The Libertines storm Camden with surprise gig

Libertines Camden Dublin Castle surprise gig Over The Railings review

Photo: Paul Smyth

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The Libertines took London by storm once again, bringing Albion back to Camden with a surprise secret gig at London's Dubllin Castle as the finale of their Somewhere Over The Railings event last night (Friday 4 September). It is 10.30pm before anyone inside Dublin Castle’s back room are given an idea of when, or if, The Libertines might be appearing. No official word of course, but a tweet – the present day equivalent of the band’s early guerilla gig blogposts: “We'll be on in the next few hours. X”. Turns out they mean it, as it’s just after midnight before an entrance is made, the band mobbed as they walk to the stage. At a venue as small as this, there is no backstage. The suggestion is offensive, for this is a gladiatorial arena of complete exposure. Flourish here, like Blur and the Arctic Monkeys, and you have the chance to become legends.

‘The Boy Looked At Johnny’ clatters the hours of anticipation into touch, in the same mischievous manner that Pete Doherty holds an apparent glass of water up to the crowd in welcome. A sign of going tee-total? Not quite. More an effort to pull back from the brink of oblivion and cling to the coat-tails of functionality. But any sense of structure lasts about two minutes, the raucous riff of ‘Skag And Bone Man’ seeing it off. ‘Gunga Din’ and ‘Fame And Fortune’ are two …Doomed Youth cuts to make the surface, their weighty choruses staying firmly afloat amongst the sea of drinks ordered by the band.

Clearly there is no set list of any sort, (“if anyone finds it, send it this way” says Pete) instead mayhem of varying degrees. Interludes are frequent, thanks in no small part to regular crowd surfing journeys to the toilets by Pete, Carl and drummer Gary Powell. It becomes a night of luminous flickers in a stream of consciousness. Doherty particularly revels in the opportunity, springing into a cover of ‘I’m A Believer’, only to comment "no one's getting married today are they, ah we’ll leave that one then". Sporadic splatterings of ‘Sally Cinnamon’ and The Beatles ‘Twist and Shout’ are given more of a chance, sung with the crowd more than to them. At one point, bored of singing, and with Barat lost crowd surfing to the toilet, Doherty takes over bass playing duties and gives bassist John Hassall a chance to sing early demo track ‘Sister, Sister’. Novelty aside, it gives the former Yeti man a period to demonstrate skills beyond his vital role of holding things together with stoic calm. A job done tonight, even if by the thinnest of threads, wearing a hat and ironically Ray-Bans that appear from nowhere - cigarette hanging from his lips.

During the brief moments the four members do finally align on stage and in tune together, they click to provide magical renditions of ‘Boys In The Band’ and ‘Albion’, sung poignantly by Pete and Carl. Together the pair still hold undeniable chemistry, and spend the night playfully goading each other, at one point leading competing football chants - Doherty for QPR and Barat for Arsenal. Powell even gets his own version of the Kevin Gallen chant “and when he plays Strokes songs he scores all through the night!” The rest of the night is spent offering fans the chance to play Libertines karaoke, and join them on stage, causing numerous mass invasions, with Doherty and Barat springing up and down from the ground like pendulums in the wind. After three auditions, ‘Mockingbird’ is deemed the winner. At past 2am, the final song of the night, ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’, is played. It lasts 10 minutes because Doherty and Barat are rolling around on the floor, submerged by the crowd on stage. Yet there’s still time for Pete to spring “eh, Carl, who’s this then ‘please let me back into the Libertines, oh please’”, parodying himself. Everyone, Carl included laughs in knowing terms, as tonight really proves that the band, once dead, are still “living rough and acting deranged”. “They were brilliant, but they hardly played a single song” says one fan stumbling out. And yet they played everything at once.

Watch our documentary inside The Libertines' Bucket Shop below

The Libertines will release their long-awaited third album Anthems For Doomed Youth on Friday 11 September. Their upcoming UK show dates are below. Tickets go on sale at 10am on Friday 4 September. For tickets and more information, visit here. The Libertines will play:
Sun September 06 2015 - GLASGOW O2 Academy
Mon September 07 2014 - NOTTINGHAM Rock City
Tue September 08 2015 - BRISTOL O2 Academy Bristol
Thu September 10 2015 - LONDON Electric Ballroom
Fri September 11 2015 - MANCHESTER Ritz