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The cover to Arctic Monkeys' single 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor' depicting an attractive female trainee-cashier working in an off-license.

The single cover reflects Arctic Monkeys' status as the voice of their generation: romantic tension, embedded in a northern, working-class environment like an off-license.

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Alex is described as 'quiet' and 'deeply uncomfortable with being the centre of attention'. At just twenty-years old, and the front-man of an independent band, Turner wasn't camera-ready.

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The Spotted Pig has a fair claim to be called the hippest restaurant in Manhattan. A kind of upmarket gastropub, it has a Michelin star and rave reviews - its low-carb alternative to gnocchi is apparently to die for - but the food is overshadowed by its celebrity connections. Beyoncé eats here. Liv Tyler pops in for lunch. One of the owners used to manage The Smiths, the head chef came recommended by Jamie Oliver, and its investors are rumoured to include everyone from Bono to Fatboy Slim. It's so hip that the New York Times sent a writer to review not the food but the background music. "They played Air, a French pop group," he noted approvingly, "before segueing into a homage to Apple Records, then some reggae dubs."

But all of this counts for little with the Arctic Monkeys' 19-year-old drummer, Matt Helders. He emerges from his taxi and regards the Spotted Pig's tastefully discreet fascia with a wary eye. "We've been 'ere before," he sighs. Like the rest of the Arctic Monkeys, Helders speaks with a broad Sheffield accent. "I ordered chicken livers on toast for starters. I didn't really know what it were. I just ordered it. They brought it and..." His voice trails off, as if he can't find words to describe the horror. He wrinkles his nose. "I ended up scraping it all off and just eating the toast. When the waitress came back, I said to her, "You lot should be arrested for serving this muck.' "

Tonight, however, Helders will be spared the hell of an offal-based starter. The Spotted Pig is hosting a party in honour of Coldplay, who played an arena in New Jersey earlier this evening, and the Arctic Monkeys have been invited. Bassist Andy Nicholson has cried off, pleading fatigue - "I find that sort of thing reet awkward, so I stopped in bed," he says the following day - but Helders, guitarist Jamie Cook and frontman Alex Turner dutifully mount the stairs to the restaurant's first-floor bar. It turns out to be both tiny and comically overloaded with celebrities. Jay-Z arrives in a chauffeur-driven vintage Rolls-Royce. He is followed, in short order, by Chris Martin and Gwyneth Paltrow - who get a round of applause on entry - the rest of Coldplay and Moby. Then there is Michael Stipe, who will later request an audience with Turner, and Courtney Love, who will later attempt to engage in conversation Turner's partner Johanna, before one of the band's road crew sharply intervenes, on the harsh grounds that "after what happened to Nirvana, you don't really want Courtney Love talking to your lead singer's girlfriend".

However indifferent you may wish to appear, it is almost impossible to stop yourself craning at the entrance to see who's going to turn up next, although Cook seems to be having a good try. Maybe his jaded air tells of the ennui that comes when you've recorded the fastest-selling debut album in British history and have a serious distrust of showbusiness trappings (when the Arctic Monkeys were being wined and dined by a plethora of British record labels, Cook stubbornly insisted on paying his share of the bill at the end of every meal). Or perhaps it is simply the result of the events of the previous evening, which sound remarkably like the kind of thing Turner writes songs about. Abandoned by the rest of the Arctic Monkeys party in a downtown bar in the small hours, Cook managed to fall off his seat, was ejected from the premises after an altercation with a bouncer, then hailed a cab only to discover he couldn't remember either the name or address of his hotel.

Tonight, as Manhattan's A-list crowd into the Spotted Pig, he lurks behind a pillar and discusses his previous job as a tiler in a tone of voice you could easily mistake for wistfulness. He was still doing bathrooms last May, when the Arctic Monkeys' vertiginous ascent to success had begun: he finished one off for a friend after coming back from a sold-out tour, because he had promised he would. "It were reet good. You'd get in the van at five on a Monday morning and drive to London, stay four nights, then drive back to Sheffield on Friday afternoon." He smiles: "You can charge 'owt for tiling in London." Cook's attention is suddenly drawn to the table in the centre of the bar, where the biggest celebrities are seated together, although in this instance it's not the succession of multimillionaires who have caught his eye. "Look at Helders' top," he chuckles. Indeed, the drummer certainly stands out among the bling and casually worn designer labels, wearing a lurid orange tracksuit top. "Whenever we get sent free clothes and that, there's always something you pull out of the box and think, 'Nobody is going to wear that.' And every time, Helders comes in and, straightaway, he goes, 'I'll have that.'" And with that, Cook departs to meet his cousin, who has been deemed insufficiently important to attend Coldplay's party.

If you want a metaphor for the astonishing speed of the Arctic Monkeys' success, then look no further. None of them is legally old enough to drink in America (a fact that led one magazine to abandon plans to put the band on the cover, after liquor companies threatened to pull $500,000 of advertising). One of them is wearing a frightful tracksuit top. Barely 18 months ago their ambition apparently extended no further than getting to play a gig somewhere other than Sheffield. And here they are, chatting to Jay-Z and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Can their astonishing success be replicated in the US? Adhering to the long-established rule that any British band who get through their set in New York without the audience throwing litter at them must automatically be reported to have stormed the US amid scenes unwitnessed since Beatlemania, one excitable journalist has already dubbed the current tour "the next phase of Operation Arctic Monkeys: World Takeover". The truth is a little less hysterical.

The Arctic Monkeys have received critical raves in the New York Times and rock magazine Blender, and been described in Rolling Stone as "one of the most exciting bands on the planet". They have been introduced by Matt Dillon on Saturday Night Live and their tour has sold out. But their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, has, thus far, sold well rather than spectacularly: certainly not enough to panic the apparently omnipresent James Blunt, whose Back To Bedlam took up residence at the top of the US chart sometime in January and shows no signs of vacating for the foreseeable future.

