May 2003: Babyshambles Sessions

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The Babyshambles Sessions is a set of songs recorded by Carl Barât and Peter Doherty while in New York. These tapes were intended for the second album. Bassist John Hassall also lent a hand, playing the bassline on one song, "The Man Who Would Be King". It is thought that Barat played drums on some tracks.

As a mark of their commitment to the band, Doherty and Barât both got tattoos of the word "Libertine" on their arms. The prelude to this moment can be heard on "The Good Old Days" from the Babyshambles sessions, in which, after the lyric "A list of things we said we'd do tomorrow" Doherty yells 'Get a tattoo!' However, Barât became increasingly exasperated with the people Doherty was associating with and the drugs that came with them. Barât quit the sessions in disgust and Doherty finished recording alone.

Doherty then gave the tapes to Helen Hsu, a fan, at the Chelsea Hotel in New York. She, at his request (a fact he later denied), made the tracks available to the band's fans over the internet. A 3-CD set of these sessions can also often be found for sale on internet auction sites and can also be downloaded for free at Albion Arks. Several of the tracks that feature on the sessions were later recorded and included on The Libertines' second studio album. A few were also later recorded for Babyshambles Down in Albion, The Blinding EP and their most recent Shotter's Nation.