Arctic Monkeys are a Mercury Prize winning, English indie rock band from High Green, a suburb of Sheffield. Formed in 2002, the band currently consists of Alex Turner on lead vocals and guitar, Jamie Cook on guitar, Matt Helders on drums and backing vocals, and Nick O'Malley on bass guitar, a position formerly held by Andy Nicholson. The band have received criticism, based largely around the media circus that has surrounded their rise.[43] Critics described them as one in a long line of largely overhyped "NME bands", while the release of the EP Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys just three months after their record-breaking debut album has been criticised by some, who have seen it as "money-grabbing" and "cashing in on their success".[44] However, the band countered that they regularly release new music not to make money, but to avoid the "boredom" of "spending three years touring on one album".[45] The cover sleeve of Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, showing Chris McClure, a friend of the band, smoking a cigarette, was criticised by the head of the NHS in Scotland for "reinforcing the idea that smoking is OK".[46] The image on the CD itself is a shot of an ashtray full of cigarettes. The band's product manager denied the accusation, and suggested the opposite — "You can see from the image smoking is not doing him the world of good".[46]October 2005 saw the group's first UK television appearances, performing on Popworld (15 October), E4 Music and Later with Jools Holland (28 October). Since these appearances, however, the band became notorious for refusing to play on any further TV shows.[47] They repeatedly turned down offers to play on the BBC's long running (now cancelled) chart show, Top of the Pops, as well as ITV's CD:UK. The band's refusal to attend the 2006 BRIT Awards was originally seen as another snub to television, although a statement explained that it was in fact due to their prior commitments on the NME Awards Tour. In their recorded acceptance speech for Best British Breakthrough Act, the band gained a "mystery fifth member" who did all the talking.[48] Known for being camera-shy, it turned out that the band had recruited We Are Scientists frontman Keith Murray, a friend of the band, to accept the award for them, to "confuse the audience". Despite their hostility to appearances on UK television, the band made their biggest TV appearance when they appeared on Saturday Night Live on 2006-03-11 to kick off their sold-out U.S. tour. The performance included the songs "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" and "A Certain Romance", and saw the word "ASBO" printed on the bass drum. However, just before the guitar solo of "A Certain Romance", Turner castigated a yawning audience member,[49] and Cook tossed his guitar at an amp at the end of the song. In February 2007 the band did not attend the 2007 BRIT Awards ceremony, due to recording of the video to their new single "Brianstorm" the same day. Although reported as a second "snub" to the ceremony, Helders told BBC 6Music ""We're filming the video that day, so we're not going to be anywhere near it. We haven't snubbed it, we're just busy boys getting ready to go on tour again."[50] Winning "Best British Band" and "Best British Album", the band instead sent videoed acceptance speeches dressed up as characters from the Wizard of Oz and The Village People.[51] The band appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live on April 26, 2007. The band also performed on Late Night With Conan O'Brien on April 30, 2007, when Conan aired his show in San Francisco, where they played their latest single, "Brianstorm". They made a UK TV appearance on May 4, 2007 on the BBC Two show Later, hosted by Jools Holland, where they performed "Brianstorm", "Teddy Picker" and "505", all three tracks are from their latest album Favourite Worst Nightmare. They headlined the Glastonbury Festival on 22 June, their full set being shown on BBC Two and BBC Three. They played tracks from both of their albums as well as a cover of "Diamonds Are Forever" in homage to Dame Shirley Bassey, who performed at the festival that Sunday. They appeared on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on 6 July and performed "Fluorescent Adolescent", while dressed in circus clown costumes after earlier promising Ross that they "had something special" up their sleeves. The clown costumes were in reference to the "Fluorescent Adolescent" music video. On September 7, the band appeared on the Late Show With David Letterman performing the song "Fluorescent Adolescent".

Author: Fjolleskandalen
Keywords: Arctic Monkeys Interview Alex Turner Matthew Helder Jamie Cook Nick O Malley Matt Andy
Added: September 25, 2007