I Laughed A Lot With Alex's Pointing GIF And I Wonder If He Realizes How Funny Is

Q: Special Review of 2018 - February 2019, part 2/2.

Sometimes I fear of losing the people I love, it’s such a strong feeling that it’s inevitably to find it my lyrics.

Alex Turner (Plugged Magazine 2013)

the princess arriving

Eduard Friedrich Leybold (1798-1879, Vienna)

Potrait of a young elegant lady, three-quarter length, in a red dress with an embroidered shawl, standing in a landscape

THE BIG ISSUE EXCLUSIVE: ARCTIC MONKEYS BEHIND THE SCENES

Arctic Monkeys Behind The Scenes

A slow-burning psychedelic sci-fi chanson masterpiece inspired by Serge Gainsbourg, The Beach Boys, 1970′s movie soundtracks and outer space, Arctic Monkeys’ Mercury Prize-nominated sixth album Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino is one of the finest albums of 2018, and the Sheffield band’s boldest and most ambitious artistic statement to date.

As they embark on the UK leg of their world tour, the came to The Big Issue to offer an exclusive, never-before-seen set of behind the scenes photographs taken by their friend Zackery Michael - on the road, during video shoots and in-and-around the studio in France where the record came together. The Big Issue is the only place you can see these images, although more visual content from these sessions will feature in exhibitions staged in Sheffield and London to coincide with the tour, including a version of the sculpture from the album’s cover, conceived and created by front man Alex Turner. 

Turner spoke to us to share some funny and revealing stories and insights, providing a candid and personal sub rosa glimpse of one of  Britain’s most important bands during the latest exhilarating phase of their career. 

“We’re always happy to work with The Big Issue” says Turner. 

Thanks Alex, the feeling’s mutual.

On Photographer Zackery Michael: “Zachery took a lot of photographs of us over the last six years or so. He’s a friend I made when I was living in New York and he lived in the same neighbourhood. At a certain point we ended up in the same city. We were on a video shoot for The Hellcat Spangles Shalalala from Suck It And See, and Zack had just got into town so he joined us and started taking pictures. We’ve spent a lot of time with him on tour ever since and he’s someone that everyone feels really comfortable with. I suppose that’s why he gets the photographs he gets. He’s more behind the scenes than we let a lot of people”

“They are enormous trousers. A friend gave me those, they were too small for him. He’s taller. They’re miles too big for me. I suppose there’s a bit more room in the trousers for this record, shall we say. that there was in the last one. Is that the quintessential Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino trouser? No, it’s more of a good studio trouser. Very comfortable.”

On Arctic Monkey’ instant classic BBC session at Maida Vale Studios, London, June 2018: “There’s Jamie and Matthew with a drumstick in his mouth, as though it were a rose. I have to say, for that Maida Vale session, I have to give credit to the BBC for letting us do it how we wanted to do it. They really were supportive of that idea. Obviously the video we did for Dancefloor was a sort of version of that attempt at something in the spirit of The Old Grey Whistle Test. Around the time when we did the Four out OF Five video, we’d rented these old cameras and these old monitors and we were messing around with pointing the film cameras at the monitor and creating these kind of loops. I think that was we where that started. I think with Maida Vale you don’t need to do a lot in there, it’s just the room looks cool anyway, there’s a feel to it. All that Whistle Test was was a band set up and they play. You still watch it now and it works. So we went in there with that sort of attitude. And of course we had Ben, he directed the BBC thing with some of their people. He deserves more credit than I do. 

“It’s rare to get asked for an autograph these days I suppose, it’s all selfies. It’s like using the old cameras for our videos - I insist upon it. I don’t, I’m just pulling your leg. But I’ve had a lot of practice with my autograph over the years, it’s absolutely formidable now.”

