Libertines announce first public gig since reforming

Indie rockers The Libertines announced plans today for their first full gig since confirming they were getting back together.

They will play a warm-up show in London later this month ahead of appearances at the Reading and Leeds Festivals.

Tickets will not go on general sale but will be offered to fans, chosen at random, who register on the band's website.

A spokesman for the band said they "felt this was the fairest way to distribute tickets and to avoid fans being charged extortionate amounts for them".

Tickets for the gig at the HMV Forum in London on Wednesday August 25 will cost £30.

The band announced their comeback in March when they played a short set for journalists and a few fans behind closed doors at a north London pub.

Frontmen Pete Doherty and Carl Barat were joined at the press conference at Boogaloo, a pub in Highgate, by bassist John Hassall and drummer Gary Powell.

Barat said that performance, the first featuring all four band members since the split, was "exhilarating".

He said: "It felt good. Like scratching an itch."

The band have continued to attract new fans since falling apart in 2004.

Their debut album, Up The Bracket, was named the best British album of the past decade in a survey of musicians and industry figures by music magazine NME.

The quartet collapsed when Barat fell out with his joint frontman because of Doherty's wayward behaviour as he battled with drug problems.