys coming through - Little Richard, Gene - and you'd be hanging with them, instead of just buying their records. That was cool. Gene was a nutter. A beautiful nutter.
Pete: I heard you wrote 'Michelle' to pull girls ...
Sir Paul: Yeah, we used to go to these art school parties because John was at art school and me and George were at the school next door, which is now a performing arts school. John was that little bit older than us, which at that age is impressive. He was a year-and-a-half older than me and you really look up to people like that. But it's funny because I don't think I had that same feeling with Ringo, who I think was a few months older than John.
John was a pretty impressive cat - being a year-and-a-half older and going to art school, all that was a pretty cool combination for us. So we'd tag along to these parties, and it was at the time of people like Juliette Greco, the French bohemian thing. They'd all wear black turtleneck sweaters, it's kind of where we got all that from, and we fancied Juliette like mad. Have you ever seen her? Dark hair, real chanteuse, really happening. So I used to pretend to be French, and I had this song that turned out later to be 'Michelle'. It was just an instrumental, but years later John said: 'You remember that thing you wrote about the French?' I said: 'Yeah.' He said: 'That wasn't a bad song, that. You should do that, y'know.'
Pete: When I first met Carl [Barat, co-founder of the Libertines], I was 17 and he was about a year-and-a-half older than me. We had this song called 'France', a jazzy little number. I couldn't really play guitar then, not properly. I was convinced I was going to be the singer and he was going to be the guitarist, like Morrissey and Marr, but a few years in, he was convinced that he was going to sing as well so I had to learn the guitar.
Sir Paul: Like me being a bass player. Which now I'm very proud of, it's my role and I'm happy with it. But at first it was the loser role in the group. It's usually the fat guy who stands at the back. So I was a bit unhappy when I got that job, I wanted to be up front with the guitar. But I had such a crappy little guitar, a Rosetti Lucky 7, and it was cheap. My Dad was very against the never-never hire purchase, and was like, 'Pay your way, lad. Never be under an obligation to anyone.' Which was good advice. But the others - John's Auntie Mimi and George's Dad - didn't have that problem - so they would get their guitars. I had this crappy thing which was really just a piece of wood with a pick-up on it. It looked quite glamorous, but we took it over to Hamburg and I think someone smashed it - like early Pete Townshend. Fuck!
Pete: I had this guitar which was £20. It was a big old thing, and I think it came from India. The make was the same font as Gibson, so I doctored it with a little bit of marker pen.
OMM: How did you both handle, at different points, the adjustment from writing with a partner to writing on your own?
Sir Paul: The good thing for me was that we hadn't always written as a partnership. I mean, we were a partnership on the road, when we had twin beds. But then when we actually got houses, I would write something on a day when I wouldn't see him. I had kind of done 'Penny Lane' and 'Yesterday', when he'd done 'Strawberry Fields' at his place. We'd get together and polish them, but we had established this thing of writing separately. It took the edge off it when we had to completely write separately I still miss not having someone to check things with, though.
Pete: Well, I'm probably more in a writer partnership now than at the Libertines stage. Writing with Mick Whitnall on the latest Babyshambles album was pretty much 50-50, or 40-60 maybe. We were bouncing off each other.
Carl was always quite tight with quality control, like I had this line in my head for years that I always wanted to put it in a song, and he used to go cold when I said it. I can't remember the name of the poet now, but he became resident poet of Barnsley football club [it was Ian McMillan, poet, playwright and regular Newsnight Review contributor] ... [Pete sings] 'It's a charmed life, double as a poet for your favourite team' and every song we would write I would try and get that in.
Sir Paul: ...and always get blown out. Have you got it in anything yet?
Pete: No. Maybe next time.
Sir Paul: Our first little cool bit of collaboration came when ... I'd met John and he said: 'What do you do?' And I said: 'I play guitar and I really like rock'n'roll and Eddie Cochran.' And he said: 'Ah, well, I've written a couple of songs.' And I said: 'So have I.' They weren't really anything, but we had independently tried to write. So we used to go to my house, when my dad was at work. I can see us in the front living room and in the parlour - this little house that is now national bloody heritage [Sir Paul's boyhood home was acquired by the National Trust in 1998] - just standing there, singing. I mean those early days were really cool, just sussing each other out, and realising that we were good. You just realise from what he was feeding back. Often it was your song or his song, it didn't always just start from nothing. Someone would always have a little germ of an idea. So I'd start off with [singing] 'She was just 17, she'd never been a beauty queen' and he'd be like, 'Oh no, that's useless' and 'You're right, that's bad, we've got to change that.' Then changing it into a really cool line: 'You know what I mean.' 'Yeah, that works.' We'd have individual bits of paper. I have fond flashbacks of John writing - he'd scribble it down real quick, desperate to get back to the guitar. But I knew at that moment that this was going to be a good collaboration. Like when I did 'Hey Jude'. I was going through it for him and Yoko when I was living in London. I had a music room at the top of the house and I was playing 'Hey Jude' when I got to the line 'the movement you need is on your shoulder' and I turned round to John and said: 'I'll fix that if you want.' And he said: 'You won't, you know, that's a fucking great line, that's the best line in it.' Now that's the other side of a great collaborator - don't touch it, man, that's OK.
