Dirty Pretty Things 'Bloom' With Nirvana Cover

Dirty Pretty Things, the British group fronted by former Libertines co-frontman Carl Barat made a bold move during their appearances at the UK's Reading and Leeds festivals this past weekend: The London-based group took on Nirvana's 'In Bloom' for the first time, in front of UK Nirvana-worshipping festival audiences to great success.

"Everyone said they liked it," a bemused Barat told Spinner after his band's Leeds festival slot. "This not the f---ing rush for land with everybody staking claims."

"The point is," American guitarist Anthony Rossomando said, "We don't give a f---. We thought it'd be f---ing cool and we love that band."

If the Dirty Pretty Things sound slightly defensive, it's because the festival's audience holds Nirvana on high after the Kurt Cobain fronted group made a significant impact on Britain after their 1992 Reading set, which NME readers voted the most significant moment in the Seattle band's history recently.

Dirty Pretty Things have no immediate plans to add the cover to their sets, but aren't opposed to breaking out in the future. Whether American fans will get to hear it live however remains up in the air as there are no immediate plans to tour the U.S. for their sophore album, 'Romance At Short Notice,' which came out in the UK in May, but has yet to be released Stateside.

"I haven't got the foggiest," Barat said about the proposed U.S. release. "America washed their hands of us."

"No, we're just on some massive label over there and we didn't get on Top 40 radio -- the barometer being such a shallow level," Rossomando noted about the band's debut album, 'Waterloo to Anywhere.' "We don't really know what's going on in the States. Everyone's been on holiday over there as well, so we've just been sticking to doing our festival gigs."

Still, the band hope to make it Stateside by early '09, the country much of the new album was recorded in with superproducer Dave Sardy (Oasis), last fall. "I love the Americans," Barat said.

"We'd like to come there and do some tours," Rossomando added. "But we've got to find the right people to release the album we have, there."