Pete Doherty says Libertines found ‘peace’ in new album as release date revealed

The Libertines have announced that their first new album in nine years, All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade, will be released on March 8 2024.

Frontman Pete Doherty said the group “really came together” and found a “moment of rare peace” when they were making the record.

The LP, which features 11 new songs, opens with the single Run Run Run, which was released on Friday.

Comprising frontman Doherty, 44, singer and guitarist Carl Barat, drummer Gary Powell and bassist John Hassall, the band recorded the album at their own hotel, bar and studio the Albion Rooms in Margate,

Speaking on the process of making the album, Doherty said: “We really came together as a band. It was a moment of rare peace and unity, with all the members contributing.”

He added: “I feel like we’ve completed a cycle of some kind as a band, and finally now we can add these songs to the setlist, because we’ve got some bangers in there.

“Now we’ve opened the hotel and used the studio ourselves and it’s all worked out – more Libertines records? I should hope so!”

Barat, 45, said: “Our first record was born out of panic, and disbelief that we were actually allowed to be in a studio; the second was born of total strife and misery; the third was born of complexity; this one feels like we were all actually in the same place, at the same speed, and we really connected.”

Two intimate gigs will be held by the band on December 9 and 10 at a 500-capacity lido in Margate.

The album was recorded in four weeks during February and March and finished over seven days at a studio in Normandy.

The name of the LP is a nod to the band’s hotel’s street address and their enduring love of Erich Maria Remarque’s landmark anti-war novel.

Altogether the band have released three studio albums: Up The Bracket (2002), The Libertines (2004) and Anthems For Doomed Youth (2015).

Their fourth LP All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade is now available to pre-order and anyone who does so will be offered the chance to purchase tickets for the live December shows with availability for VIP after-party tickets at the Albion Rooms and Justine’s nightclub, which will include full band DJ sets.