On Touring Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino: “I suppose it’s always with some uncertainty that you release something new, and this was no different. There was a greater sense of uncertainty for a number of reasons, but that seems quite a long time ago now. We’ve got Tom and Tyler playing with us now as well, and that creates a bit more scope and versatility with the show. I’m really happy with the band now and how it’s sounding. It feels like there’s something that’s there this time that wasn’t there before”

“That’s in Reno, Nevada, when we were doing the Tranquility Base video. It’s actually a part that you don’t see that much in the video because unfortunately, the camera got jammed and so all the footage from that set-up came back unusable. Which is a great shame because it was one of the largest, strangest rooms I’ve ever been in. I think there was something inherently Kubrick about it from that carpet. There’s a touch of The Shining, I think. It’s like a wonky Shining. I guess it was a conference room. It seemed like that carpet on the walls and the carper on the floor were having a disagreement. Carpets on walls having disagreements with carpets on floors - I think that might be the mantra of the interior design department in the Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino.”

On posing for photographs [and referencing Abbey Road-esk Beatles]: “I suppose when you’re looking at, when it comes to photographing four blokes together, I can’t think of that many scenarios that aren’t bands that you can draw reference from. I mean, there area couple of things that we’ve referenced before - like groups of scientists and things like that. But invariably things like iconic shots of the The Beatles kind of rear their head. I suppose you just try not to be the guys leaning over the edge all the time”

On La Frette Studios, La Frette-sur-Seine: “La Frette is where we recorded a lot of the album, and certainly brought it home and brought it all together. I’d never been there before, but it’s somewhere we’ve wanted to go in the past and nearly did for the last Last Shadow Puppets album. I think it was something as our producer James had come out to LA at the start of making this album, and so it was sort of our turn to come over to him. This was somewhere we’d been wanting to go for a bit - Laurence from Domino had recommended it. There’s this band I really like called Timber Timbre who had just been there, and the guy from the band had written something about the studio which I remember reading, and he had very complimentary things to say. We decided to give it a go and we weren’t disappointed - it’s a fantastic studio, it’s got a great feel and the people that were taking care of us there were really wonderful. I miss it to be honest.”

“We didn’t get into Paris at all during that trip, most of our time was spent in that little village. It’s a long time since we’ve done that on a record, lived in the place where we’ve recorded and been together every night. It was a fantastic experience.”

“I’ve enjoyed talking to you about these things.The only thing I prefer to having my picture taken is to have to dissect it afterwords. I’m only kidding, I’ve not felt remotely uncomfortable.”

On creating the sculpture for the cover of Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino: “I’ve never made anything like that before. It got a bit groovy back there for a minute. This is the first time that I’ve ever owned a craft knife. No cereal boxes were harmed. I don’t eat that much cereal actually, any more. Certainly not the type of quantities that it would have required to get through this process. There was a couple of art shops that I became familiar with. I went through a lot of blades. One thing that I can say is that I’ve learnt my way around the craft knife aisle.”

Arctic Monkeys Problem #189

Knowing for a fact that you’re gonna explode when AM6 is announced

Alex Turner's track by track of 'WPSIATWIN'

