I recently visited the pilgrimage of The Libertines: the ‘Up the Bracket’ alley. The piece of rock history is located in Bethnal Green, London. Situated a short walk away is also the start of the bands legacy: the ‘Albion Rooms’ – famous for the bands lawless guerrilla gigs. To any fan of The Libertines the archetypal alley is definitely something worth witnessing. The name is derived from the location being a feature on the music video for the energetic single ‘Up the Bracket’. It has been a place of admiration and celebration of the band’s powerful music since the famous vicious fallout in 2004. Albeit it’s not exactly Abbey Road’s zebra crossing but a shambolic surrounding of a graffiti covered alley in Bethnal Green seems only fitting for the famously chaotic rock band.
The lyric decorated walls give off an array of a cult fondness for the detrimental band of the early 2000’s. A complete corridor of infatuation displays messages littered on the walls expressing a mixture of emotions which have been posted at different times throughout the past decade. There’s messages of support for Pete and his well-documented drug addiction, pleas for the beloved band to reform, impressive pieces of album artwork done by passionate fans with paint brushes. It was a rather moving experience seeing such emotion spilled out through sharpie pens, spray cans and paint brushes on the heavily decorated walls. If Carl, Pete, John and Gary need any reassurance of why they need to carry on making music they just need to take a stroll down the alley.
Questions we all want to know have been poised to to the band on the walls of iconic alley: ‘What actually became of the likely lads?’, ‘Where is the third album lads?’ with hope they would somehow, someday be answered. 2014 answered all the questions.
On April 20th, 2014 the band posted a picture of London’s Hyde Park on their Facebook page. Social media spiralled out of control, awakening so many buried reunion rumours. It was a statement that gave devoted fans sleepless nights of anticipation and excitement. 5 days later it was announced they would be performing in front of 60,000 people at Hyde Park. A pure moment of ecstasy was shared by Libertines fans on Facebook and Twitter. Following the successful Hyde Park gig came two sold out shows at Alexander Palace and 10 European dates, in addition to two headline sets at European festivals: Benicassim and Optimus Alive. Any thoughts of The Libertines being just another nostalgic act out to chase money was quelled when they signed to Virgin EMI. The deal means a third album is definitely on its way.
Pete has also declared himself in recovery of his loitered drug addiction – the professionally published poet has plenty of work ahead of him providing he stays clean. He has more than a decade’s worth of life experience, we’ve seen a decade’s worth of government changes, changes in society – there’s hardly a limitation on inspiration for writing. Carl Barat and Pete Doherty will positively look back on the days of turmoil and use it as inspiration for writing. The times of having security at recording sessions to keep them from fighting are hopefully withdrawn.
The one single aspect of the alley which really stood out was the shared, almost cliché notion of ‘Sailing on the Albion ship to Arcadia’. ‘Arcadia’ has always been an idea that Carl and Pete have set as the bands goal and main drive. A utopia without any rules or authority. Over the past decade fans have never let go of that notion, even at most unlikely times the dream still remained. The dream started at the Albion Rooms and the legacy has been cemented up to the present day. There is no other band in the extensive history of music that can record two albums, reform a decade later and sell out a place that the monumental Rolling Stones did the just year before.
Its 10 years on from the fallout and the ‘Up the Bracket’ alley optimises the continued love for The Libertines over the years. A year of successful gigs, headline shows and plans to release new material has enabled everyone to extremely excited about an optimistic future. The Libertines have been one most important bands in rock history and will continue their voyage to the ultimate utopia of Arcadia in allegiance of a unique and unexampled fan base.
Words By Aaron Spencer