Pete: Did you see they were giving out these supplements of great interviews with the Guardian over the past couple of months - Fidel Castro and Mae West, people like that. And they had an interview with John Lennon [with Jann Wenner, editor of Rolling Stone, from December 1970]. I'd never seen it before but it struck me as quite interesting, him saying that your tours had been like Satyricon.
Sir Paul: Like what?
Pete: Like Fellini's [1969 film] Satyricon.
Sir Paul: Not really. I mean, it's a bit of an exaggeration. It was definitely quite decadent. The whole thing about getting into a band was to get girls, basically. Money and girls. Probably girls first. So when you are on the road, and there was time for a party, we had a bunch of those. There was an element of Satyricon, although that overstates the case a bit. But there were certainly some elements that you wouldn't talk about in the newspapers. Privately, I could tell a tale or two [laughs]. The funny thing is when later the rumour came out that John was gay, I said: 'I don't think so.' I mean, I don't know what he did when he went to New York, but certainly not in any of my experiences. We used to sleep together, top and tail it, you know. I always used to say: 'Come on, I would have spotted something here.' But what I spotted was completely the opposite. It was just chicks, chicks, chicks.
OMM: It must have been very different to today, when everywhere you go someone has a camera phone, and you can't even go out of the house without someone reporting what you are doing.
Sir Paul: Yeah, that's a bit of a hassle, isn't it? No there was none of that really, no cameras. There was no reportage or paparazzi.
Pete: Really? If you look on YouTube there's something called the 'Egg of Kerbibble'. I filmed my mate getting hold of a paparazzi through some railings and he's got an egg cracked right on his head, and if you look closely you'll see another couple of eggs come flying across and catch him. Small compensation, do you know what I mean?
This bloke in Rome once took his camera off and cracked me round the head with it, and I'm bleeding. He was a bit bigger than me, the Italian photographer, but I thought I can't back down now, so I sort of squared up to him. Luckily my mate jumped round and bit him on the neck.
Sir Paul: [looking mildly taken aback] And all you're trying to do is ...
Pete: Get into your hotel.
Sir Paul: Just trying to, you know, write some songs, and sing, and all this stuff comes with it. In truth, thinking back, it really didn't exist like that. It was much easier to get around. I used to go to gigs on the tube, all those Odeons that were out in Walthamstow or wherever. I'd just go and walk into the gig, even at the height of the Beatles thing. It was just cool. You knew you could control it. All these girls going 'Heeyy Paul! We love you!' 'All right, we'll walk slowly towards the gig and I'll do the autographs, but any shouting and I'm not going in.' I kind of liked it then, me and my harem.
Pete: How old were you when you first had kids?
Sir Paul: 28.
Pete: That must have settled you down?
Sir Paul: We were quite sort of hippie about it though, me and Linda. We had a laid-back attitude. There's a picture that I could not imagine being involved in now, but it was a real summery day and we were coming through Dublin airport and I'm carrying my daughter, Mary - who's now got two of her own kids - and she's completely naked.
Pete: Where were you when punk kicked off?
Sir Paul: At first, it was a bit of a shock. Heather [McCartney, Paul's stepdaughter and Linda's daughter from her previous marriage] was a punk, so she sort of brought it home and me and Linda were like, 'You've cut all your hair off, darling.' She used to have this long blonde hair and then suddenly it was spikey; tartan, pins, plastic bags and everything. And it was like, 'Whoa!' But she took us through it, and educated us. Played us the Damned and the Clash and the Sex Pistols and stuff, and so you gradually got it. Realised it was time for a shake-up. It was good. Like a mirror they put on you: 'Oh yeah, we're pretty boring, and these kids aren't.' The other thing is that it looked quite aggressive but it was a lot of image, which it had been for us. We were pussycats in leather, it's not like we were big hard guys, and it was the same for a lot of our friends. Heather had dyed her hair and I remember one of her boyfriends had an 'A' on his jacket [the 'A' indicated 'anarchy']. And I was like, 'What's that stand for?', and he said: 'I don't know.' It's a look, you know, and it looks good [laughs]. I remember being in traffic, in London, and when you're famous you try really hard not to get noticed so much, especially if you're in a traffic jam, and suddenly there was a bunch of punk kids, and I'm like, 'Oh no, how is this going to work out? What's the attitude going to be?' and you're vaguely apprehensive, and they were great, they came up: 'Paul!' 'Love that "Mull of Kintyre", Paul!' So you realised it wasn't as one-sided as you thought everything was. It was a shake-up.