Manager Geoff Barradale says there is "no big plan to 'crack' America", and the Arctic Monkeys tour bus certainly doesn't feel like the white-hot epicentre of a world takeover bid. Someone has been writing slogans with their finger in the dirt caked on its sides. Given that most of these slogans seem to involve Sheffield United and internecine rivalries with other areas of Yorkshire - "100% BLADES", "LEEDS = SHITE" - you rather suspect that someone was one of the Arctic Monkeys themselves. Inside, the bus bears the distinctive aroma of a vehicle in which a rock band and its road crew have been sleeping for some weeks. "Sometimes I think about other bands and I wonder if they have conversations about their ambitions and that," muses Turner, as he sits amid the debris of the bus's rear lounge. "Everyone else seems to know what they're doing a lot more than we do. I read about other bands and it's as if they had a big meeting when they started and worked it all out. But we started just for something to do, because all us friends had bands. We never had a manifesto or 'owt. We just wrote songs and it came out like this."

Back home, one popular theory suggests that the Arctic Monkeys may simply be too British for US ears. In the past, Americans have welcomed culturally specific, socially observant English rock bands with the same warmth and eagerness with which Helders greeted his chicken livers. The artists usually held as the Arctic Monkeys' forebears made few ripples in the US. There were hardly any Stateside takers for the Jam, and none at all for Mancunian punk-poet John Cooper Clarke or Pulp. The Smiths remain an acquired taste and even the Kinks only really tasted success after they toned down the irony and wry observations and transformed themselves into a straightforward stadium rock band. If they proved too parochial, then what chance do the Arctic Monkeys have of making themselves understood, with their accents, their references to Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em and their song called Mardy Bum?

A fair proportion of their US press to date has concerned itself with explaining the band's more arcane references. Rolling Stone informed readers that chavs were "white working-class stock characters, ridiculed for their gaudy tracksuits and hard-partying lifestyle, and known for loutish behaviour and conspicuous consumption". Blender magazine dispatched a reporter to Sheffield's High Green district to get a flavour of the Arctic Monkeys' exotic background, while Turner says he feels "a bit silly playing Mardy Bum over here, a bit like I don't know where to look".

For their part, all the Americans I speak to get a bit huffy when I suggest they might not get some of the more recherché nuances in Turner's lyrics. "Sure, I understand them," says one female fan, who has travelled across the country, "but I'm kind of an Anglophile. Mardy means pissed, right? I'd never heard of Frank Spencer, but I Googled his name, so now I know."

"I don't think it's a big problem," agrees Craig Marks, editor of Blender. "It may be equivalent to a southern hip-hop record being understood in Sheffield. It would be a little bit of a challenge, but lyrics like 'I think she looks good on the dancefloor' [sic] are not vague, they're not in cockney slang or anything. Alex's ability to tell relatable stories to teenagers is one of the strong points and unique qualities of the group."

The crowd at the New York show, however, tells a slightly different story. It includes Liv Tyler and Amanda de Cadenet ("'oose that?" asks a bewildered Cook when her name is mentioned), as well as a sizeable number of British ex-pats. But towards the back of Webster Hall, I find an intriguing split in comprehension. To my right are two men in their mid-20s so overwhelmed by the Arctic Monkeys experience that they seem to have gone native: they are not only word perfect in every song, but have cultivated both a Dick Van Dyke-ish English accent for the purposes of singing along, and a slightly inscrutable chant that they deploy between songs: "ENGLISH BOYS!" they yell. "ENGLISH BOYS!" But to my left are a group of locals who spend the entire gig in a state of advanced befuddlement. "WHAT DID HE SAY?" bellows one, as Turner thanks the audience for coming and informs them he's fond of New York. "I NEED A TRANSLATOR!" I tell him what Turner just said. "Awesome!" bellows the gig-goer, relaying the information to his friends, before turning back to me with his palm outstretched. "High five!"

Quite aside from the possible need for subtitles, there may be another barrier to US success: the band's reputation for surly, difficult behaviour. The vast fanbase they gained through steady touring and fans sharing their songs on the internet means they attained British success without compromising: they refuse to appear on Top Of The Pops and rarely give interviews. "There's no commandments, no manifesto to what we turn down," insists Nicholson. "People ask us to do things and you think, 'I'm going to feel reet stupid doing that,' so you just say no." He shakes his head. "I'm amazed at what people will do to get their photo in a fucking magazine."

One result of their reluctance to do press and appear on TV is that, 360,000 album sales on, a slightly intimidating air of mystery still surrounds the Arctic Monkeys. In lieu of hard facts, a variety of lurid rumours has gained currency. The most diverting suggests that, far from being the work of a keen-eared and preternaturally gifted 20-year-old, the Arctic Monkeys' lyrics about prostitution, recalcitrant girlfriends and taxi rank rucks are written by manager Barradale, formerly the frontman of dimly remembered indie rockers Seafruit. "That's a good 'un," says Nicholson, in a tone that suggests he doesn't think it's a particularly good 'un at all. "Have you heard any of Geoff's songs?"

In fact, the band's members are noticeably less truculent in the flesh than advance publicity suggests. Turner is quiet and clearly deeply uncomfortable with being singled out for attention, but he is never less than scrupulously polite. Nicholson's face seems naturally to arrange itself into a look of profound disappointment - something about him makes you think of Bobby, the perennially disenchanted son in King Of The Hill - but in person he is charm itself, possessed of a bone-dry wit. Helders and Cook, meanwhile, are an absolute hoot, which seems at odds with their relentlessly pessimistic interviews in which they are much given to predicting imminent disaster for their careers. "Every silver lining has a cloud," says Helders when the dictaphone is pointed in his direction. "Our history teacher, Mr Staunton, always used to say that. There's a downside to everything."

