Tuesday, August 01, 2006

The Arctic Monkeys



It's been so long since I went out to see a live band. However this was once experience I couldn't miss. The Arctic Monkeys are a band from Sheffield, a depressed city in northern England which is probably most famous for the movie The Full Monty. These guys are remarkable for a number of things. The first is that their success comes from MySpace.com.(apparently the 2nd most popular site on the net. Yahoo.com is no.1) People heard their songs online and told their friends who told their friends and before long they went from playing in front of a crowd of 50 to sold out crowds of as many as could fit into the small venues they were playing. When they signed a record details with the small London company Domino and released their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, it sold 360 000 copies in one week in the UK alone. This made the album the fastest selling debut album in UK history. Quite a feat and this says a lot about our modern society where the internet is king and king maker. This attracted me to the Monkeys, but what kept me there was the rocking music and the amazing lyrics. Now, they are not for everyone, but oh how I love them!

Oh yeah, the concert! It was awesome. Being old and decrepit now, I sat on the mezzanine floor sipping beer and rocking out. The sound was right on the money and the band played all the songs we were hanging out for. One of the weird things about the concert was I didn't meet one person there with a NZ accent. Everyone seemed to be from England!

San Nakji for President!

10 comments:

Ashley said...

I bet that was a great show!

Cergie said...

Full Monty !
I love all British cinema.


Next time you'll speak about monkey say "he" or "she".
I remember why now I wanted to know if the tamarin was a female: when I was living in Ivory Coast, a monkey female bit my finger because I'm female too. A very young (8 years old) female but she was jealous.
I don't think however these monkeys will bite me.
How will you do the différence when you'll show two animals ?

Your photos are great, did you still use your phone ?

Don't forget your promise: you must answer my questions.

Friar Tuck said...

Looks like fun!

San Nakji said...

The tamarin I took is actually a female. I know them quite well, they have been round for tea! You can tell the difference by asking their names of course!

I used my minolta camera. I didn't use a flash, which is why they look like they do. For this one I used photoshop to add that 'painted' look.

Have I answered your questions?

Brotha Buck said...

I love the way the photo dances as the mouse is ran over it.

Frank Partisan said...

I don't see myself moving my blog to MySpace. They like Fox News politics.

Sounds like fun. Nice to see success from a free website.

Paulsouth said...

Sheffield is also famous for stainless steel cutlery, and a train to London called The Master Cutler. The singer Joe Cocker is also from Sheffield.

Cergie said...

Happily I'm back to answer your answer.

In fact, I wanted to write: " old and decrepit with a NZ accent ?"
Good, that's done.

Euh ! What's the name of this female and the one of the moustachu ?
In French we do the difference in the language:
monkey male = singe
" female = guenon
hare = lievre
" female = hase
wild boar male = sanglier
" " female = laie
young " " = marcassin and so on.

when there is not different name for male or female, not easy however :
unE loutre (otter)
un tamarin
unE becasse
unE cigogne (stork)
un castor (beaver)...
un faucon (falcon)

Yesterday, we did the experience: our Lord Tiger did not come when we called him Jack.
He (male) came immediatly when we called Muchu.

Thanks for technical explanations I'll come back and study them when you'll be lying on the sand (keep safe of sand -very dangerous for skin and else part of body, don't do anything on it and don't forget shark is not dragon. don't swim with please.)

Oricon Ailin said...

I'm really glad you had a great time! I've never heard of them. *hangs head in shame*

But, that's wicked cool how they got popular!

*smiles*

Tim Rice said...

Great story how the band became well known.