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Almost 2 years since their last London shows, Arctic Monkeys brought their number 1, West Coast influenced album, ‘AM’ to Earls Court last night to 20,000 fans. An almost flawless setlist touching on material from all 5 albums, the Sheffield band showed what time in California had done for them and their stage presence. No longer is Alex Turner a gawky kid in a polo singing about ‘trackie bottoms tucked in socks’, he’s now a all out rock ‘n’ roll star (albeit with some dodgy dancing).

The band opened with ‘Do I Wanna Know?’ as the giant ‘AM’ structure erected into this huge venue began to light up, with the beer flowing and unison chanting of the now classic riff and the chorus providing the crowd to stretch their lungs for the first time of many on the night. Racing through ‘Brianstorm’ and ‘Dancing Shoes’ the band were racing through at 100mph, and so was the crowd. Its rare to go to a show in London (known to be noticeably tamer than up north) and see every single person sweating and being shoved about, but all with a big smile on their face.

The smiles didn’t last long though unfortunately. Several people were carried out due to passing out or not being able to stand the heat. It started to become unbearable towards ‘Crying Lighting’ and the issues didn’t let up the further you went back, the place was swamped. It must be said that Earls Court probably wasn’t the best venue for the show, it was a case of the venue being ‘too big’ as queues stretched into the crowd for the bar and an energetic crowd creating problems for some.

Luckily, that isn’t what the show will be remembered for. It’ll be remembered for bringing along the deliciously hip shaking ‘Fireside’ with Bill Ryder Jones on guitar and now crowd favourite ‘Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High’ and ‘Arabella’ (video below courtesy of @tweeds_tweets) provided a mass singalong after entwining Black Sabbath’s ‘War Pigs’ at the start. Turner then dedicated ‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor’ to all the ladies in the house, to which they all duly accepted his dedication, but who wouldn’t?

Alex Turner & co finished the main show with some of their slower anthems with ‘Humbug’ crooner, ‘Cornerstone’ and ‘No 1 Party Anthem’, but the highlight was their ‘AM’ closer ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ which cuts up John Cooper Clarke’s classic poem and gives it a modern twist. The slower songs allowed Alex Turner to bring out his inner Elvis by combing his quiff on stage, a far cry from High Green, Sheffield (via LA). The track was complemented with huge confetti guns that made it one of the best tracks of the night as the crowd watched in awe.

The encore brought jaunty ‘theatrical’ influenced ‘Snap Out of It’ which sounded miles better than it did on Jools Holland the other day, the huge speakers at Earls Court obviously helping. Whilst rounding off the show they slightly misfired with the slowed down version of debut album track ‘Mardy Bum’ which left myself amongst several others in the crowd trying to slow down when the adrenaline was pumping. But the set closer proved the biggest hit of the night with plenty of mosh pits opening up for ‘R U Mine?’ as Matt Helders drumming was superb and Jamie Cook’s guitar powering the ‘balls to the wall’ rock ‘n’ roll tune into the stratosphere.

It was quite a fitting end finishing the show with ‘R U Mine?’, the track that completely changed the band into Arctic Monkeys 3.0, arguably their best version yet. It also proved what many of us knew before, there aren’t any bands on the circuit right now with songs that run so deep into the catalogue but just get better with every piece they make.

Arctic Monkeys Setlist:

‘Do I Wanna Know?’

‘Brianstorm’

‘Dancing Shoes’

‘Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair’

‘Teddy Picker’

‘Crying Lightning’

‘One For The Road’

‘Fireside’

‘Reckless Serenade’

‘Old Yellow Bricks’

‘Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High’

‘Arabella’

‘Pretty Visitors’

‘I Bet That You Look Good On The Dancefloor’

‘Cornerstone’

‘No. 1 Party Anthem’

‘Fluorescent Adolescent’

‘I Wanna Be Yours’

‘Snap Out Of It’

‘Mardy Bum’

‘R U Mine?’

Want your photo or video featured? Go last night? Comment here or tweet me at @AKA_tomsmith.

Photos and videos from the wonderful: @tweeds_tweets, @robsonmusgrave, @LittleJames_ , @SophieMDraper and @abbyshambles, thank you all very much.

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