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The Libertines biography
THE LIBERTINES BIOGRAPHY
Two years ago, with the release of their debut album, Up The Bracket, The Libertines were Britain's most touted rock and roll band. With a deadpan delivery and charity shop chic, singer Pete Doherty championed English culture. The band's singular music drew comparisons to quintessentially English acts like The Kinks, The Jam and Blur. 2002's Up The Bracket album was hailed as a masterpiece by the critics, combining effervescent garage punk with a music hall swagger. Two years later, at the time of writing, the band are in turmoil, torn apart by Doherty's heroin addiction. Earlier this year Doherty broke into bandmate Carl Barat's flat to steal items to sell for his drug habit. Ironically, Doherty, who for now has been sacked from the band, once told Q magazine: "The more you read and the more you teach yourself, the less you rely on something like drugs to take you to a better place."
Doherty and Barat started the band back in 1996. Doherty was born in Liverpool but the family later moved to London. Doherty first spotted Barat at a local Liverpool gig but the pair soon moved to East London where they shared digs. The pair began writing songs together and playing acoustic gigs in London pubs. Friends, bassists and drummers all drifted through the band until they were joined in 2001 by the current lineup of bassist John Hassall and drummer Gary Powell.
After securing a deal with Rough Trade Records, The Libertines were hailed as one of the best new bands of 2002, constantly feted by the NME and indie music commentators. Former Suede guitarist Bernard Butler signed on to produce the band's debut single What A Waster - three minutes of peculiarly suburban punk that reached No.27 in the charts despite a ban-baiting flurry of swear words. Naturally, it was NME single of the week.
Doherty's deadpan cockney delivery and the band's expertly shambolic mish-mash of punk revisionism, garage rock and pub-brawling swagger, soon drew in even more fans, including former Clash guitarist Mick Jones who was brought in to produce the band's debut album. "I think they're the most important band in Britain today," said Jones.
Up The Bracket was released to critical acclaim in October 2002. An intelligence and vitality shone through their thick Guinness fog. The band could swap styles with ease - from the Clash influenced title track to the ragged country waltz of Radio America and the unhinged, pub-brawl of The Boy Looked At Johnny. The Libertines had also been adept at utilising the internet to build their fanbase and at the same time deglamourising the idea of rock star and fan, helping to bring themselves closer to their audience. Doherty was the catalyst for the band's growing community of fans, arranging secret gigs via the band's website message boards and handpicking as many as eight bands for support slots.
Libertines manager and former Creation Records boss Alan McGee says the band have spawned something as vital as punk back in 1978. "They've spawned a freshness and a rejuvenation of the entire rock and roll scene," he says. "They've found a way round the music business. It's very web based. We put a message up on one of the Libertines messageboards saying they were playing the Forum and we sold 5,500 tickets. They're as vital as Oasis were in the '90s."
"They've changed people's attitude to music," says the Libertines A&R man James Endeacott. "Now people of all shapes and sizes are picking up guitars and having a go. Music should be more about passion and less about EQ levels and money."
At the time of writing the band are about to release their second album, entitled The Libertines. The band exist without Pete, having recently played recent gigs without Pete. Guitarist Carl Barat says he'll take Pete back if he kicks his drug habit. Meanwhile Doherty continues to pledge his allegiance to the band but is also working on his side project Babyshambles and solo material. (In 2004 year he had a Top Ten solo hit with the single For Lovers featuring his friend, Wolfman)
The band's new single, Can't Stand Me Now, taken from their eponymously titled second album, is an ode to the faltering relationship between Doherty and Barat. Elsewhere the high octane punk of Arbeit Macht Frei and What Became Of The Likely Lads suggests the band are far from finished.
"I consider myself a Libertine all the time," Doherty told the NME in July 2004. "At the moment this is the greatest time. The new album is breathtaking. It makes me happy and proud, playing the music and kids dancing, kids being inspired."
"People see a folk hero in Pete. He's very approachable. He obviously means it 100 per cent," says Alan McGee before adding, perhaps thoughtlessly, "He's prepared to die for it."
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