1 THE VIEW FROM THE AFTERNOON “This is one of the last songs written for the album. There’s nothing clever, it’s just about anticipating the evening, finding comfort in familiarity and the fact that you know you’re bound to send a daft message or something before the sun comes up. I think I’ve stopped doing that now.”  2 I BET YOU LOOK GOOD ON THE DANCEFLOOR “I get the impression a lot of people imagine an evening scene when they hear this song but it conjures up daytime images for me. ‘Lustful’ is perhaps a good word to describe it. It’s far from our finest work but I’m not going to bang on about that.”  3 FAKE TALES OF SAN FRANCISCO “We first played this song in 2004 as the summer came to a close. At this time we’d just started playing what then seemed like a lot of gigs – sometimes we’d go mad and play two a week – and so we were rubbing shoulders with a lot of other bands at a similar stage to us. The gigs were usually four bands or sometimes more, no-one in the crowd except a few of their mates or girlfriends who all left as soon as they could. The bands rarely had anything in common, musical or otherwise, and right beside the angry 13-year-olds playing Green Day or whatever you would find the cool bastards that provided the topic for the lyrics of ‘Fake Tales…’. “If it’s a Tuesday night in Sheffield that’s fine, why pretend it’s anything else? I think the easiest way to describe this song is as the sound of us getting annoyed at people pretending. Another way to put it would be it’s the sound of us when given something to whinge about – depends how profound you want it to sound.”  4 DANCING SHOES “It’s the oldest song on there. It’s about people always looking to pull when they go out however much they mask it.”  5 YOU PROBABLY COULDN’T SEE FOR THE LIGHTS BUT YOU WERE STARING STRAIGHT AT ME “I’m into the arrangement on this because there’s no chorus as such and it doesn’t do the same thing more than once. It’s our love song I suppose. It’s about a girl we knew who was in a band.”  6 STILL TAKE YOU HOME  “A while ago, before all this madness, pin-up Jamie Cook and I were sat in a club in town one evening. A conversation was struck up about the clientele of this particular establishment and this little chat and other events that night led to this tune. I remember a dark-haired girl in a green dress was a particular inspiration.”  7 RIOT VAN “This one is a bit against the run of play I suppose, in terms of the time it’s about. I think of most of the songs as being ‘set’ in the present day, whereas with this one it’s more like 1999 or 2000, when we were 14 or so even though it was written at the same time as all the others. ‘Bigger Boys And Stolen Sweethearts’ is set in the same time as this. It’s all about when we used to hang about around our end and the things we saw. We were never really bad lads, we just used to have a laugh. I think Helders [Monkeys drummer] described it best when he said, ‘Just ’cos you’d hang around near people who might burgle houses or summat it didn’t mean you had to.’”  8 RED LIGHT INDICATES DOORS ARE SECURED “It’s about hovercrafts, obviously. We recorded the album in the order it’s presented and did a song a day pretty much. We used a funny microphone called a bullet or something on ‘Riot Van’ and left it up when we went onto ‘Red Light…’ so I could do a guide vocal when we did the take. It turned out the guide sounded great so we didn’t bother doing another in the end. There was a few more verses written for this, but it was all too much and it never got past practice because the same riff was just going round and round with all this verbal on top. Everyone got bored so we cut some stuff out.”  9 MARDY BUM “The hit! This is the only recording that we didn’t do when we did the others. We recorded this one in Munich when we were on tour, in a little studio not too dissimilar to 2Fly studio in Sheffield where we did all our demos.”  10 PERHAPS VAMPIRES IS A BIT STRONG BUT… “About this time last year we’d played outside Sheffield a little and were in the process of just trying to play in new places a little more. You got expenses covered most of the time but that was all – you never made a profit or anything like that. We didn’t really care, we were getting to play and having a laugh and not a great deal of people outside Sheffield had really heard of us so we didn’t expect anything in return. When you talked to people about it however, it was somewhat frowned upon and perhaps sniggered at that we were playing for free. Everyone’s an expert about this band lark and it seemed like a bit of a joke to a lot of people – while they’d wish us all the best I think behind our backs they were really convinced we were just wasting our time.”  11 WHEN THE SUN GOES DOWN “We used to have a practice room in an old industrial sort of area just outside town. Loads of bands practice round there and we still do as well. There are sandwich shops and some other businesses that are run there by day. At night, as well as studios and practice rooms there is perhaps some less celebrated activity. When we moved into our room the man next door actually really said, ‘It changes around here when the sun goes down,’ and you would get asked for business [by prostitutes] out in the street sometimes, or it would be the middle of the night and there would be a bloke with a carrier bag just walking about as we left. It sounds like there’s a bit of a humorous tone but it’s really pretty sad. It’s strange how these different worlds exist in the same space.”  12 FROM THE RITZ TO THE RUBBLE “The bouncer thing is really just me having a bit of a dig. I still get asked for ID now when I go to clubs so when I wasn’t actually old enough it was a nightmare trying to get in anywhere at all. I actually had one of the best nights ever after getting turned away once though so it’s not always a bad thing. I remember one night walking from my mate’s house in Hillsborough to get the bus back to ours one Sunday and the second verse and the ‘last night what we talked about’ bit was dreamed up during that journey. We always try to show the same attention to the rhythm and the way the parts work together as we do to the words or any of that stuff. I think this is a good example of when we’ve had a really good crack at both.”  13 A CERTAIN ROMANCE “All our other tunes are quite specific to a certain incident or series of incidents. This one is more reflective and a bit of an attempt at summing up perhaps. This is definitely a special one for us and it could only ever have been the conclusion to the first record. ‘Nobheads don’t dress in a certain way’ is an important theme in there I suppose – at least they don’t where we come from.”

