We'll Meet Again - The Libertines live at the HMV Forum 25/08/10 – First Reunion Show

The boys in the band.

As a successful ballot entrant, it was with an air of smugness that I made my way through the crowds gathering outside the HMV Forum for tonights pre-Reading, Libertines reunion show. A number of young libertines held sheets of A4 with hastily scrawled pleas of how much they were willing to pay for a ticket. “Massive Libertines Fan Will Pay £100 for One Ticket” read one, the black ink weeping from the lined paper as the heavy rain diluted the wretched note without mercy. Was I tempted to capitulate to any capitalist tendencies for a 200% return on my investment? My decision not to buckle was totally vindicated after witnessing an 80 minute lust-laden Libertines set, a show you simply cannot put a price on.


The lights dimmed at around nine o'clock and by this time the venue was on tenterhooks. The two large screens straddling the stage flickered into life and began to reminisce with the crowd, sharing images and memories from the band's heyday. It was hard not to go dewy-eyed as the memories of yesteryear were  washed ashore to the sound of Vera Lynn’s ‘We’ll Meet Again’, the perfect accompaniment to the lovingly compiled photo montage. As Vera took a bow to whoops and cheers, the back curtain dropped to the floor and unveiled the classic red/black ‘Up the Bracket’ backdrop bringing the crowd to united state of paralysis; it was now the time for their heroes to grace the same stage for the first time in 5 years. The quartet took to their positions and devoid of sentiment stormed into ‘Horrorshow’, performed with all the restraint and grace of a runaway train. Man, how we have missed The Libertines.

A rollicking ‘Boys In The Band’ followed and the atonement of ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’, watching Carl & Pete share the same microphone purge from their souls the ill-feeling which brought the band to an untimely demise in 2005. The cathartic performance was just one fine moment during a gig brimming with them. The only low moment was Carl's choice of skimpy black vest which he sported for the majority of the show.

‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’ retained all the vibrancy of the summer of 2003 from which it was borne and the crescendo ‘Campaign of Hate’ reached showed that without Gary Powell's timekeeping Pete & Carl’s guitar-duals would likely career off course after just ten seconds of trademark frenetic strumming.

The Libertines pulled off one of those great live-show tricks of beginning to play a slower and lesser-loved song before ending it after a few bars and bursting into one their greatest – the museful ‘Radio America’ brusquely extinguished by the volatile ‘Up The Bracket’. It can now officially report that crowd had gone totally mental.

By the time ‘What a Waster’ was over, most of the crowd were racking their brains as to what songs they hadn’t played yet. The band had put their back catalogue into a blender and blitzed it for 80 adrenaline & sweat-laden minutes. Fooled into thinking the finishing end was at hand, ‘I Get Along’ completed the show with a suitable maniacal charge.

When the band gave in to the inevitable group hug there was a momentous cheer and I doubt there was a dry-eye in the house. As a warm-up for Reading/Leeds festival in the next couple of weeks, this show would have done the band no end of good and will whet the appetites for the lucky festival goers who will witness the Libertines return. Will this pave the way for a proper tour? It is a huge possibility in these tour-for-cash orientated times. Whether a much wanted third album will be on the cards is another matter with both Pete & Carl involved in their respective solo careers. The gig certainly had an air of unfinished business about it, especially with the sad and shoddy manner of the bands split amidst tales of burglary, drug-use and prison sentences. Was this an ending fitting for the start?