Indie icons The Libertines has spoken about their recent decision to reform and play at Reading and Leeds.
Military jackets. Scuzzy guitars. Anguished vocals. Lyrics that speak of alienation in modern Britain. Sounds familiar? The template for almost every major British guitar band over the past decade was forged by The Libertines.
Collapsing into an undignified heap in 2004, the band split into several solo projects. Re-uniting last year for a charity show, The Libertines have now decided to reform in order to headline Reading and Leeds.
With some reports suggesting that an offer of £1.5 million was made for the group’s services, the band have been quick to assert the reasoning behind their decision to reform.
Speaking at a press conference, Pete Doherty said: “It’s not really our choice, we all want to play with each other but we just have to find the right moment, like even today is a bit strange for us as you can imagine. So any chance to play is great and Reading and Leeds is as a good as a place as any to tear it up.”
Meanwhile, Carl Barat revealed some of the scheduling difficulties behind the re-union. “We’ve all been doing different things, from the demise of the Dirty Pretty Things, I’ve started my own band, Pete’s been constantly working on his solo career and the Babyshambles, John’s living in Denmark and also started a family and has been working with Yeti – so we have all been pursuing musical projects. So its not been for the lack of want. We have just all been busy playing, or trying to play music.”
Later, The Libertines refused to rule out a long term re-union with drummer Gary Powell explaining: “Everyone that’s into the Libertines knows that you never really know at any time what is going to happen with the band on a day to day basis and that’s pretty much what has brought us to the point we are at today.”
“It’s all up in the air and one day in the life of the Libertines isn’t really going to be like the next day. And it goes the same for the music. There is a very laissez faire approach to how we do music.”
