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Nov 22, 2016 Peter Doherty By Christopher Roberts

The Libertines released their first new album in 11 years, Anthems for Doomed Youth, last September. Now the band’s Pete Doherty (now going by Peter) is releasing a new solo album, Hamburg Demonstrations, on December 2 via BMG/Clouds Hill. Previously he shared its first single, “I Don’t Love Anyone (But You’re Not Just Anyone).” Now he’s shared the album’s opening track, “Kolly Kibber.” Listen below.

The album was produced, recorded, and mixed by Johann Scheerer at Clouds Hill Recordings, Hamburg, Germany. They used an 8-Track 2-inch Studer A820 tape machine and mixed onto a 1/4-inch Telefunken master machine. Doherty has long wanted to record in Hamburg, partly because that’s where The Beatles started to make their mark. Doherty’s last solo album was 2009’s Grace/Wastelands. He’s also released three Libertines albums and three with Babyshambles.

A press release describes the inspiration behind some of the album’s songs: “Hamburg Demonstrations includes a new recording of the Amy Winehouse tribute ‘Flags Of The Old Regime’ (now called ‘Flags From The Old Regime’). The album also features ‘Hell to Pay at the Gates of Heaven,’ written after the Paris attacks last November - it laments the fact that young people are now picking up guns instead of guitars ‘Come on boys choose your weapon J-45 or AK-47?’ (Gibson J-45 being John Lennon’s favorite acoustic guitar), ‘Kolly Kibber’ inspired by Kolley Kibber, the newspaper man who meets a sticky end at the beginning of Brighton Rock, and ‘A Spy in the House of Love,’ a title borrowed from the Anaïs Nin novel.”