It comes after the indie giants shared their latest LP, ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’, at the start of the month. It marked the fourth studio LP from Pete Doherty, Carl Barât, John Hassall and Gary Powell, and first since 2015’s ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth’.
The band has released the new album ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’ on March 8, and have so far shared the tracks.
Now, it has been confirmed by the Official Charts that the band have locked in the Number One spot with the new release – making it the first time they have topped the album charts in two decades.
The band’s first and only time reaching peak position until now was back in 2004, when they shared their now-iconic eponymous album ‘The Libertines’.
The release of the album was preceded by a tour of intimate club gigs across the UK in January and February dubbed The Albion Tour, which the band have described as a return to “[their] roots in these small sweaty clubs, where [they] can see the whites of the crowds eyes”.
The band took to Twitter today to post a short video that contained archive footage of the band, alongside more recent pictures that were taken at their HQ, the Margate Albion Rooms hotel where the band also have a recording studio.
Peter Doherty talks drug addiction, paparazzi, murder allegations – and cheese.
If you’d have told Doherty 10 years ago that, one day, he would be describing his life as “quite a tranquil existence”, evidence would have strongly pointed towards the contrary. And yet, at age 44, the musician has managed to do what many suspected he would not: survive.
“Everything just seems really natural,” he nods, considering his situation. “I have seen a liver doctor who says I need to change my diet — too much cheese, too much milk. But the cheese is so good, that’s part of the reason I stay here… It’s a cholesterol and diabetes thing now, but there are tablets, it makes a big difference.” And at the mention of his medication, he potters off inside the house, having remembered to take his daily pills.
Doherty has been clean for more than three years now. He took a well-publicised rehab trip to Thailand in 2014 and, despite several wobbles in the interim, has been on a consistent drug-free stretch since moving across the Channel during the pandemic. He walks the dogs and knows the locals; during today’s photo shoot, he finds a seagull on its last legs and gives it a mercy killing. Life, overall, is very different from the old days in London.
This distance from the big city helps, but even when he finds himself back in the thrum of it all, he’s been keeping on track. “I get overstimulated now when I’m in London. Even just the most common-or-garden pub on the high street, it’s like going to Disneyland,” he says. “When I’m back in England doing shows, I’m a very different person to who I was. There’s these things they’ve got now called sound checks, where you turn up and you have a little run through the songs — they’re incredible! I’d never heard of them before! Before, I’d do the shows — mostly — but it seemed to always centre around finding and then using drugs, and the show was secondary. Everything’s just a lot less stressful now.” You can read the full article on The Belfasttelegraph.
