Electric Picnic Preview: Arctic Monkeys

The last time Hot Press interviewed Arctic Monkeys frontman Alex Turner, on the eve of the release of their fourth album Suck It And See, we asked the Sheffield star if there was any truth in the rumour that he had the name of the Bard of Salford tattooed on his arm.

“Have you heard that one, too?” he laughed. “I really love John Cooper Clarke’s stuff, but I don’t have his name tattooed on me arm! A few people have said that to me, actually. Maybe I should get one! It’d be a great tattoo. Or even just a couple of lines from one of his poems. From ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ or summat.”
The Monday following their Electric Picnic headliner, the Arctic Monkeys officially release their eagerly awaited fifth long-player, AM, which closes with their rocked-up version of one of Clarke’s most famous poems, which Turner studied for his GCSEs. For the uninitiated, the poem goes, “I wanna be your vacuum cleaner/ Breathing in your dust/ I wanna be your Ford Cortina/ I will never rust…”
The first cut from AM, ‘Do I Wanna Know?’, has already notched up more than 8 million views on YouTube, so it’s safe to say that the album – described by their producer James Ford as “their most experimental yet” – will be a massive hit.
Signed to Domino in 2005, the following year’s Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not remains the fastest-selling debut album in British chart history, beating Oasis’ record for Definitely Maybe. Combining bardic barrages of cleverly observant lyrics (“All the weekend rock stars in the toilets practicing their lines”) with short, sharp and spiky guitar riffs, the album instantly made the band Sheffield’s biggest musical export since Pulp.
The title came from a line in Alan Sillitoe’s classic, working-class, rebellious novel Saturday Night And Sunday Morning. While not quite angry young men themselves, the band certainly had attitude, and totally refused to play the industry game. Before they were signed, A&R men were told to pay into their gigs like everyone else. Even after they were successful, they regularly took the piss. They once accepted a Brit Award dressed in Wizard Of Oz and Village People costumes.
Any cynical suggestions that they were one hit wonders were blown out of the water with 2007’s harder and heavier Favourite Worst Nightmare, which also went straight in at No 1 in the UK, garnered them more awards and acclaim, and also landed them a prestigious headlining slot at that year’s Glastonbury. They got even more rock ‘n’ roll after that. Partly recorded in the Nevada desert with Queens Of The Stone Age’s Josh Homme, 2009’s Humbug was a deeper, darker and more eloquent affair – something Turner partly attributed to his new-found love of Nick Cave though some critics suggested it had more to do with smoking American weed. Spending a lengthy time touring it, they opened the 2009 Reading Festival with an unexpected cover of ‘Red Right Hand’.
Although they spend a lot of their time on the road – they play an average of 100 shows a year – they’ve managed to record various EPs and one-off downloads along the way. Alex Turner has somehow found time to compose movie soundtracks (for Richard Ayoade’s hit indie flick Submarine) and work with his friend Miles Kane on The Last Shadow Puppets project.
This is a hardworking band that always gives bang for your buck. Their Glastonbury set this year is still being talked about. If they bring along John Cooper Clarke – no stranger to Stradbally - it will truly be the icing on the electric cake…