Watching Peter on the verge of tears while a bunch of his peers sit around him discussing how great the Libertines were less than a year after their split is one of the hardest things I’ve ever watched. If you haven’t seen this classic bit of footage already, brace yourself: (x)
“When we were really firing on all cylinders and were together then it really felt like no one could touch us, and that nothing else mattered. As much as I try to deflect it, play it down and be English about it, there was a very powerful romance and beauty to our friendship. At the beginning it was pure and uncomplicated; there was a chemistry. Together we were a comple unit, in each other’s company quite different from how we were with other people. […] the fact is that if that dynamic between us hadn’t existed none of this would have happened, I wouldn’t be lamenting what I lost – what we both lost – I wouldn’t be writing it all down. When we are together and we can forget about bullshit, we become two old souls, kindered spirits in seclusion. “
Carl Barât on his relation with Peter Doherty, Threepenny Memoir, 2010
Doherty, who’s been listening impassively, suddenly rises and launches over the pub table at his compadre. “Here, give me your tattoo!” he orders, putting his inner left forearm skin-to-skin with Barat’s right bicep – the spot where both have the word “libertine”inked.
“This is who we are,” he says, eyes a mixture of fire and water. “It’s so deep, so much who we are. We’re proud and honoured by it. And if it’s an off day, just fuck ‘em all anyway.”
“I don’t know, we had love affairs, and whatever, and drugs, but nothing that really captured (us) two completely and songs did that. I’d always live inside songs and so would he, and then we’d create our own ones and that was that, and that was everything.”
I went upstairs after and sat on his bed and we were laughing about things afore too long. I told him he was my best friend and I care for him so much, am worried about him, and love him. He held me and said ‘It’s been a long time since you said that.’
““I think I’m a bit of a coward. I’ll fight to the death for a cause, and I spent my whole life looking for one but when it comes to telling someone my food’s cold… I can’t bear confrontation.””
Speaking of Carl Barât and Pete Doherty, Roger Sargent (a close friend and photographer of the band) described their relationship as like “first love, and all the jealousy and obsessiveness that comes with that” – adding “I think there’s, y’know, obsession and jealousy on both of their sides. They bitch about each other to each other or to other people. They have a bond, intellectually and spiritually, like nothing I’ve ever seen … but sometimes, you know, you just think, God, why don’t you just get a room?!”
Interviewer: By the way, what does “Ha Ha Wall” mean? Or, which wall does it refer to?
Carl: Ha Ha Wall originally stands for a wall separating a mansion and a garden during the Victorian era, but, in this song, it refers to a wall along the Thames in the Embankment, which is to reinforce a dam against flooding. The government spent a large amount of money to build it several years ago, but it’s something laughed at, because it will be no use when a heavy flood actually happens.
Interviewer: So you say “Ha Ha”?
Carl: Yeah. Peter likes the place … It seems he is thinking about it whenever he brings up the Thames in conversation.
Interviewer: Then when Peter said “If Carl hadn’t been there waiting at the prison gates, I’d be at the bottom of a river by now” right after he was out of prison, he was probably thinking about that place, wasn’t he?
Carl: Yeah maybe … (looks down with a painful expression and remains silent for a while)
Interviewer: … Well, you are on main vocals in songs like Narcissist, Road To Ruin, and What Became of the Likely Lads, and does that mean you were largely responsible for the lyrics for these songs?
Carl: (Nods silently)
Interviewer: When you wrote about this boy in Narcissist who has pictures and posters of stars on the walls and daydreams about them everyday, you were apparently thinking of Peter?
Carl: Why do you have to ask when you already know the answer?
Interviewer: I just wanted to make sure because I don’t want to make a hasty assumption.
Carl: He has tended to sympathized with unfortunate heroines and tragic icons like Billie Holiday and Louise Brooks. I had a feeling well before that he would get into trouble eventually. … You know, it’s hard to talk any more about this song in my present situation. Forgive me with just this for today.
Interviewer: I understand. […] Well then this might be an even more difficult question for you, but this new album has lyrics that expose Peter’s feelings when the relationship between you and him was in trouble, like in Can’t Stand Me Now and Campaign of Hate. What do you feel when you listen to these songs or when you have to play them in the upcoming tour?
Carl: Can’t Stand Me Now is apparently about what you’ve just said, but I was thinking that Campaign of Hate was about the bullying he got when he was transferred from one school to another all around Europe with his father’s job relocation.
Interview: Superficially yes, but I heard that it was also about Peter’s feelings when he was temporarily out of the band last year.
Carl: Hmm … Who told you so?
Interviewer: Peter, just before he went into prison …
suchasinistergame 