THE LIBERTINES + BLACK HONEY + CRUEL HEARTS CLUB – BRIGHTON CENTRE 26.11.21
Notorious garage rockers, The Libertines, were back at it in Brighton as part of their 15-date UK tour. They kicked off in Bournemouth yesterday (25th November) and then headed along the coast to the Brighton Centre before heading off to perform live in Norwich, Birmingham, Leeds, Edinburgh, Newcastle, Liverpool, Manchester, Cardiff, London (two nights), Bristol, Nottingham and Sheffield.
The Libertines originally formed in London in 1997 and currently are Peter Doherty (vocals/guitar), Carl Barât (vocals/guitar), John Hassall (bass guitar) and Gary Powell (drums). Their tour is titled ‘Giddy Up A Ding-Dong Tour’.
They have come a long way since their two intimate performances in Brighton back in 2002, when they performed at The Freebut on 3rd March and the Pavilion Theatre on 28th September. By 2nd October 2017, they had become massive and packed out the Brighton Centre.
That night their setlist was:
‘Time for Heroes’, ‘Bangkok’, ‘The Delaney’, ‘Barbarians’, ‘Heart Of The Matter’, ‘Tomblands’, ‘Boys In The Band’, ‘Campaign Of Hate’, ‘You’re My Waterloo’, ‘Horrorshow’, ‘Gunga Din’, ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’, ‘The Saga’, ‘Fame And Fortune’, ‘What Katie Did’, ‘Death On The Stairs’, ‘Tell The King’, ‘The Good Old Days’, (encore) ‘Music When The Lights Go Out’, ‘The Boy Looked At Johnny’, ‘Up The Bracket’, ‘Begging’ (aborted after 1st verse), ‘Dream A Little Dream Of Me’ (Ozzie Nelson and His Orchestra cover), ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’.
The Libertines have thus far released a trio of studio albums: ‘Up The Bracket’ (which got to No.35 in the UK Album Charts in 2002), ‘The Libertines’ (which shot all the way to the top of the album charts in 2004 and contained their No.2 hit single ‘Can’t Stand Me Now’) and ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth’ (which made it to No.3 in 2015). The first two LP’s were on Rough Trade and produced by Mick Jones of The Clash. In November 2014 the band signed a record deal with Virgin EMI Records.
Prior to tonight’s 21 song performance, Peter Doherty came out and addressed his loyal followers for several minutes, which was not quite ‘Sermon on the Mount’ more like notorious frontman ramblings, but to many present, this was a beautiful speech. But hey, we wouldn’t want it any other way from this character of the rock world.
I noted that the lighting during their set somewhat matched that of the debut platter, ‘Up The Bracket’, which as the band have announced that they will be celebrating the 20th anniversary next with a few special shows and some exciting bits released from the Rough Trade Records vaults. Tickets for these shows go on sale this Friday 3rd December at 9am! Support will come from Supergrass and Sports Team with more in the pipeline. Visit www.thelibertines.com for further details.
As I mentioned above, we were given powerful 21 tracks from the band with no encore. It was classic Libertines with no less than three quarters of their debut ‘Up The Bracket’ being played, that’s nine live gems for us, which included my top three tunes of the night which were ‘Death On The Stairs’, ‘I Get Along’ and ‘Time For Heroes’. We had a handful of tunes from their 2004 ‘The Libertines’ album, four numbers from their 2015 ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth’ LP and the remaining trio of compositions were from 2002 and 2003 singles.
This was quite possibly the best ever concert that I have ever attended and it most certainly was the very best one for my friend as it was his first ever gig. What a way to start!
Clearly the band also enjoyed themselves as they posted this on social media: “Thank you to the lovely people of Brighton, that felt good”.
