The Libertines - Up The Bracket (20th Anniversary Edition)

Pre Order Released

21/10/22

To celebrate the release of their astonishing debut album, Up The Bracket, The Libertines are releasing a 20th Anniversary Edition on multiple formats, through Rough Trade, on October 21st 2022. 

In addition to a remaster of the original Up The Bracket album, produced by Mick Jones (The Clash), the Super Deluxe Edition also includes a remarkable 65 previously unreleased recordings including many original demos, radio sessions and live recordings all helping to chart the making of Up The Bracket, plus a live recording from the 100 club in 2002. It also contains a 60 page book with a forward by Matt Wilkinson, new interviews with the band by Anthony Thornton and many unseen photos and memorabilia.

Up The Bracket arrived like a raging bull in a tired post-Britpop china shop and introduced the world to The Libertines, a new gang of London bohemians, whose ragged tunes, red military tunics, opiated poetry and ‘live now pay never’ lifestyle came to define the millennial angst of the early noughties. At the heart of the band is the blood bond bromance between the ramshackle Music Hall Jagger/Richards, Peter Doherty and Carl Barat, ably assisted by the rock solid rhythm twins John Hassall and Gary Powell. Any bookie worth his salt would have given you short odds on this quartet surviving more than a month or two, given the teetering on the brink lifestyle they chose to lead, but here we are two decades later and our Byronic heroes, though older and wiser, are still fighting the good fight and making music every bit as vital as their debut. The belief, talent and fervour that Doherty spoke of in their earliest manifesto has stood them in good stead.

Up The Bracket, justly considered one of the greatest albums of the noughties, was originally released on October 21st 2002 by Rough Trade Records. The album, a heady stew of indie rock, skiffle, blues, dub and English bucolic pop, was a huge shot in the arm to a largely redundant music scene and helped to inspire the rebirth of guitar music, going on to influence countless artists who followed in its wake. 

Up The Bracket, which was produced by Mick Jones of The Clash, takes you on a wondrously poetic journey into the band’s mythical world and their fevered dreams of Albion, a land of squalid glamour, liberty, equality, fraternity, gin palaces and chip shops. Quite simply Pete, Carl, Gary and John created a hugely compelling timeless British rock'n'roll classic debut as relevant now as it was upon its release.

BOXSET Tracklisting

LP1 – Up The Bracket (Remastered) (black vinyl)

Side One – 

1. Vertigo
2. Death On The Stairs
3. Horror Show
4. Time For Heroes
5. Boys in the Band
6. Radio America

Side Two – 

1. Up The Bracket
2. Tell The King
3. The Boy Looked at Johnny
4. Begging 
5. The Good Old Days
6. I Get Along

LP2- Live at The 100 Club (White vinyl)  

Side One - 

1. Horrorshow
2. Vertigo
3. The Delaney
4. What A Waster 
5. Begging

Side Two - 

6. Time For Heroes
7. Death On The Stairs
8. Boys In The Band
9. I Get Along

7” - Up The Bracket – Blue Vinyl 

Side A – Up The Bracket – Original Audio not remastered

Side AA – Boys in the Band – Original Audio not remastered

7” – Time For Heroes – Red Vinyl 

Side A – Time For Heroes – Original Audio not remastered

Side B – The 7 Deadly Sins (Demo) – Original Audio not remastered

CD1 – Album Studio Outtakes 

1. Up The Bracket – Take 4
2. Vertigo – Take 2 
3. Ha Ha Wall – Take 1
4. Horror Show – Take 3
5. Bangkok – Take 1 
6. Time For Heroes – Take 3 
7. Begging – Take 1 
8. What A Waster – Take 1 
9. Breck Road Lover – Take 1 
10. Never Never – Take 2 
11. Tell The King – Take 1 
12. The Domestic – Take 1 
13. Don’t Talk To Me -Take 1 
14. The Wolfman – Take 2 
15. Radio America – Take 2 
16. The Good Old Days – Take 1 
17. 7 Deadly Sins – Take 3 
18. Sweets – Take 4
19. Mocking Bird – Take 6 
20. Boys In The Band – Take 1 
21. Skag & Bone Man – Take 2 

CD2 – Demos/Radio Sessions/B-Sides/Live etc

1. Vertigo – Demo 
2. The Boy Looked At Johnny - Demo
3. Death On The Stairs - Demo
4. Horror Show - Demo
5. All At Sea (Misty) - Demo
6. Wolfman - Demo
7. Plan A – Demo 
8. Up The Bracket – Evening Session 
9. Boys In The Band – Evening Session 
10. Time For Heroes – Evening Session 
11. I Get Along/mayday – Evening Session 
12. Jo Whiley – Christmas Live Lounge 
13. Skag & Bone Man – Up The Bracket B-Side
14. The Delaney - Up The Bracket B-Side
15. Plan A - Up The Bracket B-Side
16. General Smuts (Demo) – Time For Heroes B-Side 
17. Bangkok (Demo) – Time For Heroes – B-Side
18. Mr. Finnegan (Demo) – Time For Heroes B-Side 
19. Sally Brown (Demo) – Time For Heroes B-Side 
20. 7 Deadly Sins (Demo) – Time For Heroes B-Side
21. Up The Bracket – Live at The ICA – 3/6/02
22. Mayday – Live at Nottingham Rock City – 30/10/02
23. Begging - Live at Divan Du Monde, Paris – 7/11/02
24. The Boy Looked At Johnny – Live at Divan Du Monde, Paris – 7/11/02
25. Death On The Stairs – Alt Guitar Version

DVD

HD Videos of – 

Up The Bracket 

Time For Heroes 

I Get Along

Up The Bracket & Boys In The Band – Jools Holland Dec 2002 

Time For Heroes – Top Of The Pops March 2003 

Exclusive Extras – still tbc

Cassette – Early Demos 

1. I Get Along – 12/01 – Nomis Demo
2. Time For Heroes – 12/01 – Nomis Demo
3. Never Never – 12/01 – Nomis Demo
4. Horror Show – 12/01 – Nomis Demo
5. Boys In The Band – 12/01 – Nomis Demo
6. Up The Bracket – 01/02 – Nomis Demo
7. Begging - 01/02 – Nomis Demo
8. What A Waster - 01/02 – Nomis Demo
9. Skint & minted - 01/02 – Nomis Demo
10. General Smuts - 01/02 – Nomis Demo
11. Bangkok - 01/02 – Nomis Demo
12. Mayday - 01/02 – Nomis Demo
13. Mr Finnegan - 01/02 – Nomis Demo
14. Tell The King – 25/1/02 - Demo
15. Death On The Stairs – 25/1/02 – Demo 
16. Time For Heroes – 1/3/02 - Demo
17. I Get Along – 1/3/02 - Demo
18. Horror Show – 1/3/02 – Demo 
19. Boys In The Band – 1/3/02 - Demo
20. General Smuts – 1/3/02 – Demo

2LP & 2CD Tracklisting

LP1/CD1 – Up The Bracket (Remastered)

Vertigo

Death On The Stairs

Horror Show

Time For Heroes

Boys in the Band

Radio America

Up The Bracket

Tell The King

The Boy Looked at Johnny

Begging 

The Good Old Days

I Get Along

LP2/CD2 - Live at The 100 Club 

Horrorshow

Vertigo

The Delaney

What A Waster 

Begging

Time For Heroes

Death On The Stairs

Boys In The Band

I Get Along