The Libertines
I have to admit that The Libertines are a band that for some reason or the other somehow passed me by back in their heyday! All of the hype kind of put me off of investigating them any further at the time, what with them being in the press and on TV all too often it just put me off and stopped me from delving too deeply and so this evening I am here more out curiosity, than as a fan to see the reformed band on their pre-Christmas jaunt around the UK for their Giddy Up A Ding-Dong tour.
The Hedonistic days when Doherty was allegedly a crack cocaine and heroin addict are all but a distant memory now, just a mere flicker of the past glory days when Pete Doherty also had a super model on his arm. These days he lives a much less dramatic lifestyle in the main at his home in France since getting arrested twice in twenty four hours in 2019 in Paris for fighting and buying cocaine.
The energy is still very clearly there in abundance and the room is in an instant overjoyed at their return, opening up with What A Waster. Chaos ensues on the floor, it’s an absolute frenzy with beer glasses fly through the air and it rapidly becomes a very sweaty mosh pit. They can do no wrong at all as they crash full on into a twenty one song set list, each song as blistering as the other.
The show features no new material and is more of a greatest hits package than anything else, but nobody in the room is arguing with that at all just now.
These days Doherty looks nothing like the skinny young man that we all remember, he is quite podgy but seems mega happy to be back playing with his band mates this evening, all the well documented fall outs seem a thing of the past at least while they are on stage together this evening.
You’re My Waterloo calms the evening down a bit for a little while for a welcome breather, with Barat playing piano rather beautifully. But it’s the big hitters that go down the best with the maddening crowd, What Katie Did, What Became of the Likely Lads and Don’t Look Back Into The Sun.
Fair play to Doherty and his band mates of Barat, Hassall and Powell for getting the band and the show back on the road. The hero worship continues as they conclude their set and take a bow at the front of the stage, the crowd are in raptures, but I am left still wondering after all of these years what all of the fuss has been about.
