Inside Nokia Music

When reviewing a gig I usually endeavour to post it before the following day while the memories are fresh, before they become too distant and I begin to blur the lines between imagination and reality and I weave tales based on my retrospective emotional state rather than the facts.

The trouble with an Arctic Monkeys gig is that at the age of 30 you begin to feel like a chaperone to the scores of 14-16 year olds who’ve turned out for the event… so even faced with the prospect of losing-out on great seats in an unreserved seating area, the thought of queueing among them like the awkward beanpole-kid that’s been held back a few school years is enough to drive anyone to drink… and so we cue the pub, and a reference to my opening paragraph.

Having seen Arctic Monkeys perform live before, the idea of a special show dedicated solely to the performance of Humbug played from top to bottom was a rather special diamond encrusted belt notch I thought, but for a first timer… a little unfortunate.

Conveniently, the opening track on Humbug is current single My Propeller so kicks the set off with a real sense of here-and-now. Playing through the familiar chronology, though some may have found too predictable, I found gave the set highlight moments to look forward to based on song preferences, without the risk of disappointment when a band doesn’t play a song you’d hoped for in normal gig circumstances… and the convenience of a timed bathroom break for the lesser ‘choice’ songs – Nice!

Overall, though short lived, it was marvellous affair with Pretty Visitors being the highlight for me, as well as Crying Lightning b-side and Nick Cave cover Red Right Hand closing the set as only 1 of 5 b-sides following on from Humbug’s 10 track run.

So what can I take away from last nights performance that will stay with me forever?… This may sound a little lame to most, but I’ve always wanted to see it in the flesh and unlike the first time I saw them, Matt Helders was using the Agile Beast, which if like me you’re a drummer and a Matt Helders fan, is the Holy Grail of an Arctic Monkeys gig.

Arctic Monkeys albums are available to download at Nokia Music Store or if you’ve got Comes With Music get them all for free!

Nothing heals the broken heart of missed tickets to the Teenage Cancer Trust gig like landing a pair for a more intimate performance by Arctic Monkeys.

Arguably, this looks set to be a stand-out event on the band’s touring calendar as they will only be performing Humbug and the accompanying b-sides. I think it’s safe to say we can expect a DVD release.

On another note

I previously reported (part 1 part 2) on the bands approach to ticket sales and their efforts to eliminate those pesky ticket touts – though the idea worked in theory, it still had one fatal flaw due to a lack of foresight… thankfully, this has been addressed and now appears to be completely sound. Let’s all hope that everyone else follows suit.

Arctic Monkeys – Humbug and all the b-sides are on the Nokia Music Store and completely free if you’re a  ‘’Comes With Music subscriber.

I don’t half bang on about them Arctic Monkeys do I!?… but how can I not when they’re one of the few bands on the scene these days that without fail, spoil us with a wealth of b-sides on every single they release.

True to form, they’re doing it again with the release of third Humbug single and album opener My Propeller. As with the release of Humbug’s previous 2 singles, they’re only set for release on 10″ & 7″ vinyl through Oxfam in the physical realm. Thankfully the 2 previous singles and their b-sides made their way onto Nokia Music Store, so I should expect the same for those of us who’ve completely expended our holiday allowance,  taking days off to successfully track these elusive beauties down.

…and in other news…

With the horrific lull between the release of Favourite Worst Nightmare and Humbug, and consolation for this only coming from frontman Alex Turner’s side project The Last Shadow Puppets, it’s come as a welcome surprise that the band have dropped the word that they intend to begin recording album number 4 in the near future, possibly reunited with Humbug producer and finger-in-all-pies man Josh Homme.

My Propellor is released on the 22nd March.

Loads more Arctic Monkeys music available to download from the Nokia Music Store - if you’re a  ‘Comes With Music’ subscriber, it’s completely free!

Part 5:

Arctic Monkeys – Humbug

So about now this blog’s Arctic Monkeys tag cloud is about to burst, creating a flash flood that could well sweep the competition out to sea. Following the impact Favourite Worst Nightmare and indeed the band as a whole had on me, Humbug falls within my top 3 most anticipated albums of the year. The trouble is the other 2 were within weeks of this release bringing to mind the modern urban proverb “you wait and wait for a bus and then 2 come along at once” only it’s 3 buses and I can’t choose which one to take to get me there quicker.

Upon learning of Josh Homme producing Humbug and reading that the band wanted more Brianstorm like tracks, I knew we were in for something that might alienate the Whatever People Say I Am That’s What I’m Not era fans and so wasn’t surprised to find this was indeed the case to a degree… and for those I am sad!… because I still hear the same old Arctic Monkeys now as I did then, only (as I commented on someone else’s review) Humbug is like the audio negative of the band’s earlier work with the undertones coming to the foreground while the beautiful colourings are suppressed below.

Stand out moments on the album: Potion Approaching and Pretty Visitors (it’s all about the toms man!)

Arctic Monkeys are exactly the reason we must encourage our children to make music from a young age (or whatever they want really), when they’re newly self aware and their sentience isn’t marred by the imposed limitations of adulthood, it’s this I believe that has given us a band of such depth and the early wisdom some may overlook.

Seen them live this year?:

Humbug ‘Launch Party’: 26 Aug @ Brixton Academy with support by Them Crooked Vultures, watched Dave Grohl drum an entire set at close range and I still left that gig obsessed with Matt Helders.

