第154页 Reconciliation

How do you feel at the moment?
Peter: ”The Libertines are united and at liberty once again. I remember my cellmate, he said (adopts ‘heavy’ voice) Yeah, Oasis you gotta shit ‘em”
Carl: ”On the path of dalliance tread lightl/His new friends are quite unsightly/And that’s the way it’s gotta be’
Peter: ”[Prision] was a horrid, glorious affair, it’s no different from day one of The Libertines.”

How have you spent your first day together?
Peter: ”We’ve spent the day together lampooning, doing sketches… I asked for a real beer but he got me a Stella. We had a few things out.”
Carl: ”We’ve had a marvellous day.”

What’s it like being out?
Peter: ”He didn’t go inside.”
Carl: ”I did.”
Peter: ”(With a flourish) I done the time for Carl.”
Carl: ”(With equal flourish) I done the time for Peter.”

What’s prison like?
Carl: ”(Snoring noise) The rats were this big (holds arms apart).”
Peter: ”I dunno - after the appeal and after the sentence got knocked down, in a way I feel like a fraud talking about it in case it ends up glorifying it. Basically I went in - green they call it. Spat in the face and al that but…”
Carl: ”(Cockernee accent) Spat ‘im in the face”
Peter: ”… there’s a lot of talented people and my eyes have been opened. I’ve learned we search the heavens and the stars.”

What were the people like in prision?
Peter: My cellmate was an armed robber. He said, ‘Carlos, he’s a shithouse. I’ll wrap him up and put him in the car boot for you, Pete.’ I said: ‘If you do that you’ll have to do it to me aswell’.”
Carl: ”I heard about that and said if you do that to him, you’ll have to do it to me. Again.”

What was the one thing you wanted to say to each other face to face in the four weeks?
Peter: ”(Without hesitation) I love you… I love you whether you like it or not.”
Carl: ”I said that in last week’s NME - I didn’t intend to, but the buggers printed it already.They caught me off guard.”

What was it like the first time you saw each other out of prison?
Peter: ”I think my nature… urchins go down quite easily, but in prison I held up because people do long sentences. What I’m saying is when I got out I burst into tears ‘cos I seen him and I know if he hadn’t have been there the first thing I would have done is got myself a [crack] pipe.Carl was there though and that was it.”
Carl: ‘‘Don’t you think you’ll fall back into it?”
Peter: ”(To Carl) I’ve been off the pipe for 32 days and I don’t intend to go back while you’re around.”

What about you, Carl?
Carl: ”I feel the same. There was someone who’d been so constant in my dreams and my thoughts and my memories and my hopes. Seeing that face… every time I thought about it I nearly passed out.哎呦.. And then when I did see him all I wanted to do was offer some kind of sanctuary, some kind of asylum. And work together on what’s been said: Liberty, security. These things are subtle but it’s freedom. I just wanted to hold my friend to make him him feel better (adopts Scottish accent), to be there.”
Peter: ”I felt I knew Carl but never understood him. Something dawned on me while I was inside,in the rigidity and mechanisation, about the truth of suffering. I felt like things Carl said years ago washed over me. I understand them for the first time. [It’s] truth really. If Carl hadn’t been there at the gate I wouldn’t be sat here now. I think I’d be at the bottom of the river. I needed to know if it was more than a postcard.”

How’s the Albion?
Carl: ”You may well ask.”
Peter: ”It’s a cross between Porridge and Scum.”
Carl: ”We’re not talking about that any more. The Albion didn’t stop.”
Peter: ”It did list a bit. He tied me up with a knife to my throat and I didn’t go to the police.”
Carl: ”Yes you did, you phoned the police (adopts a whiny voice), ‘Er… I’m a poet’.”
Peter: ”Is that your impression of me being a poet?” 
Carl: ”Nah, you went, ‘Go on, chop us out’ .”(laughs)

What’s the future of The Libertines now?
Peter: ”Trying to consummate the rage.”
Carl: ”(Cheeky American accent) I ain’t got no rage!”
Peter: ”Consummate the age.”

Have you get anything special planned for tonight?
Peter: ”I’m looking forward to it… Just you wait and see.”