Barat follows in the footsteps of Johnny Cash for prison gig

"I know I had it coming

I know I can't be free

But those people keep a'moving and that's what tortures me."

So goes Johnny Cash's country classic "Folsom Prison Blues" about a prisoner watching the outside world continue without him. Cash sympathised with the plight of inmates and famously began performing at American correctional facilities in the late 1950s, recording two live albums, at Folsom and San Quentin.

Now ourJustice Ministry has sanctioned a "Johnny Cash-style" concert in Pentonville Prison, north London, starring the indie bands Dirty Pretty Things and The Enemy. The gig will be held on Bank Holiday Monday, 27 August. It aims to draw awareness to Wasted Youth, a campaign to reduce the high incidence of suicide among young men. The Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, gave the event the green light after considering the security of the bands.

There is a neat circularity: Dirty Pretty Things frontman Carl Barat visited a prison four years ago to meet his Libertines bandmate Pete Doherty. Doherty spent two months in jail for breaking into Barat's flat and has since been in and out of prisons - including Wandsworth and Pentonville - for drug offences.

Organisers wanted Doherty to be on the bill for the Pentonville gig but his involvement was vetoed by the Prison Service over fears it would obscure the suicide prevention campaign.

Barat will play a three-piece acoustic set in the Pentonville atrium next to prisoners' cells. Then Dirty Pretty Things and The Enemy will play a set in the 180-capacity prison chapel.

Barat's publicist said: "They asked Carl to do it and told us how many young males are killing themselves every year, especially in prisons. It was a case of 'Hang on, what can we do about it?'"

The concert is the brainchild of Dan Fulvio, a journalist at the celebrity magazine Heat. His 22-year-old brother, Steven, killed himself on Christmas Eve last year. Fulvio has since worked to bring together three suicide prevention charities: the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM), the Samaritans and Papyrus, which supports victims' families. His Wasted Youth campaign aims to use music to get men to talk about their problems.

"Steven dying came as a complete shock," said Fulvio. "There's an ingrained view in young men that talking about personal pressures is a sign of weakness. Being silent isn't being strong; it's damaging." Suicide is the most common cause of death in men under 35 and men are nearly three times more likely than women to take their own lives. Last year 67 British prisoners committed suicide. This year it is already 59.

Conditions at Victorian-built Pentonville are "a matter of deep shame", the prisons watchdog said last week, citing the "endemic squalor", rats, cockroaches and understaffing. The new governor, Nick Leader, told The Independent that prisons must cope with "unprecedented numbers of prisoners, many of whom are vulnerable and at increased risk of self harm and suicide".

There will be a second gig at Camden club Koko on 8 September to raise funds for CALM to run a helpline. Tickets cost £15 at ticketweb.co.uk. Acts include The Rakes and Boy Kill Boy.