IN CASE you're too young, too old or too disinterested to know, not since Oasis has a British band made quite as big an impression as The Libertines.

Ramshackle, ruinous and riddled with audacious contradictions, they simultaneously invoked the ghosts of Blur, The Smiths, The Jam, Buzzcocks, Kinks, Tommy Steele, Vince Taylor and George Formby. Add a splash of Shelley, a dash of Blake and a bag of cheap speed and you had a voluble, volatile, potent pop potion.

It couldn't last and didn't. Time For Heroes is their record company's idea of the best they left behind and the mix of hit singles, treasured B-sides, live faves and alternate versions does its job - very well - which is to pressgang the listener for service aboard the good ship Albion. Happier times, ahoy!