up the bracket

The Libertines brought the garage rock revival to Britain with the hedonistic punk poetry of this ragged punch to the throat.  
Carl Barât and Pete Doherty met through Doherty's sister Amy-Jo, with whom Barât shared a flat while studying drama at Brunel University in Uxbridge.  Doherty was studying literature at Queen Mary, University of London.  Barât and Doherty forged a powerful bond and quit school to pursue a songwriting partnership, moving in together at a flat at Camden Road in North London, which they named "The Delaney Mansions."  They named their band The Libertines after 'Lusts of the Libertines' by the Marquis de Sade.   
The band got a deal with Rough Trade records and recorded their debut album 'Up the Bracket' with  Barât and Doherty sharing vocals and guitar duties with John Hassall on bass and Gary Powell on drums.  The album was produced by The Clash's own Mick Jones at RAK Studios in London.  

Doherty says:  "We recorded it in a short space of time. Kind of like live in the studio. We finished recording in about nine days. Then we chose twelve songs from that. After that we mixed and chose tracks and stuff...It's easy to call our music punk rock. It might sound arrogant but I'd like to say no, that's wrong. Traditionally in England, the word 'punk' meant dirty or like scum, sometimes it even meant homosexual. Then they added the word 'rock' and made it into a word that expresses a style of music. I don't care if you call the Sex Pistols punk. Or the Buzzcocks. But then the media labelled the thousands of other bands that came along afterwards, punk. I feel that's questionable. If I think like that, I'd rather we weren't called punk. Though I do like a lot of the bands that have been labelled punk...One of the reasons why we started this band was because we couldn't find many current bands that we liked. Personally, bands that I like are usually old bands. Like Wire….and the Velvet Underground, The Specials, The Who...But whatever age it's from, if it has the power to move me, then I'll listen to it. Whether it's dance or whatever." 

In his book, 'Threepenny Memoir: The Lives of a Libertine', Barât reveals:  "When we were performing, I used to worry about being found out, that I didn't deserve to be on that stage.  I'd swap glances with John and Gary and we'd get on with it, we'd buckle down as we always did.  But then there was this other part of me that knew how lucky we were, that knew we gelled, and how lucky we were that, without trying, me and Peter had a chemistry; we fitted together completely - which made it all the more difficult when he tried to wrench it all apart.  I can see those light, feel the sweat gather at the small of my back.  I've never been happier.  I've never been more angry, never more fulfilled or let down.  The Libertines heightened my insecurities, made me feel like I was king of the world, realized my dreams and dashed my hopes.  We were that kind of band."

'Up the Bracket' went to one hundred and twenty in France, fifty-nine in Sweden, forty-nine in Japan, thirty-five in the UK, and thirteen on the US top heatseekers chart.  



'Up the Bracket' 
full album:






1. "Vertigo" 0:00
2. "Death on the stairs" 2:37 
3. "Horrorshow" 6:00
4. "Time for Heroes" 8:36 
5. "Boys in the band" 11:17 
6. "Radio America" 15:00
7. "Up the bracket" 18:43
8. "Tell the king" 21:24
9. "Boy looked at Johnny" 24:45 
10. "Begging" 27:26 
11. "The good old days" 30:48
12. "I get along" 33:45
13. "What a waster" 36:39 (bonus track)
14. "Mannequin" 39:39 (bonus track)




'What a Waster' was a non-album single that was released before 'Up the Bracket'.  It went to number thirty-seven in the UK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyQwRUeFSV0




'Up the Bracket' went to number twenty-nine in the UK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8lTyYlQ-Wg




'Time for Heroes' went to number twenty in the UK.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwhHdeHJ1Yk