Music and Life

Sometimes there are just songs that speak to how you feel. I have however found that there are more songs that speak to how i felt at one point in my life. Or how i feel about people, or events. The list goes on. I find it incredible that someone who can’t read my mind can put my emotions and thoughts so perfectly into words and music. 

Fireside by the Arctic Monkeys is one of these songs. I was so in love with one of my ex’s. And this song perfectly describes how i felt after we broke up. 

“in my heart there’s that hotel suite and you lived there so long, It’s kinda strange now you’re goneI’m not sure if I should show you what I’ve found Has it gone for good? Or is it coming back around? Isn’t it hard to make up your mind? When you’re losing and your fuse is fireside“ 

I was so empty after we broke up, i was depressed for months. I had never felt that way before. And we had a on/off relationship i was always confused or hoping or unsure if he might change his mind or if it was for good this time.

“ But that place on memory lane you liked still looks the same But something about it’s changed …

And I thought I was yours forever Maybe I was mistaken but I just cannot manage to make it through the day Without thinking of you lately”

I went back to a place we used to go to a lot on dates a year or so after we broke up. And it was so odd, i hadn’t been there since we had been on a date. I didn’t feel sad, or happy. Or anything really. And that really changed how the place looked like to me. I did think that we would stay together for a long time. I was obviously wrong and i see that now. But at the time i couldn’t stop thinking about him. 

Things change of course. I no longer feel this way. But the song captures a snapshot moment of my life so perfectly. 

Alex Turner at the Chicago Cubs vs Los Angeles Dodgers game 26th May, 2017

hey i know you're sorta like alex number one fan so i was wondering if you could make a detail evolution of alex haircuts over the years or whatever

omg, hahaha wow, okay i will try:

Well everything started with his first years of life he use to have this typical child haircut. he looked like a little monkey

Then we know about him in his teenager years. he used to have this sorta chav, punky hair. which it was sorta cool yeah, look

Then in 2006 he started growing his hair and end up being the first alex long hair, at the end of the whatever tour. here

Then after a break to record the 2 album, al had a hair cut and it looks really short kind of like a beatles cut. he had tha hair cut for a while:

Around 2007 he made the puppets album with miles kane in france. by that time his hair was a bit more longer, summat like this. lovely

And at the end of the FWN tour, (apollo remember?) he cut his har a bit but still he had plenty of hair. this is one of my fav moments f alex hair, watch out.

Now in 2008 he was touring with miles and he get thos the beatles mop again, this is my fav alex hair. really similar to some style of 07 hair:

and a bit longer at the end of puppets tour

and then he went to record humbug at Joshua tree and his hair was long by them, not as long as we know but long

by the time they finish humbug and start properly touring the album he get the massive long hair.

THEN he suddenly decided to cut those hairs down a bit and he looked so fab here

And well, the humbug era ended in mexico and then out of the blue we saw alex with fucking short hair again and ont only that with a bit of lightning on his hair or whatever. it looked amazing

But it didn’t lasted too long, after a while he came back to his normal hair and even more short wow, here

Then they recorded sias at the end of 2010 and beggining of 2011 and alex had the famous presias hair, wow. other of my fav hairs frick, take  alook bb

And out of the blue one day in austin in august 2011 he fucking appears with a fucking quiff. the well famous quiff. this is the day the earth changed forever

now he still has the quiff but its different, its not the richard hawley quiff he used to have, its a bit more nice, i liek it better

ohhh and lately he’s starting to use a bit less of gel between concert and it looks amazing as fuckkkkkkkk. 

And that’s pretty much all, jsut going very quickly about it, hope it work (btw my draft thing is not working right now so im going to post it without checking so it might look bad and i wouldn’t tell, fuck it)