Libertines announce new tour, album plans

The Libertines’ Pete Doherty was fairly upfront about the motivation behind his band’s most recent reunion. “I was recently called to family law court after a young girl I knew had told me I was the father of her baby. I have a year-and-a-half-old girl and I need to pay a lot of alimony,” he told the Israeli paper Ynet earlier this year.

Though that was apropos reasoning for the ever-embattled Doherty, it looks like his band is also making a serious attempt at a real comeback.

Various British media, including the NME, report that the group’s July 5 reunion show in London’s Hyde Park has expanded into a European tour. The nine-date stint is scheduled to take them from Scotland through France, Spain, Germany, Belgium and Portugal from this summer through October.

Doherty also told the Daily Record that the band has made tentative plans for a new LP. The goal, he said, was to “finish off all those ideas that we never completed back in the day, all those songs we never played for anyone else that have been floating around in the ether. We’re also wanting to try out a few new ideas so it wouldn’t just be old stuff. I don’t want to tempt fate but we both have the desire, so I think it will happen.”

Libertines-watchers know that Doherty isn’t the most reliable narrator regarding his long-term career plans. But the singer-guitarist said he believes that his group -- which helped define the British side of the early-’00s stylish rock revival -- still has plenty to offer young fans who might only know him from the tabloids.

“It’s important to be honest and there’s still a lot we have to say,” Doherty said. “We’re still relevant.”

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