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‘Am I surprised Pete Doherty is still alive? No, he’s too smart to die’: the Libertines on feuds, friendship – and their unlikely sober reunion

It’s 20 years since they topped the charts – then fought, stagnated and imploded. But now Pete Doherty and Carl Barât are back. Was it easy recording together again? Depends who you ask …

Yet there was something special about them – their Blakean vision of an England rich in culture without being jingoistic, their desire to break down barriers between fans and band (playing gigs in basement flats), and a life-affirming raucousness alongside their reckless nihilism. They provided endless front-page news for the tabloids, usually courtesy of Doherty – whether it was about his tumultuous relationship with supermodel Kate Moss, his drug habit, or bizarre behaviour on stage (he ran away from a gig mid-song in 2004). They got back together, and he did the one thing he could to prove he loved her: he gave up drugs and started to take opiate blocker injections, which prevent opioids producing rewarding effects such as euphoria.

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