If the kind of intransigence that has become their trademark seems odd back home, it is unheard of in America, where bands are expected as a matter of course willingly to press the corporate flesh and smile their way through interviews with gormless DJs. "There's no way around it," says Craig Marks, of Blender magazine. "Over here, if you want to sell a lot of records, you have to go to local radio stations in Dayton, Ohio, and shake the hands of men with satin jackets." There seems little chance of the Arctic Monkeys doing that in the foreseeable future.

Today, they are due to appear on MTV, where they will be filmed performing live and then interviewed. They don't seem exactly overjoyed by the prospect - "Check this shit out," mutters a rigidly unimpressed Turner as they arrive at the studio. The interview passes with all the zip and good humour of an agonising death after the Arctic Monkeys refuse to introduce themselves to camera. "It's our company policy that we don't introduce ourselves," says Nicholson, flatly. Initially, at least, the only one who seems willing to answer any questions is Helders, whose idiosyncratic approach to designer freebies is once more much in evidence - the top part of his head is almost entirely obscured by a vast pair of sunglasses - and whose answers invariably involve bands no one in America has ever heard of, and lies: "I like East 17, me. They were a reet underground dance act in Britain." The interviewer's smile never slips, but when she attempts to direct an inquiry about the band's influences to Turner, he stares at the floor and his answer tails off first into monosyllables, then into indistinct noises, then into silence: "I dunno, really. Songs are more influenced... by different events... than... artists... I... don't... huh... hmm..." Things pick up marginally when Nicholson, apropros of nothing, tells her that he used to be a champion tapdancer, "then I pulled me 'amstring and it were all over". It's difficult to tell if she pursues this line of inquiry because she believes him, or simply because she's relieved that someone is talking about something other than East 17, but she asks about his dancing partner. "Me partner's dancing with someone else now," says Nicholson, his expression even more mournful than usual. "I don't like to talk about it."

While MTV's interviewer heads off to have her smile removed by a crack team of surgeons, the Arctic Monkeys tour bus drives to Philadelphia and a seedy ballroom in what is self-evidently the least salubrious area of town. Backstage, Turner wearily ruminates on his night with Manhattan's glitterati at the Spotted Pig. "It were weird. They seem strange people, like. A bit glazed. All sat on a table with everybody staring at them. If they just stood around with everyone else, nobody would be looking at them, would they? I feel in them situations almost like..." He sighs. "Not an imposter, but do you know what I mean? I like to be in normal situations, me. I just want to be in the same atmosphere as everyone else."

Outside, the venue is heaving. As in New York, there are British ex-pats waving St George flags, word-perfect wannabe Yorkshiremen and a healthy sprinkling of bewildered frowns. The Arctic Monkeys sound fantastic - taut, explosive and exciting. Turner tries to talk to the crowd, but he's drowned out by cheering and chanting. "You're not even listening to me, are you?" he complains. "'Ow rude." They play a new song called No Buses, and he ends the gig jumping into the audience, still playing his guitar.

Afterwards, his mood seems to have lifted. "There's worse things you can do in life," he says. "I keep forgetting that. You only think about things within what you're doing, so there's always bad things about it. But if you put it on the grand scale of things, you think, 'Oh, shurrup you dickhead, there's worse things to moan about than that. You've got the opportunity to write songs for a living.'" His eyes shine, and for a moment Alex Turner seems neither weary nor jaded nor rigidly unimpressed. "You're proper fucking blessed."

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They had the fastest-selling debut album in UK history. But with their strong northern accents and Frank Spencer references, how will America take to the Arctic Monkeys. Alexis Petridis boards their tour bus in New York to find out.

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Earlier in his career, Alex was often described as a shy, awkward individual. During interviews he would often stammer, mumble or fidget awkwardly in his chair.

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The title of the band's third single seems to beg a relevant question...

Initially, there seems to be a clash between Turner's on and offstage personas. For the former, Turner radiates confidence and swagger; often stage-diving and exchanging witty remarks and observations with the crowd.

Yet, when giving interviews and Alex seems remarkably different. Polite but quiet.

Who is the real Alex Turner?

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In an interview with NME, Alex insists that 'I don't think I've got it in me to act like a fucking pop-star'. Alex continues to insist that he is a down-to-earth, ordinary guy who just happens to lead the biggest band in the country.

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This week, Arctic Monkeys release their sixth album 'Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino'. To celebrate, relive the band's first NME interview proper from when the band were on the verge of blowing up...
The evil circus hypnotist catches the monocled general in his paralysing glare, smoke curling around his blood-red fez. Over his shoulder peeks a deranged Boer War field nurse, gurning like Florence Nightingale with the face of Benny Hill - the red-cheeked gentleman with the hefty moustache and cigar laughs wild at the sight. Then they all cackle, closing in on each other in a huddle over a laptop bearing pictures of themselves; a dark, demented coven of Victorian freaks, beasts and weirdos. Then, one by one, Arctic Monkeys - for, verily, it is they - scurry upstairs and gorge themselves on a feast of baked bean toasties and Pringles. The antique Victorian masks come off. The monocled general is revealed as Matthew Helders - the affable, gag-cracking drummer, called 'Helders' by his bandmates. He claims the past two years of success, fame and acclaim have made him for confident and culinary adventurous: "I'll eat octopus and stuff now." His favourite worst nightmare is "jumping off a high building. When we were in Japan we went to the Park Hyatt Tokyo where Lost In Translation were filmed and I was looking out the window thinking 'I'd love to jump off a building, but I wouldn't want to die.'"

