Dirty Dancefloors and Dreams of Naughtiness

I've now realised that I shouldn't ever promise anything here.. I invariably fail to deliver! So i'm a couple of days late, but I'll try & cast my mind back to Thursday's Arctic Monkeys gig. Well I tell ya it didn't disappoint in the slightest. I was leaping up and down like a teenager, and left the venue soaked in sweat with a spring in my step and a big grin on my face.

The band already have a fanatical following, and I’m sure many people had come from far afield… with some following the entire tour. I heard a fair few Sheffield accents, and got the impression that a lot of people had seen the band before. The front half of the cramped venue erupted in raptures at the very first chord.. arms stretched out towards the stage, plumes of steam rising to the ceiling, legs and fists in the air, singing along to every word.

Opening track ‘Fake Tales of San Francisco’ seemed even more pertinent after a support band of Nirvana wannabees (notable only for the first ever sighting of a cricket shirt on stage... The Ashes really have gripped the country!). Singer Alex apologised for the state of his voice a couple of times, and he looked like he’d been overdoing it a bit.. It didn’t seem to affect the songs but the banter was a bit croaky. Very funny all the same though. Lots of shouts out to ‘Seattle’ (see above) and baiting of the few people in the room not going Chicken Jalfrezi. Yeah, he's a funny man.







All the tracks off the 'Beneath The Boardwalk' demo were stunning, but the highlight had to be the crowd singing unaccompanied the first verse of 'Scummy'.. which is no mean feat considering the track hasn't been released - and that the first verse consists of 12 lines. The power of t'interweb eh! Forthcoming single 'Bet You Look Good on The Dancefloor' also rocked, as indeed did every track bar one or two I didn't recognise. They finished with the chav-baiting 'A Certain Romance' before the bassist carried Alex off the stage and the stunned audience filtered out.

ARCTIC MONKEYS - A CERTAIN ROMANCE

I'll be seeing them again in London in a couple of months... I can't wait. Hopefully they'll play 'Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts'.





Here is an embarassing recording of Chris Martin getting overexcited about the band on the radio...

CHRIS MARTIN ON ARCTIC MONKEYS


If you're also overexcited about the band (and you should be)... head over to their message board where you can download a large file containing all their demos. (Check the 'demos' thread.)

The upcoming UK dates I mentioned last week sold out in a day.. your best bet for news of any other dates is to sign up to the mailing list. I think they're heading over to the States at the end of the year... so keep an eye out if you're from that part of the world.



I'm pretty pleased with how a couple of my pictures came out (i.e. the first two!), but in general it seems to be a bit of a lottery how my photos turn out. Does anyone reading have any great tips for gig photography? I generally try & set the ISO to 400, and the shutter speed at 1/60. I guess there's not a lot else you can do with a compact. I'm curious really as to how a professional would set their camera up. Would you use flash at all? Or if you have the ability to set the ISO to 1600 does that generally give you enough exposure to not need it?

I'm thinking of getting a digital SLR as soon as I have any cash (if that ever happens)... and might try & blag my way in to photograph some bands... any tips from anyone who knows how would be much appreciated!