The Libertines setlist:
‘What A Waster’ (from the 2002 ‘What A Waster’ single)
‘The Ha Ha Wall’ (from the 2004 ‘The Libertines’ album)
‘Up The Bracket’ (from the 2002 ‘Up The Bracket’ album)
‘Gunga Din’ (from the 2015 ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth’ album)
‘Barbarians’ (from the 2015 ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth’ album)
‘What Katie Did’ (from the 2004 ‘The Libertines’ album)
‘You’re My Waterloo’ (from the 2015 ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth’ album)
‘Boys In The Band’ (from the 2002 ‘Up The Bracket’ album)
‘Can’t Stand Me Now’ (from the 2004 ‘The Libertines’ album)
‘The Boy Looked At Johnny’ (from the 2002 ‘Up The Bracket’ album)
‘Begging’ (from the 2002 ‘Up The Bracket’ album)
‘Music When The Lights Go Out’ (from the 2004 ‘The Libertines’ album)
‘Horrorshow’ (from the 2002 ‘Up The Bracket’ album)
‘Heart Of The Matter’ (from the 2015 ‘Anthems For Doomed Youth’ album)
‘What Became of the Likely Lads’ (Included snippets of ‘The Only Way Is Up’ by Yazz & The Plastic Population and ‘Black Betty’ by Ram Jam) (from the 2004 ‘The Libertines’ album)
‘The Good Old Days’ (from the 2002 ‘Up The Bracket’ album)
‘The Delaney’ (from the 2002 ‘I Get Along’ EP)
‘Death On The Stairs’ (from the 2002 ‘Up The Bracket’ album)
‘I Get Along’ (from the 2002 ‘Up The Bracket’ album)
‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’ (from the 2003 ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’ single)
‘Time For Heroes’ (from the 2002 ‘Up The Bracket’ album)
Find out more about The Libertines by visiting their official website www.thelibertines.com
There were two supporting acts this evening at the Brighton Centre, Black Honey and Cruel Hearts Club.
First up were Cruel Hearts Club who are a trio consisting of sisters Edie (vocals, guitar) and Gita Langley (vocals, guitar, bass, synths), with Gabi Woo on drums. This band certainly has a driving passion for visceral, uninhibited music that is apparently an extension to who they are.
On my notes made during their performance, I see that I typed “Rocky/punk”, “Empowering”, “Loud”, “Fierce”, “Bold”, “Energetic” and that their sound complimented The Libertines sound. You can certainly gain an insight into where the Cruel Hearts Club are coming from with these.
I noted that the lighting was mainly pink, red and yellow themes and that Gabi drumming was quite possibly a tad eccentric, whereas Edie and Gita shared vocal duties during the set.
They have released a limited edition 7” single on pink vinyl that contains the songs ‘Suck It Up’ and ‘Hey Compadre’. You can currently purchase it from their store HERE.
They have a number of decent videos on their YouTube channel – check them out HERE and visit their website cruelheartsclub.com for more information.
Beers purchased during the interval and we were off again with the delights of Brighton’s very own indie rocking quartet Black Honey. In their ranks are Izzy Phillips (lead vocals, guitar), Chris Ostler (vocals, guitar, synthesizers), Tommy Taylor (vocals, bass guitar) and Alex Woodward who replaced Tom Dewhurst on drums.
They have been on the case since 2014 when they released their eponymous self-titled debut EP and they are most certainly an outfit that is on the up! Their self-titled debut long player reached No.33 on the UK Album Chart in 2018. The Brighton & Hove News Music Team caught up with them at the Green Door Store in January 2020 (Read our review HERE).
After that they released their second album this March which is titled ‘Written & Directed’, and that album reached No.7 on the UK Albums Chart. Moving forward and two months ago (23rd September 2021), the band performed a 16 song set at the larger CHALK venue, which was noted by an audience member fainting half way through their set and the band having to restart their ‘Madonna’ tune. And now here they are performing (albeit as support) inside Brighton’s largest music venue.
Tonight, Black Honey as you would expect are certainly going for it for their home crowd, but is obviously bolstered by indie rock music fans from further afield. They were loud and energetic and Izzy’s vocals were most certainly powerful and Alex’s drumming was intense. This is a sassy fun outfit. They too compliment The Libertines sound. The lighting during this performance was mainly in hues of green, red and yellow. This was an enjoyable performance from a talented group of musicians.
Find out more about them at blackhoneyuk.co.uk and locate their releases on their Bandcamp page.
