Carl Barat revealed on his official Twitter page last night that The Libertines were among the many acts asked to perform at the London 2012 closing ceremony but that they "couldn't do it". When a section of Barat's followers expressed their disappointment at the band's non-appearance, Barat followed-up by Tweeting: "All this vexation for me? Cheers. No one's actually understanding why we couldn't do it."

Barat had recently revealed that he and Pete Doherty had been working on new material together, despite Doherty's much-publicised drug problems continuing. He was recently thrown out of a thai rehab facility for being a "disruptive influence" on his fellow patients.

Speaking to TV show Hernu & Harris Unhinged, Doherty said that plans for new Libertines material are at an advanced stage. "I spoke to Carl yesterday", he said. "He's going to come out to Paris. Then maybe we'll go back out to Thailand together and do some writing."