Puppets show way to heartbreak
SOMETIMES you get the feeling that rock stars have a little too much time on their hands. Either that, or they never sleep.
Take Damon ‘Three Bands’ Albarn (Blur, Gorillaz and The Good, The Bad & The Queen): solo artist, soundtrack writer, one-time bar owner and political campaigner. Or Jack White: anchor in The White Stripes and The Raconteurs, producer, director, theme tune penner and full-time father of two.
And then there’s Alex Turner, who at the age of 22 has fronted two of the most important bands of his generation – the Arctic Monkeys and The Last Shadow Puppets – alongside Miles Kane, himself a borrowed frontman from Wirral band The Rascals, and ace producer (Arctic Monkeys, Klaxons, Mystery Jets), drummer and Simian Mobile Disco member James Ford.
With people like this leading the vanguard, getting wrecked in the downtime on the tour bus is no longer the rock ’n’ roll way. It’s all about hard work and determination… or is it?
Because some of the greatest pairings of the last five years have come about when musical muckers have got together for a laugh in the studio.
Finding that the tracks they pen could blow any other indie album for 100 miles out of the water, they write an album. Then give interviews. Then go on tour.
Before they know it, they’re the latest supergroup when all they ever aspired to was a good time on their days off.
Albarn and Jamie Hewlett, White and Brendan Benson, Slash and Scott Weiland (Velvet Revolver): the Noughties is littered with notable side projects that head off in wildly different musical directions from the members’ original bands.
Musical avenues
True to this rule, Turner and Kane’s group has explored musical avenues that their other bands just can’t accommodate.
“I enjoyed singing different,” said Turner about the band’s Mercury nominated debut album, Age Of The Understatement. “The harmonies were fascinating. I was having discussions with my dad about harmony. He’s a music teacher.”
Drenched in Scott Walker influences, sweeping strings and Love-like orchestral asides, The Age Of The Understatement is a break up record, 12 tales from a heartbroken man to a cascade of villainous girls.
If you haven’t already secured a ticket for their Manchester show, it’s too late to remedy the situation.
So view this as your nudge in the ribs to pick up a copy of their number one album. Pronto.
The Last Shadow Puppets play the Apollo on Sunday, October 12. Ipso Facto support. Tickets are sold out.
Published: Mon, 06 October, 2008
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