The Libertines' Albion Rooms gigs - 2003
Doherty, Powell and Barat in their flat, 'The Albion Rooms'.
The Libertines guerrilla gigs
April 2003
The Libertines had recently signed a record deal and released their debut album 'Up the Bracket'. They were being hailed as Britain's best new band. Pete Doherty and Carl Barat had started living together in a flat in Bethnal Green which they used at various stages throughout their Libertines life as a impromptu venue for 'guerrilla gigs'. Through an intricate network of email, texts and web postings the band would announce their next sing-a-long to their 'online community' and the Albion army would descend. This was a particularly busy period for the Albion Rooms with fans cramming themselves into the living room as the police vans rolled up outside.
Related Pages
- On the BBC
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I was there
Related Programme
What The World Is Waiting For - Indie 1980-2007
The story of British indie, beginning with The Smiths, the archetypal indie group.
Have Your Say
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rob,surrey
i liked the libertines they were the only band who created that devotion between the crowd and audience since oasis. it was a shame they split and then they created to decent bands DPT(dirty pretty things) and babyshambles i especially like babyshambles but neither band will be as good as the libertines.Cooper, Nottingham
The libertines? One the best bands ever, most definitely the best for removing the barrier between fan and artist. Any body who disagrees knows nothing about music and what it should be aboutEnd of.klim,London
wow, you need to be a bit more open minded, to be quite honest thet never lost it...and about the second album, top quality (Ask Any Fan!), Up the bracket was marginaly better. And the libertines got closer to their fans then any other band. They have influenced british music for the best, making poetry of none other with a great rock feel.dean merrick, cambridge
the libertines have everything perfect with a rough edge the perfect combination. the love hate relationship of pete and carl was shown in songs cant stand me now and hat became of the likely lads. this give them true meaning. they have a huge cult following... stillheavyhorse
Albion Army? Oh, please...The nice thing about the libertines was that for roughly six months between june 2002 and december 2002 they were able to completely avoid the conveyor belt of the music industry and exists outside all forms of it - that included not being played by radio at all (A GOOD THING), not generating a blanket of positive publicity - most of the press initially hated them (A GOOD THING), not talking to audiences while performing (A GOOD THING), not being overtly eager-to-please their fans (A GOOD THING). By early 2003 they had begun to lost it. I have no idea why they are at 2004 in your timeline, seeing as this was the year they released their awful second album (ask any fan), became tabloid favourites and split up. Their heyday started the week 'What a Waster' was released and ended at their Rhythm Factory Christmas gig on 18th December 2002. If you weren't there then tough love.Oh, and Betty who? ...haha. Bad choice, why not get Peter Ackroyd or Michael Bracewell? Someone the band actually admire and have something in common with?
Banny Poostchi
Manager
Managed The Libertines.
Betty Clarke
Guardian journalist
Followed the band for a series of articles