Pete: What about the Smiths?
Sir Paul: Yeah, I like them. Linda was into Morrissey; they wrote to each other a lot. Big fans. I played with Johnny [Marr] a bit. It was original.
Pete: Falling guitar lines where there's no chords and you spend three weeks trying to work out what he's really playing.
Sir Paul: You could tell it was Morrissey. It was like his paint palette ... [Pete starts singing the Smiths song 'Still Ill'.]
Sir Paul: [appreciatively] Have you ever covered that?
Pete: No.
Sir Paul: It's obviously a song you love. It's in your blood.
Pete: I got it as a seven-inch from a second-hand shop in Nuneaton. It was on the wall, and I thought I was being clever, 'cause I nicked it - but I'd only nicked the sleeve. So I had to go back and pay for the record. As soon as the guitar started, I didn't even listen to the rest of it, I just wanted to play it again and again. I didn't want it to end ...
Sir Paul: The nice thing about having kids is that you get a lot of that through them. You get the next wave of musical education coming off them. Heather particularly - she's a big music buff, she went to all the shows. But for me, someone like Ray Davies and the Kinks would be like that for my generation.
Pete: I've got this image of you coming to London to live for the first time, going up some wooden stairs, into a room with a typewriter on the top floor of a Victorian house. Is that right?
Sir Paul: Well, I used to live in Wimpole Street, in Jane Asher's house, which has great, great memories. In the early days we used to come down to London and then drive back up to Liverpool, but then we were working in London too much to just go back, so Brian Epstein, our manager, arranged for us to rent a flat in Mayfair, on Green Street.
Pete: Did you ever bump into Tony Hancock?
Sir Paul: Once, at Twickenham Film Studios. We'd finished the day and he'd finished. So it was: 'We're big fans of yours, Tone. We think you're great.' You could never think of anything else to say.
Pete: Have you read Hancock's biography, When the Wind Changed? It's got a really awful photo on the front of him! He's all bloated at the bottom of these stairs. I don't know if it's supposed to be symbolic or something. How about Wilfred Bramble [Steptoe actor who appeared in A Hard day's Night]?
Sir Paul: Dear old Wilfred. Later you start to realise he's an actor, but to us he's like a magic person. Now I can see that he actually got up in the morning, shaved and did stuff, but then he was just this magic guy. Wilfred was a fantastic actor but he would forget his lines sometimes. To us he was a God, and it was sort of embarrassing for him, but in a way it was fascinating.
We'd be in a lot of shows, but we'd be the only rock'n'roll band in them. Dances, comedians ... it was a nice world for me.
Pete: In the early days of the Libertines we used to put on Arcadian cabaret nights. There'd be some girl climbing out of an egg, we'd try and get a couple of mates to tell a few jokes, performance poets, and then we'd play in the middle of it all. More people were on stage than in the crowd.
· Listen to an extract from Doherty and McCartney's conversation here
Peter Doherty: livin' doll
1. In April a toy company named Fishy Toyz brought out a Peter Doherty doll with a mini crack-pipe that lights up when it touches his lips. Anti-drugs campaigners were not amused.
2. He is a big fan of Oscar Wilde. But his favourite books are Orwell's 1984; Greene's Brighton Rock and Baudelaire's Flowers of Evil.
3. In 2005, Vogue placed him second in their list of best-dressed male celebrities - Kate Moss was top of the women's section.
4. His father, also called Peter, was a major in the army. This meant young Peter, his mother Jacqueline and his sisters Amy Jo and Emily moved around a lot between Britain and Germany when he was growing up.
5. He once said of his ex: 'A lot of people basically are obsessed with the missus and I don't know why really ... she's just a bird from South London.'
Paul McCartney: tall and effortless
1. He never learnt to read music; instead he writes and plays all his songs by ear.
2. Beating George Harrison by roughly half an inch, he was the tallest Beatle.
3. He is probably the richest rock star in the world. His personal wealth in 2006 was estimated to exceed £500m. 'Let's write a swimming pool,' he once said to John Lennon.
4. He reportedly turned down a part in Franco Zefferelli's 1968 film of Romeo and Juliet. McCartney didn't believe he would be good enough and the Beatles were recording Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band at the time.
5. One of his greatest admirers is Bob Dylan. While he heaped praise on Lennon and Harrison in a 2007 interview with Rolling Stone, the best was saved for Paul. 'I'm in awe of McCartney. He's about the only one that I am in awe of. He can do it all. And he's never let up ... He's just so damn effortless.'

