Dirty Pretty Things – The Final Interview
By Jamie Fullerton
Posted on 21/12/08 at 01:37:25 pm
http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=10&p=5490&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1#more5490
So, bang bang they're dead etc. – Dirty Pretty Things played their final
show last night (December 20), and it was an emotional one. See the NME news
report for the full shizzle about what went on onstage.
Meanwhile, half-an-hour after the last amp was switched off, Carl Barat and
Anthony Rossomando prised themselves into a dressing room toilet cubicle with
me for their final DPT interview. Read it below in full.
continued...
I’ve omitted the sporadic yells of “FUCK OFF!” from Carl as people
repeatedly battered their fists on the door, convinced something more illicit
than a chat and a fag was going on in the room (it wasn't). But aside from
that, here is the final Dirty Pretty Things interview in full:
You’ve just played your final gig and DPT is no more. How was it?
Carl: I choked up a couple of times. But I learned very early on not to cry
during a song.
Anthony: I saved all mine [tears] for after the gig.
Carl: During 'Truth Begins' I was like… [makes choking noise].
Anthony: All I could think about was being in the desert [recording second
album ‘Romance At Short Notice at the end of 2007] when we were singing that
song. It was fucking great for me. I can’t help it. I see the thing you
shouldn’t think about, and the thing you should, and go for the wrong one,
always. But it’s alright.
You said you wanted to go out with a bang, but on stage you were quite sombre
…
Carl: Being a gentleman from the school of theatre, I didn’t want to do a
ridiculous finale, showstopping fireworks…
Anthony: It’s like New Year’s Eve for everyone who’s had New Year’s Eve
20 days a month, like we have for the past three years. When there’s a
build-up or expectation, it’s just… it is what it is.
Did you go out like you wanted to?
Anthony: I have no idea.
Carl: I can’t really tell. I had so many preparations for this in my mind. I
’ve got this thing where I plan something and I think I’ve done it when I
haven’t done it.
Anthony: For me it was holding back tears all the time.
Carl: Tears don’t work on stage, man.
Anthony: I opened my eyes [before the show] with tears in them and realised I
was in the fuckin’ washroom with wash buckets and stuff on my own. I
thought, ‘This is kinda depressing, maybe I should just go back in the room’
.
You’ve had a blast though, haven’t you?
Anthony: It’s been amazing. We’ve had this incredible following.
Carl: Every night has been like the nights I dreamed of when I was 14. Like ‘
The Doors’ film [the 1991 documentary by Oliver Stone]. I thought I was a
raconteur – then I wouldn’t have had to play tonight, I could have just
told stories. But I’m not.
Anthony: There was a lot of cameras and staring.
Carl: For me, because I’m such a mumbler, if I go [makes low-pitched
mumbling noise] the crowd will go [makes imitating mumbling noise], and if I
go [high-pitched mumbling noise] the crowd will go, ‘Yeeeah!’
Anthony: You need to express yourself in song!
Carl: People knew what they were in for. Why put out any of the cheese? Why
spend three years not catering for the cheesy stuff then…
Anthony: We’ve never been a ‘show band’ or a talkative…
Carl: As appealing as it is to have that, we just stuck to having everyone
bow after the gig, do one, do two, then do an extra one.
Carl and Anthony sing goodbye to fans after the final Dirty Pretty Things gig
No regrets, then?
Anthony: Maybe about a couple of kids I’ve got in south America… [This is a
joke! – Legal Web Ed]. I never really liked the band name, but we were
pressurised into starting the band so quickly. But it does sum up what we
believed in, like, gaffer taped boots and Carl’s messy teeth, the same way
Winehouse is a fuckin’ genius but she’s a fuckin’ mess – we’ve always
liked the mess. I’ve got Carl’s teeth now! [Both grin and show off
brown-tinged gnashers]
Carl: It looks like I’ve eaten a crap.
When you first announced the split you told NME you’d learned a lot about
how not to be in a band. What did you mean?
Anthony: Probably about picking the right people to work for the band
outwardly.
Carl: Work for? That’s a shiftaround. Work with!
Anthony: I do mean with.
Carl: I do have regrets. I have to refer you to Max Weber and functionalism –
democracy can’t always work. I was a bit idealistic. I wanted a band of
brothers and friends. We had that for a while. Occasionally things went awry.
Our hearts were always in the same place. We were all very young in different
ways. Yeah, I do have regrets, but I wouldn’t change anything.
DPT sign off at the end of their final gig
Carl, you told NME you’ve been working on solo stuff, what about you,
Anthony?
Anthony: I don’t know how to relax. I had a girlfriend for a while who used
to help me relax but now I don’t, so I’m fucked. I’m producing a few
things. I’m going to work on a few records, but anything I say will sound
like namedropping bullshit so I’ll just leave it. Carl and I have some plans
which are pretty awesome. We’re going to write some cool shit. It’ll be
free and it’ll be creative. We did two records and toured for three and a
half year and it was great. We kind of went out the way we came in, without
as much fuckin’ media blitz.
Carl: The day the expectation and the regimentation of the band died was the
day we became friends again.
Anthony: It was like slicing out a cyst, or something. I don’t think we ever
fitted in the suit. We threw a record together and the first album was in the
top three, or something. It was way too much too soon to be what Carl wanted
in the first place. But because we were so idealistic about it we didn’t pay
attention to the expectation on it. We’ve always been in a bubble.
OK, people keep knocking on the cubicle door so we’d better head out – your
final message to DPT fans?
Carl: Thank you.
Anthony: We’ve had an incredible, incredible response from people, the gigs
have been amazing. We’ve been incredibly blessed.
Carl: Thank you for your attention, your patience, your belief and
understanding, through what you’ve done it’s invigorated us. It’s not dead
yet, far from it.
Anthony: From the way the fans have been it’s always been about us as
individuals as well.
Carl: Are you going to go on ‘Celebrity Big Brother’?
Anthony: I think we’re ready for ‘lost weekend phase’…
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