The field nurse turns out to be 'new boy' ("it's been nearly a year!") Nick O'Malley, the softly-spoken, parma-cheery bassist called 'Malley' by his bandmates. He raves about the past year being "the best time of my life. Playing Reading and Leeds on the main stage, I don't think you can ever do anything that'd beat that really. Maybe skydiving." His favourite worst nightmare is "this one where Bruce Willis were my dad - people were trying to kill him and I had to protect him".

Behind the visage of the cigar chomping gent, meanwhile, lurks Jamie Cook: straight-talking, no-nonsense guitarist, the man responsible for Arctic Monkeys' determination play the rock game by their own rules, called 'Cookie' (pronounced 'kew-keh') by his bandmates. He claims his turn on the rock'n'roll rollercoaster has left him "not as sushpicious, when we first came out it were really guards-up and now they've dropped a bit." His favourite worst nightmare is "I dunno. Has Helders said 'porn star'? That's a good one."

Only one of the Victorian ghouls doesn't want to take his mask off. The circus hypnotist, or 'Al' to his bandmates, is currently scribbling strange captions over NME 's polaroids and argues that NME would be "braver" to photograph him for our cover with him masked; but our purpose here today is quite the opposite. For two years Alex Turner - quiet, introspective singer, urban poet, social commentator and icon to a generation of spotty teen-brat rock warlords in waiting - has hidden his true character behind cocky onstage bravado, offstage standoffishness and lyrical bile and beauty. He'll claim his songs are largely character-based to deflect you from the personal issues at their core; in interview he'll happily let his sentences lift away into embarrassed mumbling; in this year's BRIT Awards acceptance videos he was more comfortable dressed as one of the Village People or the scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz than he would've been thanking the panel as himself. His favourite worst nightmare is being stuck in a room with a music hack hell-bent on asking him about his love life, what drugs he's on and why there's so much kinky sex all over his new record. Unfortunately for Alex, we're about to make his favourite worst nightmare come true.

"How have I changed?" Alex Turner sniffs wetly and scratches at a hint go stubble. He feels like shit today - two heavy nights on the lash ("proper six-o-clocks") straight off the plane from Japan after a whistle top press tour have left him with a head cold like a skullful of anthrax - and from his long pauses and awkward half sentences you sense that he'd rather be going 10 rounds with a horny silverback gorilla in a tank of pig entrails than sitting in this cosy back-room of his rehearsal studio talking about himself and having become, with debut album 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not', the fastest selling success story in UK history. In this state, our chances of prising any personal detail out of him seem about the same as convincing Osama Bin Laden to appear on Cribs. But today the main monkey is ending his silence.

"I don't think I've changed drastically" he shrugs. "I don't feel that different when I'm in town or at home or whatever. When I get home and watch telly, I don't feel like a pop star. I know I'm making pop music but I don't feel like a celebrity. I don't think I've got it in me to act like a fucking pop star."

You came across as pretty cocky at first.

"Yeah, but I was a blagger. I've never been like that."

What were you trying to cover up?

He frowns. "I dunno. Maybe I got pure adrenaline from it all kicking off and when I started having to do interviews or awards, I probably got more defensive, my guard went up."

Were you surprised it was kicking off so hugely?

"Maybe a bit, and a bit frightened as well. I was 17. It didn't seem frightening at the time but looking back, it were a bit unnerving. Back then, you just thought 'fuckin hell, come on!' and walked up to collect an award like you were Liam Gallagher or something."

So what do we know about the pre-Monkeys Alex Turner? That he was born in Sheffield to teacher parents, with whom he still resides. That he attended Stocksbridge High School with Matt Helders and original Monkeys bassist Andy Nicholson and lived a few doors down from Jamie Cook. That he was a child of hip-hop, particularly Roots Manuva, before hearing Oasis and convincing both his and Jamie's parents to buy them guitars for Christmas in 2001. And, um, that's it.

Today he lets on a little more" he admits to lacking confidence as a teenager, and being stage-shy - he took drama classes at school "because it were a laugh" and appeared in a Christmas play (the only time he'd ever been on stage before the Monkeys' first gig) but never considered himself a performer. His confidence, he believes, came from seven gigs that he played in the summer of 2003, once the Monkeys were up and running, as guitarist in his friend John McClure's (aka the Reverend in Reverend and the Makers) band. "I did seven gigs with them in York and Liverpool and around that time I got more confident. John is a very confident character, he's such a frontman, and I reckon I got a lot of it from him. Not cockiness, just confidence."

Where did you get your determination to deal with the music industry in your way?

"That probably came from Cookie. We just didn't want to look silly, really. It gets so blown out of proportion. We wouldn't do some stuff that was daft, but then it becomes, 'these boys just say bo!' and that's bad because then everybody tip-toes around you."

And the lyrics? The streetwise poetry of disaffection and disgust at all the prattling scene kids, the social vampires, the hardy bums and Neepsend scumbags? The words that hooked a nation? Where did they come from?

"Maybe that is to do with my mum and dad. My mum's a linguist, she's a German teacher and my dad's a music teacher so maybe I get that off him, the musical thing and the desire to create. And my mum's always been fascinated by language... Maybe I get it from her originally."

So the desire to express yourself in song didn't come from any major teenage heartbreak? Alex shakes his head. "I've been quite fortunate to dodge heartbreak. The only heartbreak I've had has been brought on myself. In hindsight you just think, 'Aw, shit'; everyone has that first love thing, but there's too much other stuff pulling you away from it."

You've never been very hurt, emotionally?

"No." He bites his lip. "I've got that to come."

Mind you, judging by 'Favourite Worst Nightmare', he's been distracted from matters of the heart by affairs of the flesh...

When did you lose your virginity?

Alex laughs. "Teens. It were good, yeah. When we were at school early was early, y'know what I mean? I wasn't the first but I wasn't the last." Now though, you suspect, he's fast approaching "the most often".

