Pete Doherty's public heroin-addiction has been an ongoing spectacle in the UK tabloids. Following weeks of tumultuous shows with his side project Babyshambles, the estranged Libertines co-frontman was arrested yesterday (Feb. 2) in London on suspicion of assault and robbery

However despite the ongoing chaos in Pete's life, Billboard is reporting that the remainder of the band has been eschewing the spotlight and are charting out their future plans. The Libertines are taking a few months off with plans to regroup for the summer festival circuit. A new full length, the follow up to their self-titled 2004 effort, is in the cards for late 2005 or early 2006 via Rough Trade. Drummer Gary Powell commented on the band's reaction to the Doherty-fueled media frenzy and how it will effect their return:

We kind of ignore what's going on anyway. At the end of it, it's really just Pete's problem and not really ours…

There is plenty of stuff happening -- it's just the matter of formatting it into how we want it to be portrayed. And is the idiom of performance going to be the same as it was before? There is so much to figure out. Just go out and do it, that's kind of been our motto: have instruments, will play. But now that we have time to attempt to be a little bit professional, we're going to try and do it. I think we've reached that kind of status quo of professionalism.

Of course there's no indication if Doherty will have any part in these future plans. While the Libertines have played two full summer tours without him they haven't yet recorded without his involvement.