Name: What A Waster
Brand: The Libertines

Bonus disc

Bonus disc: No

Catalogue number

RTRADES054

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Colour

black

Colour details

Discogs ID

Discs

Download code

Download code: No

Rough Trade Exclusive

Rough Trade Exclusive: No

Extended format

Extended format: No

Format detail

Format Music GB

Limited edition

Release date

2022-06-03

Signed copies

Signed copies: No

Supplier GB

PIAS

Tax rate GB

UPC / Barcode

5050159805471

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1 / 7" / Extended format: No / Rough Trade Exclusive: No / Signed copies: No / black

Artist

The Libertines

Genre GB

Alternative / Modern

Label GB

Rough Trade

To celebrate its 20th birthday, The Libertines’ debut single ‘What A Waster’ is being repressed on seven- inch single (backed by original B-side ‘I Get Along’).

Part calling card from the stars, part postcard from the gutter, when The Libertines made their first introductions there was no time for a gentle warm-up or an orienteering session to point out all the fire exits. Hell, there was no way out anyway because with their first single Pete and Carl and Gary and John dropped you straight in the middle of the energy and chaos that surged through their lives and fuelled their band. A storm of Bond-theme like riffs and ‘Carry On’ entendres, that charged forward with brakes-off drums, bass and the singers’ intertwined vocals, ‘What A Waster’ wasn’t a song to help you get your bearing with a new band, it was a track that made you realise this group would become your whole world.

With its Hogarth set to music visions of society’s underbelly, and a Gerald Scarfe-like sharpness to its wit, though The Libertines debut single - backed by equally energetic B-side ‘I Get Along’ - might have come out of the blocks at full speed, but there was a preciseness and a thought behind ‘What A Waster’’s ramshackle charms. Twenty years on from its release, The Libertines' opening salvo retains a freshness that is as much down to its wisdom beyond its years as it is the youthful exuberance it inspired in band and fans alike.

What A Waster

Music GB