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Arctic Monkeys in from the cold
THEY'VE been chatting about it in China, fussing over it in Frankfurt and going delirious in Denmark.
The warts and all rock act with one of the daftest names in music is the talk of the town - and seemingly just about every town - after two number one singles and an album that has smashed its way into the record books by selling an incredible 118,000 copies on its day of release - now 150,000 and counting.
The furore surrounding Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not and the rise of the band behind it has caused amazement, bemusement and enthusiasm in the most unlikely places.
"The other day we read something about them in the Guardian, who did a huge feature on them, and then something else on them in the lads' mag Zoo," said one local music pundit. "That's quite some demographics covered there."
Last weekend The Sunday Times carried a half-page analysis concerning how and why the band have gone from pub act to superstardom so rapidly. And on Tuesday another highbrow paper, the Independent, carried two pages in which they questioned characters as diverse as plummy-voiced art critic Brian Sewell who "detests what they call 'popular music'" to Sheffield MP Clive Betts.
Singer Alex Turner, aged 19, guitarist Jamie Cook, 20, bassist Andy Nicholson, 19, and drummer Matt Helders, 19, celebrated their success on Monday in preferred fashion with a sold-out show in Dublin on the first date of the countrywide ShockWaves NME Awards Tour, alongside Maximo Park, We Are Scientists and Mystery Jets.
By Tuesday they had been nominated for four NME awards, including best live band and best album for Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, which on release on Monday was outselling the second-placed album by former Verve singer Richard Ashcroft, Keys To The World, by four to one on web store Amazon.co.uk.
The phrase 'Arctic Monkeys' was also the top Amazon search term over the weekend, ahead of favourites such as 'iPod'.
As the national press was going mad trying to grab any details they could about the band, their parents, school teachers, girlfriends, even their pets, half the country was still trying to figure out who and what the fuss was about.
News At Ten on Tuesday night tried to answer some of the questions, as did Newsnight.
Barney Vernon, a promoter who staged some of the Arctics' early shows at the Boardwalk and Birdwell Club, Barnsley, as well as Sheffield's Plug and the Leadmill, was as beguiled by the Arctics' story as anyone else.
"It is amazing. We knew they were good but who could have predicted this?"
The Arctic Monkeys have beaten the Beatles in a list of the greatest British albums ever.
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not came fifth in the NME poll while the Beatles' Revolver only made ninth place.
Top of the list was the self-titled debut album from the Stone Roses, released in 1989.
Second was The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths, followed by Oasis with Definitely Maybe and The Sex Pistols with Never Mind The Bollocks.
NME said the Arctic Monkeys deserved to be in such exalted company despite the fact their album was released only on Monday.
"Consider some of the great British debuts: The Smiths, Definitely Maybe, Original Pirate Material. Now consider the Arctic Monkeys," NME said.
"Lumping Whatever People Say I Am... in with these records might seem premature but what made them all great was attitude and innovation and sheer balls - something the Monkeys possess in abundance.
"Passion, belief and style are timeless and so will this be."
Different Class by Sheffield band Pulp was seventh in the poll.
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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