Maybe I should approach this post like I’m writing about a song from Up the Bracket for the first time. I mean, I’ve covered ‘I Get Along’ – the last song on the album – but it wasn’t too long after doing that post that the song would come up in the shuffle list, the clunky riff would start, and I’d think to myself, “I’m not sure I like this song all that much anymore.” Got me heading for the skip button quite regularly. But that post will still exist as a reminder of a time when I used to like it a lot. But ‘Time for Heroes’? That’s a whole different story. After the band’s initial split in 2004, music videos by The Libertines would make their occasional appearances on MTV2. It just so happened that ‘Time for Heroes’ had one, being a single and all. I probably saw it once, twice, maybe three times, but that was enough to like the song. Then my sister got Up the Bracket as a loan from a school friend of hers. She ripped that onto the old, old, in-a-landfill-somewhere XP computer. Now I could listen to the song anytime.

I don’t know if there’s some kind of unwritten rule in Libertines fandom. Like you’re not meant to compare Pete Doherty and Carl Barât, you’re meant to like them both equally, or something. I’m not the biggest Libertines-head. But for me, Doherty’s always been the more interesting vocalist out of the two. The main attraction of the band is hearing them in a song together, that goes without saying. But if it’s just one of them throughout the whole thing, I feel Doherty’s usually the one who brings a different element to the proceedings. Like on ‘Time for Heroes’, he’s kind of got this drunken, slurring quality to his vocal delivery. Maybe he was drunk at the time of recording it. He sounds like he could mess a word or line up at any moment. But he still manages to hit every note needed and belts out those passionate “Oh, how I cherish you, my love” lyrics at the end of the verses. Or is that line the chorus? I don’t know if this song has a chorus. Feels like Doherty just sings one long verse over some great chord changes, on and on until the instrumental break comes in with a minute left to go.

‘Time for Heroes’ is Doherty’s observational take on the riots that took place in London on May Day 2000. I think he took part in them himself. I was barely a human being at the time, so I don’t know what the specifics of what happened. But this article on the events can clue us all in. Doherty addresses the listener with the first lines, “Did you see the stylish kids in the riot / Shoveled up like muck, set the night on fire”. Good opening lines by the way. Doherty continues on, shouting out the rioters known as the Wombles who dressed up as the characters of the same name. He references Bill Bones from Treasure Island. Just small things to look out for. Overall, I think the song’s acts as something of a tribute to all of the people who were caught up in the riots that day. Not the police, but the public fighting against them. I feel like they’re the heroes the song’s title refers to, and his ‘love’ is the thrill of being involved in places where he probably shouldn’t be. Least, that’s what I get from the song. It’s a good one. Better to listen to than to read about.