Rockin’ with Carl Barat on the Road to V

Since his shambolic, guitar-rock four-piece The Libertines inevitibly self-destructed in 2004 after two poetic/punk albums (a demise mostly thanks to co-crooner Pete Doherty: jailbird junkie and current lead songster of Babyshambles), singer, songwriter and sometime DJ Carl Barat has moved on to pastures cleaner and greener.

Now the frontman of flourishing Brit band Dirty Pretty Things, Barat has just been announced as the final addition to the panel of advisers at Road to V: the ‘next big thing’ in the UK’s search for unsigned musical talent.

Presently in its fifth year, Road to V has made its name by appealing to the nation’s musically-inspired mere mortals to compete for the exclusive break to open the Virgin V Festival, held annually in Chelmsford and Staffordshire in August.

So far the event has nurtured some remarkable new talent, with bands such as The Young Knives, The Brightlights and Bombay Bicycle Club all having taken its influential stage.

The Road to V gig will see the lucky winner (or winners) on the bill of one of the UK’s largest festivals, advised en route by its mentors which includes Barat and other big-name industry figures such as Mark Beaumont from NME, A&R man Sav Remzi and Paul Samuels from Crown Music Management.

The selected 2008 finalists will play gigs in London and Liverpool (to be broadcast during the summer on Channel 4) where 14 bands will perform and be voted for by our selected celebrity melody masters, and then the legions of loyal fans watching will have the final say.

Barrat’s credentials as a noble and talented lyricist, vocalist and guitarist, and as one half (and some might say ‘the better half’) of a duo once destined to be the next big thing (but we all know what went wrong there) lend significantly to his being selected to judge Road to V.

Once seen as a shadow to his higher-profile other half Pete Doherty – who revelled in the attention he invited for being a crack addict, model-shagger and general piss-taker – it seems that it’s Barat who’s come out on top. Certainly being a mentor to the next generation of rock, and an inspiration to all of those aspiring young skinny-jeaned rock things out there must feel good for the Dirty Pretty Thing. It sure beats sitting in a cell feeling sorry for yourself.