'Looking back at The Libertines is like catching
flashes of sunlight between buildings as you race by on
a train. An old film reel where the spools are weathered
and worn, leaving empty frames on the screen!' In the
final years of the last millennium, Carl Barat and Pete
Doherty forged a deep musical bond, formed The
Libertines and set sail for Arcadia in the good ship
Albion; a decade later, Carl would emerge from his
second band, the Dirty Pretty Things, after one of the
most significant -- and turbulent -- rock 'n' roll
trajectories of recent times. Threepenny Memoir
navigates the choppy waters of memory, and gives an
inside look at life in the eye of the storm, chronicling
how a pair of romantics armed with little more than
poetry and a punk attitude inspired adoration in
millions worldwide -- and proceeded to tear apart
everything they had. With unflinching honesty but real
warmth, Carl -- who has recently performed with The
Libertines for the first time since 2004, and released a
solo album -- looks back at the creative highs and the
drug-addled lows of life with both bands, as well as
giving an intimate account of the people and places that
have informed his songwriting.From Camden bedsits,
impromptu gigs and minesweeping drinks in the Dublin
Castle to Japanese groupies, benders in Moscow and
chatting to Slash, Threepenny Memoir charts a fantastic
course through recent musical history. And, in the
aftermath, Carl reflects on the pressures -- both
external and self-inflicted -- that led to each band's
demise, and on the challenges and rewards that life as a
solo artist now holds. |
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