Alongside the musical evolutions of 'Favourite Worst Nightmare' - the thunderous Queens Of The Stone Age riffing, the surf guitar sedition, the heartfelt balladry - Turner's lyrics have matured from the sneery street-rat sniping of 'Whatever People Say I Am...' to include more, ahem, adult themes. From the 'Fluorescent Adolescent' no longer getting it "in her fishnets" and being asked of her latest conquest "was it a Mecca dabber or a betting pencil?" to the lustful temptations of 'D is for Dangerous' and 'The Bad Thing' there's so much inappropriate rumpo going on in this record you could stick an Edwardian corset on it and sell it to BBC2 as a 'controversial mini series'. Why's that, Alex?

"It's natural, perhaps I'm confronted with it more. I had a girlfriend most of last year so it weren't like I was going mad after gigs or anything, but perhaps there's more temptation and stuff now. There's a lot of temptation in the album. 'D is for Dangerous' is like a fantasy of having done the deed and you need to escape the surrounding you've been led to, but it's more just a fantasy about it, knowing you haven't actually done it. And 'The Bad Thing' is these three things that happened, meeting three lasses on separate occasions and it all ended up in there."

Touring notoriously makes maintaining relationships difficult, of course.

"Yeah," Alex nods. "I think for now it's probably best to be on me own. I find it too hard to carry on. Especially when you're all over the place. And especially at our age. It gets to the point where you're not even seeing each other. It's weird, I've only ever had two girls I've been with for any length of time. One of them were this last year when I was the other side of the world and one of them was a mile from our house."

Have your experiences with girls changed a lot since you became famous?

The mumbling kicks in earnest. "Things just happen don't they, sometimes? I don't ever feel like I go out to look for someone or anything. Those two times I'm on about when I were, like, 'in love have just come along. It's easy to be very cynical. The idea of meeting someone in the street, that seems like it's just from films and that, but that did happen to me."

Certainly Alex has become more direct and open about his personal life on 'Favourite Worst Nightmare'. He describes '505' - in which he's hurrying to meet a girl in a hotel room in New York - as "the first proper love song we've done" while 'Do Me a Favour''s tale of a tempestuous break-up while driving a girl home sounds like it could come from personal experience.

"Yeah, that one is," Alex admits. "It's about a goodbye, really, and about me being a bit of a knob. Perhaps I were craving to experience something else and looking back and feeling like you were a bit of a knobhead, just in how you perhaps treated that person. It's just describing a goodbye. That's another thing, when you're with someone they seem happier in photos before you met her, or happier in stories from before. I always think they do."

You think you drag them down?

"Maybe, yeah! Bad perception of self."

And then there's the thinly veiled S&M references in the hell-for-rubber pop thrash 'Balaclava'. Have you had girls trying to handcuff you to torture cages, then, Alex?

He grins. "Some of it just comes from a subconscious thing or wanting to put that word in a song. It's fun to write about that, that's all. There's not many tunes about that."

He's just as cagey on the topic of narcotics. Witness: so Alex, has anyone ever offered you hard drugs?

"What do you mean 'hard'?"

Say, cocaine.

"Oh, yeah."

And how do you respond?

"'Nah, you're alright'"

Long pause. A shift in his seat. "My nana reads NME."

Have you ever had any big lost weekends?

"Yeah, you do, but again, me nana reads NME."

Alex's mind maybe on the private life of his gran, but his life has been far more public. Has rock'n'roll made a man of you?

Alex ponders. "Nah, I don't feel like a man yet. I still feel very much a boy. Maybe this is the year it'll change, but I do feel very much a boy. I'm probably in a bit of a Neverland kinda way. We haven't had to really grow up. I still feel quite young and this is just starting."

So perhaps Alex Turner has been veiling himself thus far because he still feels like a person still developing, that the gobby young kid who was thrust so violently into rock's spotlight in 2005 is still feeling his way into adulthood, unsure of his place and purpose. Perhaps he's so unwilling to take on the mantle of hero to the current Generation Pop because he's yet to properly get to know himself, particularly the version of himself that's been so unceremoniously tossed into the paper shredder of fame. Perhaps he's trying not to let on that he's just a boy lost in the swirling freak show on unfathomable success.

So Alex, what's your favourite worst nightmare?

"Jumping off a building," he recites, "because it'd be fun on the way down."

Matt said that one.

"Oh shit, I'll give you another one then. What was Malley's? Being covered in honey without a change of underwear?"

His dad was Bruce Willis.

"What was Cookie's? Did he just not do one? We had this one where Jessica Alba was chasing after you, but she's a vampire. So it's a laugh but then she gets you so you're like, 'Shit!' But then you're vampire friends and you roam together." The seductive and vicious catch-22 of fame then, a teenage take on adult concerns, the epitome of Arctic Monkeys Phase Two. Finally, the masks are off...

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From the archive: Arctic Monkeys talk 'Favourite Worst Nightmare' and life behind the mask in 2007

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Post-'Favourite Worst Nightmare', Mark Beaumont peeked behind the masks of the most mysterious band in Britain.

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Alex's stage dive.

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Again, Alex seems polite and intelligent but deeply shy. He frequently stumbles over his words, and shifts about in his seat.

Interestingly, however, we see the title of the video is 'interview with Arctic Monkeys' yet no-one else from the band is present. Alex can be seen as becoming the face and voice of the band, perhaps naturally given his lead-singer role.

Throughout the interview Alex reinforces that fame hasn't changed his life entirely, insisting: 'we still go out n stuff...we don't get recognised that much'.

