One of the most talked about stories coming out of the 2003 Coachella Festival was the Libertines. It was their first ever performance in the US as well as the first chance for the American audience to see the UK's biggest buzz band in action. A previously scheduled US tour this past winter was cancelled due to visa problems causing most fans to wait a little longer to see them. So to call this appearence "highly anticipated" wouldn't be too much of a exaggeration (although we apologize for the cliché, however).

Throughout the first day of the festival, the Mojave Tent was having technical problems which put the acts progressively further behind schedule. When the Libertines' time had eventually arrived (they were the final act of the day), they didn't take the stage until about 90 minutes after they were initially scheduled to.

"The amp was fucked up", drummer Gary Powell told us several days later in NYC. Fucked-up-amps aside, he also said that he had a blast at the festival. "It was amazing. We were there [hanging out backstage] and we saw the Beastie Boys walk by and it was like, 'Oh my god' and then we saw Cameron Diaz. But it was like, 'Ok, be cool, now'." But Carl Barât (guitarist, singer) had a different opinion. When the word Coachella was mentioned to him, all he could say in a whisper was, "Shhhh...don't talk about it. It was dreadful".