The Libertines were the very welcomed surprise on Glastonbury’s Pyramid stage yesterday evening, filling in the empty slot left when Florence + The Machine stepped up to headline in place of Foo Fighters. The reunited four piece, who will soon be releasing their third album, treated the crowd to a mix of classic tracks and some new material during the performance, which began at around 8.30pm.

The LibertinesThe Libertines’ Peter and Carl sharing the mic at Glastonbury.

Minutes before the band appeared on stage a banner featuring the artwork of their 2002 debut album Up the Bracket was unveiled, announcing their imminent arrival. Both the band and Glastonbury organisers managed to keep the appearance a secret until the last minute, with the group landing at the site via helicopter just hours before.

The band opened their set with ‘The Delaney’ followed by ‘Vertigo’ after which singer Peter Doherty told the crowd, "Evening Glastonbury, hello.” Doherty then paid tribute to his late friend singer Alan Wass, who died in April saying, "Mr Alan Wass if you're up there looking down, I'm down here looking up.”

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The anthemic ‘Time For Heroes’ came next, followed by 'Can't Stand Me Now’ from the group’s self titled second album. Then came brand new track 'Gunga Gin’, from their forthcoming third album, following by 'What Katy Did' and 'The Boy Looked At Johnny’.

The group were then joined onstage by singer-songwriter Ed Harcourt for a rendition of early classic 'You're My Waterloo’ and another new song 'Anthem For Doomed Youth’. Favourites 'The Good Old Days’, ’I Get Along' and 'What A Waster’ roused the festival crowd, as did closing number ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’ which ended with a Doherty-Barat pile-on.

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The Telegraph described the band’s surprise performance as ‘a relentless pile-driver of a set that whipped us all into a frenzy’, while NME’s Lisa Wright wrote that during ‘Don’t Look Back Into The Sun’, ‘the entire crowd erupted into the kind of mass sing-along that only a handful of bands could ever achieve.’

Next for the band is an appearance later tonight at Moscow’s Ahmad Tea Music festival, before their headlining slot at this year’s T in the Park on July 11th and Reading and Leeds festival on August 28th and 30th.