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Tracey Moberly
Pete Doherty And Carl Barat To Appear In Online Comedy
They are set to play themselves...
May 05, 2009
Pete Doherty, Carl Barat and Alan McGee have all signed up to star in a new online comedy about aspiring rock 'n' roll stars.
Entitled Svengali, the project is the brainchild of former Shameless star Jonathan Owen and the show has already garnered a cult following thanks to the help of former Creation boss McGee.
He has enlisted former Libertines stars Doherty and Barat and he hopes to get even bigger names in the future.
One of those names could be Oasis' Noel Gallagher, McGee told the BBC: "Anything is possible. We know everybody."
He added: "Because I know almost everybody in the music business, it's not that hard for me to phone them up and go, 'do you want to be in a viral thing?'
"I'm just having a laugh. It's not serious. I'm not trying to get a Bafta or an Oscar.
"I'm playing Alan McGee with guys that I've just met who I like. And bizarrely, it works and I like the people, so I'll carry on doing it."
The show centres around Owen who plays the manager of a new band called Premature Congratulations and his attempts to get them signed.
At one point he tries to convince Doherty and Barat to reform the Libertines so his band can support them.
Speaking about the show, Owen said: "It's a parody of the world of rock 'n' roll.
"But you can't parody rock 'n' roll because it's the only profession in the world where bad behaviour is actively encouraged, and I don't think there's another industry like that. It's a perfect world to capture on camera.
"I wanted to use real rock and pop stars to play themselves. People love to send themselves up so I was absolutely delighted that people like Alan McGee and Carl Barat came in and played themselves, and more people now want to be in it as well."
The actor has already been approached by several companies, including Stephen Fry's production company, to turn the show into a film.
