After the booing-bonanza that was the Guns ‘n’ Roses set on the Friday night of Reading Festival 2010, there is only one band name on every festival-goers lips – and it isn’t Arcade Fire. A certain hushed sense of anticipation begins to twirl and forge its way from the ground of the site as the giant L-shaped elephant in the room looms. In an era of rock-comebacks, comes the most anticipated of all – at last, The Libertines are coming. After so many no-shows, arguments over who-wrote-what, tabloid tales and rumours, they are finally here. To the rising red curtain of their first-album’s artwork and Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll meet again’, The Libertines swagger onstage on time, after the heart-warming and nostalgic appetiser that is the big-screen slide show of the band’s heyday.
Then, as cool as you like, Pete Doherty, Carl Barat, John Hassell and Gary Powell throw themselves straight into the opener, ‘Horrorshow’. How apt indeed. One thing is for certain, The Libertines sound tighter than ever before. The band’s secret rehearsals seem to have paid off, and we begin to see something shine through that transcends the entire shambolic history of the band – the music.
And as if by magic, we begin to see and hear the heritage of The Libertines. Pete and Carl slip into their roles like an old glove, and we behold what all the fuss was about in the first place. We see the unabashed way they stare into each other’s eyes as they share the microphone รก la Lennon/McCartney. We hear the vital and immediate thrash of duo guitars and bouncing rhythms and counter rhythms as the two duel against each other onstage, as brothers in arms. We see the head-bopping and hear the shoop-shooping of old, as the band hurl themselves shamelessly into a greatest hits set, and the crowd bellow every word, for there is not an unknown song here – this could possibly be the greatest sing-along of our generation.
Perhaps the loudest sing-along is the perfectly-timed ‘What Became of the Likely Lads’, and we witness just that. Here they are, in front of our eyes playing the songs of Albion. Other standout tracks are the obvious ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’, ‘Time For Heroes’ (which is stopped midway through due to a crowd crush) ‘Death on the Stairs’ and ‘Up The Bracket’. Throughout the set, Doherty seems remarkably lucid, and it’s Barat who seems the more nervous out of the two. Nevertheless, The Libertines pulled off what no-one ever thought they would. When their backs were against the wall, they came, triumphed, conquered and stole the weekend from under the noses of Arcade Fire, of whom prior to the show, lead singer Win Butler asked ‘Liber-who?’ – What a divvy.
Ian Easton
