Sometimes it’s easy to forget that word “reunion” implies some kind of split, and when it comes to musicians, splitting up, getting back together, then staying together is a very difficult thing to do. In the case of The Libertines it’s beginning to look like a near impossibility. Last year saw the band cap off a brief, very lucrative reunion with a set at Reading and Leeds, but fans shouldn’t be holding their breath for new material.
While Pete Doherty, the UK-outfit’s oft-troubled frontman, seems to be rebuilding his reputation (he played a well-reviewed gig in Cambridge on Mum’s Day), his former bandmate, guitarist Carl Barât, still thinks the rift between himself and the 32-year-old Doherty has a long road to healing ahead of it.
“I don’t believe we’re healed from the hurt. If our hearts heal up, then we can break them all over again,” he recently told NME. “But right now…it’s hard.” Doherty, for his part, is obviously feeling the hurt as well. He didn’t show up to a screening of a new documentary about the pair’s old band, and the film’s director, Roger Sargent, told the UK’s Press Association that Doherty found the flick to be “very emotional and kind of difficult to watch.”
It is bittersweet to watch the band interact with each other in a promotional video for the doc, but for now Barât is enjoying the attention he’s been receiving for his recent solo work. Clash Music has posted a song that will appear on an EP of new material from the 32-year-old, and while Barât hasn’t elaborated on the subject matter of the track, the lyrics to the chorus of “This Is The Song” are pretty damn depressing. “I’m not gonna get my fucking head kicked in,” he sings over swirling guitar and piano chords in the song’s waning moments, “I’m not gonna die in a fucking looney bin darling.”
Check out that song below, and watch the promo video for The Libertines – There Are No Innocent Bystanders below that.
