Classic indie-rock band The Libertines are getting back together for a series of shows celebrating the twentieth anniversary of their debut album, Up the Bracket. Having already announced gigs in Edinburgh, Hatfield, Manchester and Cardiff, there’s one more for your diaries now.
The OVO Arena in Wembley will be greeting the band for this special occasion, with them set to play the album in its entirety alongside a number of other “classic” songs. And there’s also going to be some “very special guests“, though who they are only time will tell.
We’re going to Wembley. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 9am x#UPTHEBRACKET20 pic.twitter.com/RR1BDAUWl7
— Libertines (@libertines) March 8, 2022
The band have been on a bit of a touring high as of recent. They’d only just finished their Giddy Up A Ding-Dong Tour last month in Kentish Town’s O2 Forum, and they’ll be giving their European fans a chance to see them live over October and November.
It’s all rather good news considering the delays in their recording output. A follow-up to their 2015 album Anthems for Doomed Youth (only their third studio release in twenty years) has yet to come. Back in 2020, band member Carl Barât talked about the difficulties recording it: “It’s been going well, but it’s been difficult with COVID …. John [Hassall, bass] is in Denmark and Pete [Doherty] is in France. It’s been a fucker to travel …. We’re just waiting to get back and lay stuff down, it’s just a matter of when.”
Despite the difficulties here, band member Pete Doherty has been a bit luckier in terms of finished work, what with his collaborations with French musician Frédéric Lo. The two have been working on a new album in Paris and Normandy, which is to be titled The Fantasy Life of Poetry & Crime (more of which you can read about here). Written whilst Doherty was getting sober before the pandemic, it seems to have paid off with a release set for March 18th. Broadway World describes it as Doherty’s “finest work to date“.
If you fancy reliving your noughties hey-day with the people that made it happen, tickets for the newly announced gig will be on sale this Friday from 9 am, and can be accessed from this link. If you want to have a look at what Pete Doherty’s up to in terms of solo gigs, you can look here. And if a bit of French-infused indie-rock is your cup of tea, you can pre-order Doherty & Lo’s upcoming album from this link.
