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| After a chance meeting at London\'s New Cross scene, the core members of The Libertines, Carl Barat(vocals, guitar) and Pete Doherty(vocals, guitar) formed, after dicovering a shared passion for romantic britishness and indie and punk (as well as recreational drug use). Th |
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After a chance meeting at London\'s New Cross scene, the core members of The Libertines, Carl Barat(vocals, guitar) and Pete Doherty(vocals, guitar) formed, after dicovering a shared passion for romantic britishness and indie and punk (as well as recreational drug use). They then rented a flat in west London, which they christened The Albion Rooms. After a few changes (including Razorlight frontman Johnny Borrell), the final line-up added John Hassall (bass), and Gary Powell (drums). In early interviews, Carl and Pete often spoke of \'sailing the good ship Albion to Arcadia\'. They explained that Albion was England, and that Arcadia was their vision of a better place. However, they also insisted that Carl was born in a kitchen sink, Pete\'s previous job was a gravedigger, and they once auditioned an 80 year old jazz drummer called Mr Razzcocks. (All of these later turned out to be true). Initially, critics failed to be inspired by the band\'s unique vision of England, with more cynical onlookers requesting \'Knees up, Mother Brown\'. However, after several gigs in west London (as well as practically reinventing guerilla gigging), they attracted the attention of Alan McGee, the manager who discovered Oasis. From then on, interest rose. Debut single \'What A Waster\' reached the top 40, and got an NME single of the week. Double A-side \'Time For Heroes\' and \'I Get Along\' was critically acclaimed, and on the month that \'Don\'t Look Back Into The Sun\' smashed into the top ten, they released their debut album \'Up The Bracket\'. Although without the aforementioned single, it was well recieved, and they soon became the band everyone was talking about. However, disaster arose. Pete Doherty, whose heroin addiction had been spiralling all this time (Carl once smashed his head into a sink after a paticularly strong argument), was temporarily kicked out of the band in order to sort himself out. Pete saw it as an act of betrayal, and responded by burgling Carl\'s flat. He was later sentenced to two months at Wandsworth prison. However, he came out relatively clean, and their friendship was rekindled. They then won the best British band at the NME wards, beating off the likes of Radiohead and Oasis, and got a new producer, Mick Jones, guitarist with legendary punk band The Clash. However, while recording their second album, Doherty started taking heroin again, and his relationship with Carl was again tested. Rumour has it that McGee had hired two bodyguards to stop the two attacking each other during recording. Eventually, the band decided Pete should come clean, and was sent to various drug rehabilitation centres (including a stint at a Thai monastery). Howver, this was to no avail. During this time, Pete also formed a band with side-project Babyshambles, and duetted with close friend Wolfman to get a No. 7 with \'For Lovers\'. In August, the new single \'Can\'t Stand Me Now\' (written about Pete and Carl\'s fragile relationship) got to No. 2 in the charts, and they got a No.1 album titled \'The Libertines\', which was every bit as good as the previous one. Although the band played many festivals without Pete, he is currently trying to slowly get clean. Recently the band have played many gigs for anti-racism, and ironically, anti-drugs causes, and have a new single out soon.
Bio written by: Bulldog |
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The Libertines Reunion!!!
LIBERTINES REUNION
CARL BARAT and PETE DOHERTY have reunited
this evening (April 18) for the first time in
almost a year.
The estranged Libertines were spotted
together at the Boogaloo Bar in Highgate,
North London, at around 11:30pm tonight and
despite the events of the past year, an
eyewitness present told NME.COM that the
meeting was friendly and enthusiastic on both
men’s part.
The reunion occurred when Barat arrived at
the bar at 10pm and was told there was a
strong possibility that his former bandmate
would also be visiting the pub that evening.
Having learnt of the possible reunion, Barat
became philosophical and told those around
him that “it might as well happen now,
because it’s going to happen sometime”.
It finally did happened at 11.30pm when
Doherty arrived at the bar. Both Libertines
seemed nervous at first, but greeted each
other with a hug and began talking together
on a leather sofa.
After several minutes of chatting the pair
then hugged again, this time with more
affection, and then amusingly started to
compliment each other on their clothes. This
ended with Barat and Doherty jokingly showing
off their jacket labels to one another.
The meeting this evening is the first time
the two Libertines have seen each other, let
alone talked, since the opening night of
Barat’s London club Dirty Pretty Things on
June 8 last year, nearly ten months ago.
That night The Libertines played a gig
together before Doherty began his aborted
detox treatment at a Thai monastery.
For more news on Barat and Doherty’s reunion,
stay tuned to NME.COM.
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Rudie_Boy |
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Replys
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Listener
| REJOICE ROCK FANS EVERYWHERE!!! Their saga
might just not be over yet... | stoneagepunk | if they could really reuntite and release
more music, well, it would be the best thing
for years! i know pete is commited to
babyshambles but o well, if they release an
album itll probs be gud neway.but libertines
should be bac! | RoCkMuSiCrOcKs99 | the libertines were just way better than
babyshambles are.. *shrug*.
so theyd better get together sometime. cause
thatd be interesting, it would.. | xzar | say if they did get back together. would they
ever scale the heights they have before?
doherty's media attention is destroying
his identity as an underground poet & icon,
the libertines would probably go mainstream,
if they arent already - would a mainstream
libertines have the same punch & zest? I
doubt it. Having said that a reunion would be
awesome - best music news this year, and
might rekindle my faith in mankind after the
crazy frog saga. | GoldenSoul | | | |
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