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The Arctic Monkeys interview by Leonieke Daalder

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'It's Alex Turner's show and we're just living in it'

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'It's Alex Turner's show and we're just living in it'

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At arguably the height of his musical power, in 2023 Alex seems to have completely transcended the glass ceiling of High-Green, Sheffield and become a global rockstar.

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It's a cloudy night in Melbourne, but of course the sunglasses stay on. There are few frontmen touring today who lean into the theatrics of rockstardom as effortlessly as Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys. At least these days, it seems like he's enjoying it. When I last saw Turner perform in London a few years back, with his side-act the Last Shadow Puppets, he could barely stand straight. Standing on stage at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, kicking off the Australian leg of their latest album tour, he seems positively chipper.

This tour is "very sold out", the promoter says beforehand; Australians have loved Arctic Monkeys since they crashed on to Triple J with I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor back in 2006. Almost 20 years on and six albums later, the band understandably now sounds very different. Gone is in the indie snarling of their early albums, and the greaser slickness of AM. Thankfully, gone too is the cosmic weirdness of Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, a jazz-inflected concept album centred around a resort on the moon that confounded some fans.

Now we're in The Car era of Arctic Monkeys, which stays on the same road as Tranquility: slower, smoother, jazzier. "Rather than strings on top of rock, I was interested in switching the 'rock band' bit on and off," Turner recently told the Guardian about the new album. Thankfully, he also ditched the word salad that distracted on Tranquility, which featured lyrics like "swamp monster with a hard on for connectivity" and "(She looks like fun) Good morning / (She looks like fun) Cheeseburger." Some critics kindly called it inscrutable. (Some might have just called it babble.)

Reedy in his suit and sunglasses, it is easy to see glimpses of Bob Dylan (who is a fan) in Turner when he's performing; with every flick of the wrists as he laments space gentrification on Four Stars Out of Five, there's a shadow of David Byrne too. He gives plenty of devilish hip thrusts and elegant high kicks in the air whenever he achieves a particularly anxious sound on his guitar. He's fond of a campy turn and stare, which gets the crowd screaming without fail. But still, Turner appears curiously elsewhere on stage, his fingers dancing so effortlessly across his guitar that he looks almost on autopilot. There's very little chat. "How are you?" he drawls, to wild shrieks. "What a relief."

Neither Turner nor the band begrudge fans who like the old stuff better than the new stuff, so the setlist is a surprisingly expansive. Opening with ominous new track Sculptures of Anything Goes, we are dropped into the thundering drums of Brianstorm, then the upbeat pulse of Snap Out of It. This pick-and-mix approach continues through to the encore, which starts with There'd Better Be a Mirrorball, a rich ballad from The Car that sounds like it was made for a Bond film, and ends on 505, a 2007 guitar track that recently became a hit on TikTok.

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Songs from The Car don't blend into the back catalogue as well as you may wish: in these moments, they sound less like Arctic Monkeys, more like Alex Turner featuring Arctic Monkeys. They've made the call to perform the new album live without strings, which strips back some of its seductive opulence. Body Paint, the standout track on The Car for being the most fun, is an exception, the piano notes furiously stabbed out and brilliant in isolation.

The entire band, expanded to seven members on stage, are so polished that it's easy to enjoy the spectacle without dwelling too much on the genre shifts. During some of the more elegiac crooning, I craved the energy of tracks I'd already heard, like Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High? - recited word-perfect by the crowd - or the moody Don't Sit Down 'Cause I've Moved Your Chair. But when every note sounds so spot on, who truly cares? Turner no longer has to bet you look good on the dancefloor; now, he's wooed us all there for a slow dance.

Under all the rock god theatrics, there's a glimpse of warmth at the end when Turner lingers on stage alone, to revel in the applause and blow kisses to the cheap seats. But of course, the sunglasses stay on.

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Arctic Monkeys review - it's Alex Turner's show and we're just living in it

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Blending old hits with languid tracks from their latest album, the talented Mr Turner seems to be on autopilot - but who cares when the songs are so good?

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Throughout the video, Alex and his band mates appear amongst spliced footage of dancers and various psychedelic clips.

Shrouded largely in shadow, there remains a suspicion that Alex is eager to remain out of the spotlight and share his fame amongst the band.

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Arctic Monkeys - Brianstorm (Official Video)

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'Whatever People say I am, that is what I am not'

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'Whatever People say I am, that is what I am not'

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The cover of AM's debut album highlights two cornerstones of their, and thus Alex's, image. The picture depicts Chris Mcclure, the lead singer of 'The Violet May' another Sheffield-based band friends with The Monkeys.

The shoot took place at 2AM in Liverpool, after Alex and the band paid the singer several hundred-pounds to get drunk before hand. This highlights the boozy, party-animal image that quickly became associated with the band's brand.

Secondly, The Violet May remain a niche act most 'famous' for their appearance on the album's cover Sheffield. This speaks to the northern-rhymes and references that are the lyrics of the first album.

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'I bet that you look good on the dance floor' lyrics

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'I bet that you look good on the dance floor' lyrics

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Alex, the writer of the track, clearly possesses talent beyond his years. Unlike lots of other writers in his age and genre-group, Alex draws inspiration from literature, poetry and music (of all genres) alike.

That being said, Alex's strong Sheffield accent and use of Northern-English colloquialisms localise the band's early music.

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At just twenty-years old, Alex and the band accept their mercury prize for best album.

Alex is both first to speak and talks for the longest. His speech, if you can even call it that, consists of a clearly unrehearsed bunch of murmurs and wise-cracks.

He jokes that the band didn't deserve the reward claiming they had 'robbed' fellow nominee Richard Hawley.

There are; two primary inferences to draw from the video, firstly how Alex continues to appear humble and unchanged by fame.

Secondly, is how he talks for the longest. Whether by choice, or not, as time progresses Alex seems to become the face and voice of Arctic Monkeys.

