Life’s a beach for Libertine hoteliers Barât and Doherty
On the record
Pete Doherty and Libertines band mate Carl Barât do, it would appear, like to be beside the seaside. That’ll be why, when the pair decamped from their Margate base in September 2022 for some distraction-free songwriting time, they chose the tropical calm of Jamaica’s Port Antonio.
The result is the band’s fourth studio album All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade – their first in nine years.
Indeed, album opener and single Run, Run, Run, a singalong punk rock anthem, is, Barât says, “about being trapped, and trying to escape your dismal life. The worst thing for The Libertines would be to get stuck in a ‘Run-runrun’ rut, constantly trying to relive our past.”
Instead, the pair reconvened with bandmates, bassist John Hassall and drummer Gary Powell, from their various
“All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanad feels like we were all actually in the same place, at the same speed, and we really connected” - Carl Barât
new-found homes in France, Denmark, Margate and London, to The Albion Rooms – the hotel-cum-recording studio run by Doherty and Barât in Margate, with Grammynominated producer Dimitri Tikovoï (The Horrors/Charli XCX/Becky Hill), for four weeks of recording in February and March last year.
The end product, eleven new Libertines songs with writing credits shared among the four band members, saw, according to Doherty, the foursome “really came together as a band. It was a moment of rare peace and unity, with all the members contributing.”
For Barât, the whole Libertines journey has been leading to this moment. “Our first record (2002’s Up The Bracket) was born out of panic, and disbelief that we were actually allowed to be in a studio.
“The (self-titled) second was born of total strife and misery; the third (Anthems For Doomed Youth was born of complexity)... this one feels like we were all actually in the same place, at the same speed, and we really connected.”
Doherty adds: “We’re over the moon, and the ball is in the back of the net… and I’m chuffed for the lads!”
He adds, more seriously, “I feel like we’ve completed a cycle of some kind as a band, and finally now we can add these songs to the set list, because we’ve got some bangers in there. Now we’ve opened the hotel and used the studio ourselves and it’s all worked out – more Libertines records? I should hope so!”