The BLANK gig went on!

The old mouth-to-mouth gimmick (or maybe mail-to-mail) was restored last night by the sweet Adam to advertize a Babyshambles secret show in Bristol. In the afternoon Adam posted to FDB to advertize the gig but he deleted his message after a few minutes, and only a "BLANK" writing appeared in his post. The FDB administrator then proceeded to send e-mails to all the members and each member proceeded to send e-mails to the people they knew. A few hours later the shambled troops headed to Bristol, where the then so-called BLANK gig actually happened!

The main reason for this secrecy was to keep the redtops OUT (and it seems this was succesfully achieved).

Set List (thanks to Alice):
Delivery
Baddie's Boogie
You Talk
Unbilotitled
Sedative
The Blinding
Beg Steal or Borrow

Another radio interview

And another rip, by Half Cocked Girl (AKA Frenchcatsunshine - thanks again). This time it's BBC4, and things go more personal.

(I'm talking of Peter of course. The deported one is still when he's been deported - apparently).

The photo above is from NME.com and shows Peter entering the BBC studios.

Pete and Drew interview + songs

Thanks a lot to Frenchcatsunshine, who ripped the interview with Peter and Drew aired a few hours ago by BBC6. The two shambles did also two songs, a cover of "Karma Chamaleon" (Culture Club) and a new unreleased track entitled "1939 Returning".

More radioplay will follow next Tuesday, when Peter will join Xfm's John Kennedy in the studio from 10pm to discuss Shotters Nation track by track.

Pete on BBC6 in two hours

From NME.com:

Pete Doherty has broken his silence following his stint in rehab.Speaking for the first time since he attended a clinic in Wiltshire, Steve Lamacq interviewed the Babyshambles frontman earlier this week.Along with the interview, Doherty also played a quick acoustic session, including a new song he had written a few days earlier and a cover of Culture Club's 'Karma Chameleon'.The interview can be heard today on BBC 6Music from 5.30pm (BST).

See BBC6 website for more information.

Peter and Paul

The famous interview Pete Doherty did to Paul McCartney a few weeks ago is now partly available on podcast here. The interview in full is expected to appear on the next issue of The Observer Monthly.

Yesterday was the day of false alarms. The Libertines official site is still down but Kirsty and Kirsty have assured it's only a technical problem which is expected to be solved anytime soon. Nothing to do with McPee and his greed then. For once.

Late in the afternoon it was also announced that Babyshambles (Pete included) were to play at the Soho Arts Theatre in London. It didn't happen, and Peter is still in Marlborough.

When the site breaks down

The Libertines official site has been down for several hours today with no explanation at all. Rather mysterious, innit? People are speculating about the "real reasons" behind the breakdown, but while we are waiting for the truth to surface let's have a look at the new NME issue, featuring a pre-L.A. (?) picture showing Carl Barat and Anthony Rossomando recording their track for the Love Music Hate Racism compilation (out next week with the NME).

FUCK RACISM UP THE MUSIC
And bring back the Libertines.
I mean their official site.
Cough.

