1997—2000 : Odessa Early Studio Recordings

Back to the Libertines Demos

The founding members of The Libertines, Carl Barât and Pete Doherty, met when Barât was studying drama at Brunel University in Uxbridge, and sharing a flat in Richmond with Amy-Jo Doherty, the older sister of Pete. This lasted until they realized their collective creative capabilities, and forged a bond over their similar passion for writing melodies and Doherty's love of The Smiths.[2] Barât abandoned his drama course two years in; Pete left his English literature course at Queen Mary College, University of London after only a year, and they moved into a flat together on the Camden Road in North London.

They formed a band with their neighbour Steve Bedlow, commonly referred to as Scarborough Steve, and named themselves The Strand, later renamed to The Libertines after Marquis de Sade's Lust of the Libertines ("The Albions" was also considered, but rejected). They met John Hassall and Johnny Borrell, who played with the Libertines for one practice playing bass. They arranged another practice, which Borrell did not attend. They telephoned him to discover he was on tour "living the high life." Thus John Hassall joined the band as bassist. At this stage, they had no consistent drummer. They began playing gigs, with many of them taking place in the flat Doherty and Barât shared.

Within a few weeks, they had booked themselves into the Odessa studios to record 3 songs, assisted by Gwyn Mathias (who had previously worked with the Sex Pistols). 

(source : wikipedia)