The Libertines

Tickets for this show had sold out a long time ago; only five hundred lucky people were able to obtain a ticket. Once again, eFestivals was in Nottingham to cover this magical gig. Everyone who had tickets knew that this was going to be one of those extremely special gigs that you only get to see once in a lifetime.

One of my friends, so desperate to see this gig, decided to go up to a tout and buy one; even the ticket touts were struggling to obtain tickets. Now usually a tout will charge double the face value of the ticket. However tonight was different, they were charging quadruple the face value. My friend still had no hesitation in buying the only ticket that the tout had.

Once inside the rescue rooms, it was rammed to the rafters, just standing at the back of the crowd caused me to drip in sweat, because of the humidity. This is where we encountered our first problem. We wanted to be at the front of the audience, just to give you some idea of how difficult it was, at times the gap between the people was so tight that you could not fit a bus ticket through the gap. After pushing, shoving, kicking, biting, head butting our way to the front, we then realized our unfortunate predicament, there was no way we could get back to the bar for a drink.



Finally we were in position for the arrival of The Libertines. Just as they were walking onto the stage, some kind gentleman drenched us in water, well... I hope it was water!

The Libertines staggered onto the stage in the way that only they can - slightly drunk. They opened the set with 'Horror Show', at which point the venue erupted into one giant moshpit. Elbows, heads, legs and every other body part were flying past us in the mayhem - and that's how it stayed throughout the entire set. This was a fast-paced, no time to catch your breath type of gig.

'Vertigo', 'What A Waster', and 'I Get Along' all went down extremely well with the sweaty crowd. But then the fun ended as The Libertines waved goodnight and staggered off stage. Obviously there was no way that the audience was going to let them go without doing an encore.



They arrived back on stage and treated the crowd to 'The Boy Looked at Johnny' and 'Skag and Bone man'. Towards the end of this song they got the audience to rush the stage, causing major problems for the security.



This was probably the gig to see, it will be a huge surprise if The Libertines ever play such a small venue again. The buzz around this gig was awesome, and they didn't disappoint anyone (well, maybe the security men) ... but apart from that it was an all time classic gig.

FUTURE GIGS