NME Video: Love Music Hate Racism Photo shoot

Look at Drew and Carlito on the set of LMHR photoshoot! They're both yummy as fuck!!!
AHEM. Sorry. Never again.

Pete's first post rehab "gig"

I'm sorry if I have to quote The Sun this time but so far it's the only rag that reported the news. And THIS TIME it's a true thing, verified by a photo (above).

The BABYSHAMBLES singer gave an impromptu performance at the Sun Inn in the quaint Wiltshire town of Marlborough.
Pete – whose band went to No5 in the album charts yesterday with Shotter’s Nation – was only released from the nearby Clouds clinic on Thursday.
And he couldn’t resist nipping to his new local to celebrate with a few pints of Guinness.
An onlooker said: “It was a normal Saturday night until Pete rocked up.
“As soon as word got out, the place was packed and people were begging him to sing.
“He was asking for pints of Guinness as he paused between the tracks and was kissing all the girls who asked for one.
“It was a really great atmosphere.”

Somebody talked about this gig at Fench Dog Writtles but I wanted to verify the accuracy of it all before posting it. I reckon it's an amazing thing and I also reckon that Guinness is an amazing thing, so keep celebrating Peter!

In the menatime, as you might have read in the article, Shotters Nation entered the Official Album Top 40 at no. 5.

Looking back into the sun: Video of the Month - The Libertines play at the Rhythm Factory in Xmas 2002

Nuggets

• Watch Drew and Adam talking bollocks here.
• Uncut's Allen Jones reviews Shotters.
• Peter sends a message through his manager: “If you want to catch me at the height of my powers catch us at one of the shows. Come on, come all! .... Up the Albion! Down the hatch! All along the watchtower! .... Spectacular spectacular! No word in the vernacular! Och aye the noo! QPR for the cup!”.
• In the last NME issue (Verve on the cover) Babyshambles explain they "nearly quit Shotters Nation because Pete was so wasted" (the pic above is from the article).
• LMHR's Alison reminds us: "See this week’s NME for a full page on the history of LMHR and our predecessors Rock Against Racism, as well as details of the NME LMHR double CD. CD 1 will come on the front of NME in a gatefold sleeve - with room to put another cd in that you will be able to download from nme.com/lovemusichateracism. The download will feature a further 14 rare or exclusive tracks. Massive thanks go to all the artists who have given us tracks for the project and particularly to Drew McConnell and Lisa Moorish who’s idea it was and who got so many of the other artists involved. The cd is dedicated to the memory of Anthony Walker and all other victims of racist attacks".
• Shotters Nation enters midweek chart at number 3.

That's all for now folks. UP THE ALBION FOREVER.

More and more reviews

The Village Voice
The London Paper
BBC

Peter is supposed to complete rehab on Thursday, after which he'll go under an aftercare treatment.

In the meantime John Hassall is having fun with his young friends (from NME.com).

Dirty Pretty Things new album shaping up

From Xfm:

Well whilst Pete Doherty has been busy popping in and out of rehab, occasionally getting arrested, and largely being splashed all over the tabloids, his former band mate Carl Barat has been busy recording a new album.
Barat and his Dirty Pretty bandmates have been out in LA for the past few months working on tracks for the follow up to their 2006 debut.
Dirty Pretty Things' manager, Alan McGee has been speaking to Xfm from LA where he been spending time with band, and he reckons this album’s shaping up to be a cracker.
"It's great", McGee enthused, "We've got five or six really big songs this time on the album whereas on the last album there was maybe only one really stand out big hit.
"It's really different as well", he continued, "Much more arty and much more pop. It's good and a really big change for them, it's much more melodic."
He also revealed that there’s plenty of potential singles on there with tentative track titles including ‘Come Close’ ‘Plastic Hearts’ ‘Blood Red Shoes’ and ‘Fault lines’.
But don’t get too excited just yet. McGee reckons we won’t be able to sample the goods until at least spring time of next year.

Every time Mr. McGee opens his mouth my teeth cringe. But this time he almost made me fall off my chair. So we have to expect a "pop" album now? What the heck should that mean? A Kaiser Chiefs coverband maybe? As if the poppiness of Shotters Nations wasn't enough. Thank God we have still to wait until next spring to hear Carl Barat singing pop dirges. Your mission is nearly completed McGee. Get Anthony in Celebrity Big Brother and that's it.

BRING BACK THE LIBERTINES.