Retro revival tours should come with a warning sticker that you may be about to see a band going through the motions, living on past glories to inflate their bank accounts. It's always been a thing, but when the truly brilliant bands of your teens and twenties start coming again as you head for your middle ages, it becomes a bit more noticeable. There's nothing wrong with it of course, if people want to see it, why not.
It's just something that can feel a little soulless. The Libertines are at the other end of the spectrum and they arrived in Birmingham simply as a rock n' roll band with plenty left to say and a stunning new album 'All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade', under their belts. The summit of their success may have been twenty years ago, but they are actually still making brilliant music that matters and there is definitely a feeling of making up for lost time.
This latest album is their first in nine years. The band's infamous antics in the 00s meant that they frequently made the front pages of all the tabloid newspapers, for all the wrong reasons. These days, drug problems and band rifts are a thing of the past with a far more harmonious existence laying the foundations for regular gigs and new music.
Tonight at a packed 02 Academy, the swagger of the band is the only headline news with a blistering 25-song set. In true Libertines style, it hurtles by with a cracking mix of old and new music, which is seamless when knitted together, you wouldn't think there was such.