Check out other Arctic Monkeys posts from earlier in the year

Humbug is available to download from The Nokia Music Store and is completely free to ‘Comes With Music’ subscribers.

Although this video was officially released by the band, it only turned out to be a collection of still images. The reason I’m blogging about it?… well, I’m a b-side fiend that’s why, and among two other b-sides available on Humbug’s second single Cornerstone, this one is particularly special.

The Cornerstone single with all three b-sides as well as Humbug are available to download from the Nokia Music Store

The Arctic Monkeys have announced Cornerstone as the follow up single to Crying Lightning from third album Humbug. Once again the band have joined forces with Oxfam and will only be releasing the 7″ version through Oxfam’s high street charity stores.

Cornerstone is the only song on Humbug to not be produced by finger-in-all-pies man Josh Homme but rather James Ford, the man responsible for producing and playing drums on lead singer Alex Turner and Rascals frontman Miles Kane’s side project The Last Shadow Puppets. As well as co-producing the Arctic Monkeys second album Favourite Worst Nightmare, James Ford is also a finding member of Simian, current member of Simian Mobile Disco and has produced albums for the likes of Peaches, Test Icicles, Mercury Prize winning Klaxons album Myths Of The Near Future and Mercury Prize Nominee’s Florence And The Machine’s Lungs among several others.

Cornerstone is an excellent second single choice though obvious if Favourite Worst Nightmare’s single chronology is anything to go by as the song is easily comparable to Favourite Worst Nightmare’s second single Fluorescent Adolescent and has been hailed a fan favourite since Humbug’s release. An interesting and useless observation is that the band have abandoned the thematic approach they adopted for Favourite Worst Nightmare’s run of singles.

Klaxons, Florence And The Machine, The Last Shadow Puppets and Arctic Monkeys are all available to download from the Nokia Music Store

Well the rumours turned to fact last night as Josh Homme/Dave Grohl/John Paul Jones supergroup Them Crooked Vultures took the stage at the O2 Academy Brixton in support of Arctic Monkeys.

The results were a deafening hard rock onslaught of the highest order that left me fuzzy headed and grinning ear to ear. This coupled with possibly the heaviest set ever played by Arctic Monkeys made for a monumental event of historic proportions.

It’s fair to say I can transcend this life now!

Immediately after writing part one of this post I checked my inbox to discover that the initial allocation of tickets for Arctic Monkeys at O2 Academy Brixton had not been filled and had been released to the general public.

Unfortunately for me this was several hours after the message arrived in my inbox so it didn’t look promising. I tried regardless but to no avail. Each attempt resulted in a message window stating that tickets may still be available so I should keep trying… I kept trying till I could bare it no more. When I returned home later that evening I thought I’d give it one last go and much to my surprise I was faced with the payment details screen, this is where the cracks in this tout eliminating plan begun to show.

With a timer counting down in the bottom right hand corner and a lack of preparation on my part I frantically  had to choose between exceeding the overdraft limit on my card or getting my wife to use hers, we opted for the latter. In the frenzy of the moment I neglected to read the Terms & Conditions (as you do). What this stated was that the cardholder would be the primary name on the ticket! even though I had registered my name and contact details.

Now considering the crowd age Arctic Monkeys are known to pull, the question I propose is this: So if  a 16 year old who doesn’t have a debit/card, tickets limited to 2 per customer and Mommy having to pay for the tickets on her credit/debit card, how many of the audience are going to be chaperones?

For this plan to have worked flawlessly in my opinion the registered persons name should have been the primary ticket name and the credit/debit card holder should only have needed to verify the transaction.

Now although I’m pleased to be going with my wife, I had to decline my original plus one which is never a nice thing to do to a friend (I’m so sorry dude!) especially with rife rumours of support by Them Crooked Vultures.

Here’s hoping!

Anyone who’s missed out on tickets before due to touts buying them up and selling them off at extortionate prices knows just how annoying and costly it can be when you’re desperate enough to go to said gig. Attempts have been made in the past to minimize this, some more successful than others but never eliminating them completely (as far as I know) until now.

When Arctic Monkeys announced a surprise date at The Brixton O2 Academy, fans had to submit their name and contact details through the event link on arcticmonkeys.com. The quota was then filled at random and those lucky enough to be selected were issued a ticketlink and passcode that could then be used within a 3 day window without loosing out on redeeming their ticket due to time or connection issues. More importantly though is that tickets would be limited to 2 per person, would have the purchasers name upon and they would therefore need to accompany their plus one for them to gain admission, thus eliminating all possibility of ticket touting… and though I wasn’t lucky enough to be selected, at least I don’t feel violated by ticket touts.

It would appear the same applies for all their future ticket sales.

Arctic Monkeys… I salute you!

I take pride in the fact that I’m usually one the ball for release days of collectable editions, This was not the case on the release day of Arctic Monkeys “Crying Lightning”.

About halfway into the day of release it dawned on me that I forgot to pass my local Oxfam in the morning, frantically I made a dash for it only to discover it was closed. Googling Oxfam store locator on my Nokia 5800 I set out to find other nearby branches only to discover that stock had already sold out. With the threat of disappointment looming I decided to check my local branch the following morning in the hope that the store never actually opened that fateful Monday, thankfully this was the case and now I can rest easy with my collection intact.