WHEN The Libertines once sang ‘Don’t Look back into the Sun’, they were talking about having no regrets – and so it was fitting that when Carl Barat’s new band Dirty Pretty Things stepped onto the Radio1/NME stage they were greeted with the weekend’s first glimpse of unblemished sunshine.
This performance marked a new beginning for DPT – and an optimistic one at that.
Ever since guitarist Barat and former Libs drummer Gary Powell announced that they were to team-up with Anthony Rossomando and Didz Hammond to form DPT they have struggled to dodge the shadow cast over them by tabloid-target and Barat’s former best bud Pete Doherty.
The fact the Babyshambles singer appeared on a prime time TV show on Friday night to make yet more disparaging accusations about his painful split from the Libertines will have cast that darkening cloud even further.
But Sunday’s showing saw the band finally kick off the shackles of Barat’s former band and mark themselves out as stars of the future – in their own right.
Before kicking off with ‘Deadwood’, Barat was met with a thunderous reaction as he strolled on stage in his trade-mark black leather jacket. They rattled threw their new collection of songs from album ‘Waterloo to Anywhere’ with chat between tunes kept to a minimum.
The opening chords of ‘You F*cking Love It’ saw the crowd leap in unison, but any further explanation of the lyrics from this number wouldn’t fit in with our role as a family newspaper.
Barat only addressed the fans once throughout the middle of his set when he declared: “This one is from the Libertines.”
The band confidently then burst into ‘Death in the Stairs’ but didn’t pause once to consider if it would compare positively with The Libertines own rendition. They didn’t need to – this is a band on top of their game.
They then pushed on through ‘Gin and Milk’ before set closer ‘Bang Bang You’re Dead’ and with that firmly shot down their ghosts of the past.
The Libertines are dead – Long live Dirty Pretty Things.