That being said, as of this clip, he was yet to truly embrace this role.

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Whilst, as the singer, Alex is the track-by-track voice of Arctic Monkeys, over-time he has become the prominent figure to arise from the band.

Often he solely represents the band in photo-shoots, interviews and overall media presence.

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Despite writing and singing on the fastest selling UK album of all time; Alex seems to appear largely down-to-earth when speaking and interacting with the media.

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These cover-shoots capture how Alex always seems to be the focus of Arctic Monkeys related publications.

When appearing with his band-mates; Alex is almost always positioned away from the band. Often, stood closer to the front and centre of the shot.

However, it is common for Alex to appear alone. Despite this, the magazine covers will still often tout 'Arctic Monkeys' despite just one fourth of the band appearing in-shot.

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Initially, it appears that Alex's refusal to tone-down his northern accent and dialect endears him to people in (particularly the North of) England.

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The single cover of 'When the Sun Goes Down'.

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The single cover of 'When the Sun Goes Down'.

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Depicting an area of High Green Sheffield, locally notorious for crime and prostitution, the single and it's cover are examples of the localised nature of Alex's early music.

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A graph depicting Alex's use of non-standard language in his music.

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A graph depicting Alex's use of non-standard language in his music.

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The graph highlights how Alex's northern/Sheffield roots initially had a huge influence over his music, localising and thus potentially hindering the band's outreach.

There is seemingly a correlation between 'AM', the band's best US hit and an all-time low use of non-standard phonology.

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Whilst the album did phenomenally well, breaking records in the UK, there is some evidence that Alex's singing and writing style was making the band's music somewhat inaccessible.

Sales in the US, which are of vital importance for a band, paled in comparison to the UK sales. Despite 600,000 records sold being a remarkable feat; given nearly 2,000,000 records sold domestically questions arose about Alex's transnational appeal.

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Alex wore clothes that were popular amongst the English, working class youth. Often donning polo-shirts with up-turned collars, t-shirts with jeans and a haircut that resembles the likes of The Gallagher brothers or Paul Weller.

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Alex began to grow his hair out, incorporating more denim and leather into his attires. His transition into an edgier, more rock 'n roll style resembles the fashion-journey undertaken by bands like The Beatles and The Rolling stones.

His change in style perhaps reflects of a growth in confidence, as he experiments with various looks. Perhaps this is to be expected, given he rose to fame at such a young age.

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Perhaps the most widely recognised version of Alex Turner.

With slicked back, teddy-boy hair and attire Alex's style during the release and subsequent tour for AM has become iconic.

Almost overnight Alex's style became a gigantic talking-point.

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In many ways, Alex's current style can be seen as a culmination of twenty years worth of evolution.

His hair, is a medium length and often becomes messy during live performances. It is not too dissimilar to his hair once he began growing it out in 2008/9. His suits resemble that of his 'AM-era' but lack the overall tidiness of that style.

There is no doubt that Alex looks a star, however, perhaps less work goes into making him appear so. There can be no doubt that the effort put into his current look dwarfs in comparison to the slicked back hair of 2013.

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Arctic Monkeys section in The Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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Arctic Monkeys section in The Encyclopedia of Popular Music

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The section highlights how the band would burn early demo-tracks onto CDs and give them away for free at local concerts. These eventually were shared around the internet, by fans, and played a huge role in exposing the band to audiences.

The lack of a record-deal, and desire to make money informs the band/Alex's status as self-made.

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The Encyclopedia Of Popular Music is universally recognized as the most comprehensive and authoritative reference work on popular music. This expanded 5th edition is an essential reference book for anyone who has a query about any aspect of 20th Century popular music, including rock, dance, rap and R&B, as well as blues, soul, country and folk.

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Initially unable to find a record company willing to work with such a small-band, the group decided to make their own record company under which they released the EP 'Five minutes with Arctic Monkeys.

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Once Alex started experimenting with different outfits, hairstyles and appearances his attractiveness became a prevalent part of his star-image.

Music-videos, featuring Alex in the lead-role, magazine covers and even 'thirst-traps' all depict Alex as a sexually-desirable figure.

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'How to look like Alex Turner and become fundamentally attractive' 

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'How to look like Alex Turner and become fundamentally attractive' 

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Alex's transitions through different styles and 'looks' ultimately landed him 'sex symbol' status.

Although this wasn't always the case; once Alex grew his hair (and particularly in 2011 when he cut it into a teddy-boy quiff) he found himself revered online as a beacon of attractiveness.

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Well oh they might wear classic Rebooks
Or knackered Converse
Or tracky bottoms tucked in socks
But all of that's what the point is not
The point is that there ain't no romance around there.

A Certain Romance, Arctic Monkeys

In his productions, Alex Turner has established a renowned lyrical signature. Not only are his songs popular, his style has been replicated in every corner of the world by his fans, and even by those who have never heard of his music. The once scrawny, long-haired front-man of this legendary band, revolutionized his own image to become a God of Rock, and a fashion icon.

As a skinny and shy teen, Turner received a guitar for Christmas in 2001 and from that point onwards his fate was sealed. The Oasis fan soon discovered his true passion, and decided to become the next Craig Nicholls. A year later, he assembled a band with with his friends, Andy Nicholson, and Matt Helders. The name? Arctic Monkeys. Like any other band, it started out by experimenting and discovering its image not only on a lyrical and musical level, but on style as well.

The Alex Turner of the first albums wore track jackets, bootcut jeans, baggy t-shirts, and had long greasy hair. Even if he didn't have the most glamorous fashion sense, his deep voice hypnotized the world. The Arctic Monkeys were undoubtedly up and coming stars. A successful career required a dramatic fashion make over; nevertheless, Turner took his time to figure out his style, and he most likely took advice from his fashionista girlfriend, Alexa Chung. The only consistent accessory in his evolving image was, and is, a pair of shades. Aviator or Wayfarer, they are now the symbol of a rock star.

