The Libertines Freedom Gig
How a prison release, a hastily arranged club show and one photograph turned a Kent night into the defining Libertines comeback story.
Photo: Magnus D / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
On 8 October 2003, just hours after his release from prison, Pete Doherty took the stage with the Libertines at the Tap 'n' Tin in Chatham, Kent. Fans call it the "Freedom Gig", and the NME named it its top live moment of 2003.
From burglary to the prison gates
To understand how a small club in Chatham became the setting for the band's most famous comeback, it is necessary to revisit key dates in the Doherty timeline. By the summer of 2003 Doherty had drifted out of the band, missing tours while the others played on as a three-piece.
On 25 July 2003, Pete Doherty was arrested and charged with burglary for breaking into Carl Barât's flat. On 8 September, he was sentenced to six months in prison for the offence, which he served at Wandsworth. On 29 September, that sentence was reduced to two months on appeal, which meant almost immediate release.
The night at the Tap 'n' Tin
Barât was waiting at the prison gates when Doherty walked out in October 2003, and after an emotional reunion they played a gig the same day. The show was arranged at short notice by Dean Hunter, known as Dean Fragile, who ran live music at the Chatham club and had written to Doherty in prison. The BBC described it as a comeback show at the tiny 200-capacity venue.
Carl Barât, John Hassall and Gary Powell joined Doherty on stage, so all four members of the classic line-up played together, even though Hassall and Powell had not been expected to come. For fans who had watched the band fall apart over the summer, the sight of Doherty and Barât on the same stage again gave the night the feel of a reconciliation.
That feeling reflected itself in the press. The NME named the Chatham show its top live moment of 2003, and it has been called the gig of the decade in later retellings. The photographer Roger Sargent was there, and his picture of Doherty and Barât from that night became the cover of the band's self-titled second album.
What happened afterwards
The reunion did not last. The Libertines played their biggest shows yet at Brixton Academy in March 2004, but in June 2004 the band said they would continue without Doherty because of his addiction problems. Their second album, The Libertines, came out on 30 August 2004 and went to number one in the UK, and by the end of that year the band had effectively split. Doherty carried on with Babyshambles and Barât with Dirty Pretty Things.
The four members reunited for the Reading and Leeds festivals in 2010 and went on to record new albums, including Anthems for Doomed Youth in 2015 and All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade in 2024.
If you want to understand why British fans still talk about the Freedom Gig, three things explain it: the release and the reunion on the same day, the NME's recognition, and the album cover that has kept the image of that small Kent stage in view ever since.
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