Alan McGee on managing The Libertines: ‘They were completely out of control’


libertines

Alan McGee has looked back on his time as manager of The Libertines and admitted it was the one chapter in his musical career when things were ‘completely out of control’.

McGee was in conversation with The Guardian discussing his new autobiography Creation Stories, and revealed that despite all his trials and tribulations as head of the Creation label, it was managing The Libertines which proved to be his most demanding task.

“I couldn’t control it,” he said. “Everything else, I’ve been able to control the scenarios. The Libertines were completely out of control.”

“I was instated as the Libertines’ manager and by the Monday or Tuesday we were in Wales, hence that whole bit of madness in the book,” he continued, referring to a passage which details the meeting between Carl Barat‘s head and a sink. “That was totally true, Carl’s eye was hanging out of his head. There was so much blood it was unbelievable. He managed to do £400-worth of damage to a big marble sink.”

Although his apparent retirement from music arrived soon after, McGee has since returned this year with the new label 359 Music.


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