The Libertines have shared the video for their new single ‘Run, Run, Run’.
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The clip, which you can view below, features “a life in a day of a seedy Flash Harry cab driver (played by His Dark Materials actor Geoff Bell), who drives his various customers round the fleshpots and watering holes of Margate in his retro Bentley Turbo motor, stopping off to pay off his gambling debts and neck a pigs ear or ten, before getting back on the job,” according to a press release.
It was directed by Alex Brown who has previously worked with La Roux and James Blake and shot in Cliftonville, Margate and at the band’s nearby hotel The Albion Rooms.
The clip is the first in a series of videos in the seaside town which will feature the characters from the songs (and the album cover artwork) from their new LP ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’, which is out on March 8, 2024. Fans can pre-order the album here.
The single was first shared by the band last month. Speaking to NME about the track recently singer Carl Barat described it as a somewhat “self-referential” statement about where The Libertines are today, ahead of their fourth LP.
“I was trying to work out if it’s a song of hope or a song of fear,” Barat said. “I think it’s a song of hope. It’s saying that even though time has moved on and this person has stayed in the same place, he’s still able to do what he does and he’s going to be who he is regardless of times changing. I don’t know if that’s a sad thing or a good thing.”
Asked if he feels more hope or fear now, Barat replied: “I’m eternally hopeful, and eternally afraid.”
The album’s title is in honour of the band’s Margate hotel, studio, restaurant and bar – which is also depicted on the sleeve with a dramatic cast of characters from the world of faded seaside glamour.
Consisting of 11 new tracks with songwriting credits shared among all four of the band, ‘All Quiet On The Eastern Esplanade’ was produced by Dimitri Tikovoï (The Horrors/Charli XCX/Becky Hill) and recorded at The Albion Rooms in just four weeks back in February and March of 2023, before being finished over a week at La Ferme de Gestein Studios in Normandy. Additional production and mixing comes from Dan Grech-Marguerat (Lana Del Rey/Liam Gallagher/Paul McCartney).
