The Libertines

When comissioner John Moule told me he had a project that was right up my street I didn’t expect he was being literal! Working on the new campaign for the Libertines is a real treat for me, I wasn’t sure if I’d have time to take it on but my wife convinced me to give it a go.

Living in Margate for the last 3 years its an amazing place and the sense of community is like nothing I have felt anywhere else. The Libertines are such a local fixture sponsoring the Margate football team, doing gigs at the bandstand, running the Albion Rooms. So being invited to work on this campaign was a really lovely opportunity to connect with the local community.

The only problem was, they didn’t want one video, they wanted five. Not that it’s a huge problem but sometimes it feels like expecting lightning to strike 5 times. The ideas need long legs. It’s a lot of time to fill!

I think it really started taking shape after speaking to Carl Barat. We did a video together called “Run with the Boys” a while ago, so it was easy chat and to get under the skin of this project. Basically the new album “All Quiet on the Eastern Esplanade” is a concept album centred around Margate. Each track is about a different character and Carl had a whole cast list of people scratched out. The taxi driver was my addition. I liked the idea of doing Scorsese’s Taxi Driver but it’s a provincial mini cab in Margate. Someone who is running to stand still, doing deliveries, odd jobs as well as airport runs and all the rest.

While Margate as a place needs no introduction, it’s a place that can easily be described with cliches, from that episode in Only Fools and Horses to Chas and Dave. But as a real place, it’s far more interesting. There are so many different communities here and the album really taps into that. Each song is a different story, a different perspective, a different character. But they all live in Margate.

This concept really resonates with me. A seaside town like Margate, there are always the tourists coming and going but the locals are always popping up in different contexts. Everyone knows everyone, friends of friends turn out to be friends of other friends. So it’s really nice to explore this. In the other videos you will see familiar faces pop up and have their own narratives.

I tried my best to get local talent involved, it’s a town filled with amazing creative minds so I wanted to make sure it could be a video that Margate felt like it owned. The Bentley Turbo, for example was hired from Lee Collier who runs Oh So Retro – the local vintage car rally. The pearly queen is my next door neighbour Leslie. Gus Sharpe who both did an incredible job styling and also makes an appearance in the video – we found out had previously worked in the Albion Rooms and is a testament to this feeling of worlds collapsing on worlds

So far we have five videos planned and each one will slice Margate in a different direction – from another point of view. Each one will feature familiar faces that pop up in unexpected places and overlap. Kinda like Magnolia or Babel, but… you know… in the form of a libertines music video.

Having Geoff Bell to work with was a dream. I can’t say that he was who I pictured in my head when writing the script, but I saw a short he starred in called Arrows and that really sold me. Geoff is friends with the band and Pete had wanted to work with him before, so we really pushed for him to be involved. I have to say it was worth it- He was so reassuring and a pleasure to work with, we basically just needed to point the camera at him. There’s a kind of magic which seems to float around him. Stardust I guess? That’s not to say we didn’t push each other – when we did the driving scenes he almost lost his voice he did so much screaming.

There is a lot to do still on the campaign and there are always twists and turns along the way, but I really cant wait to see this huge sprawling Margate opera come together.