Carl Barât

[2010] I am part French, Russian and Polish, so I see a little mystery and a large percentage of averageness. If I look to the side, I see an enormous nose. Its shape comes from my dad, but not its proportion. My nose is broken, and I have a wonky eye from where I smashed my face in five years ago: I got very drunk at a difficult time in my life with The Libertines and I took it out on myself with a big marble sink. Two years ago, I went to Moscow at the end of a six-year binge and drank loads of vodka while taking decongestant pills. I got pancreatitis. At the time I wasn't bothered - I was just happy to go to hospital, get high for free and watch TV. On reflection, though, it was a bit of a dalliance with mortality. I still like a little drink, especially when I am on tour, and I smoke too many cigarettes, but I am getting better at looking after myself, with the help of a special lady called Edie. And now that Edie and I are having a baby in December, there's a whole new experience I want to be in slightly better shape for. I've got a tattoo on my arm. It says Libertine in my own scrawl. Pete [Doherty] has got one on his wrist that I wrote, too. My tattoo's been replicated a lot. I was outside a venue in LA and three girls said, "Can you write Libertine on our arms, so we can get them tattooed?" After the gig, they were outside with their dad - who was really angry. Show less «