It wasn't until 2011, and at the end of his relationship with Alexa, that he became the sex symbol he is today. Playing with the Elvis Presley's look, the front-man replaced the bootcut jeans for tube versions, the track jackets for biker-jackets, and the long hair for a quiff. His American preppy style stole the hearts of every woman. Yes, groupies have always flocked to him no matter what he's wearing, but now it is impossible not to say that the singer of "Knee Socks" is a stunner. He achieved this by jumping from style to style. A true artistic chameleon.

Women love him, and men want to be him. His style is legendary, and in order to become fundamentally attractive like him, here are five outfits you have to try out so you can eventually ask her: "R U Mine?"

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Biker Jacket

Very little can be said about it, as it is a must for every man since 1950. All girls want to get the bad boy with a leather jacket.

Slim-Fit jacket

He found the perfect balance between the bad boy and the boy next door look. Still inspired by the fifties, but playing with some aesthetics from the sixties as well, the slim-fit jacket reminds us of the Beatles' Twist & Shout performance on The Ed Sullivan Show. Of course, Alex keeps it modern by combining it with unbuttoned shirts. Turner is indeed an irresistible XXI century version of The King of Rock & Roll with his jackets, quiff, and hip movements on stage.

Jeans + sleeveless shirt

In August 2007, he recorded an album with Miles Kane of The Rascals and the producer James Ford under the name of The Last Shadow Puppets. A year later, the album hit the stores and it heralded a new era for the singer-songwriter.

A look based on high waist tube jeans, sleeveless shirt, and black on black. Slick back hair, colorful vests, and tucked shirts added a nice edge to his style. It is from this point onwards that he could be considered a sex symbol.

High waisted jeans

The high waisted cut once again takes us back to the fifties. It reminds us of Travolta dancing with Olivia Newton John in Grease. It is a vintage outfit that cannot be missing from a man's closet.

Retro Sports Jackets

People daring to say Turner's style is solely based on one decade need to keep a closer eye on the fashion evolution of The Arctic Monkeys. Alex plays with iconic outfits, like the retro sports jacket. A mandatory staple piece that he teams up with unbuttoned shirts or simple white t-shirts. This unique combination is an homage to Versace's style during the eighties.

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On 2005, Alex was named the coolest person of the year by NME. Some say it was her former girlfriend, Alexa Chung, who inspired Turner to experiment with new looks. Others, affirm it was the influence of Josh Homme (frontman of Queens of the Stone Age) who convinced him to choose the fifties dapper look. Whatever the truth may be, his shades, slicked back hair, biker jacket, sky blue Lacoste, or sports retro jackets, make of Turner a true fashion trendsetter.

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How to Look Like Alex Turner And Become Fundamentally Attractive - Cultura Colectiva

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Well oh they might wear classic RebooksOr knackered ConverseOr tracky bottoms tucked in socksBut all of that's what the point is notThe point is that there

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This fan-made edit, we can see an emphasis placed on Alex's transition from awkward youngster to rock-star sex symbol. The framing of the video emphasises the maturation and subjective upgrade in Alex's appearance.

The video begins with Alex's first Brit award in 2008, and cuts to him receiving the best-album award for 'AM'. The caption, reading: 'yeah i want him so bad' highlights Alex's desirability amongst the online-fandom.

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#ALEXTURNER yeah i want him so bad - [ac raferoyalty] #alexturneredit #arcticmonkeys #am #fyp 

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@_eemanuela._
#ALEXTURNER yeah i want him so bad - [ac raferoyalty] #alexturneredit #arcticmonkeys #am #fyp
♬ suono originale - ema🎸

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As Alex's look has developed, and has propelled him into sex-symbol status, he has concurrently been portrayed as an influence via his style.

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GQ producing this piece highlights how Alex Turner's dress sense has become a pillar of his star-image.

The guide serves as proof that Alex broke away from his generic dress-sense in 2005, and has become somewhat of a fashionista in recent years.

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Like Arctic Monkeys, Alex Turner has been through plenty of styles. With a Mercury Prize-winning debut in Whatever People Say I Am That's What I'm Not, the world met a bunch of Sheffield youths wearing polo shirts, hoodies and Adidas. By 2008, Turner had beaten second album syndrome with the house party thrills of Favourite Worst Nightmare and had begun to dabble in lounge with his friend Miles Kane as one half of The Last Shadow Puppets. In step with the indie sleaze boom of the time and his then-girlfriend Alexa Chung, his style had morphed to include slim-fitting shirts, Beatles-esque suiting and leather jackets - a piece that would soon become a staple.

It wasn't until 2012 that a 26-year-old Turner found more of a niche: crooner chic encapsulating Cuban heels, leather and impossible amounts of Brylcreem. With the America-breaking AM, he donned the costume of a heartthrob, stepping into a role reminiscent of Elvis Presley.

Now at album seven with The Car, the frontman has reached a perfect equilibrium that draws heavily on the style of French pop artist Jacques Dutronc, an artist that Alex has more directly referenced in a Last Shadow Puppets cover of "Les Cactus". Mirroring the elevated (pun intended) lift music of the hyper-loungey Tranquillity Base Hotel & Casino and The Car, the Alex Turner of 2023 wears the kind of clothing that vintage hotel lobbies are made of: loafers, signet rings and expensive shirts open at the neck.

It's been a long journey from "When The Sun Goes Down" and those old Fred Perry polos to the louche, tailored terrain of "There'd Better Be A Mirrorball", but look: we all made it through together. Consider our guide to dressing like Mr Turner your style accompaniment to the seventh Arctic Monkeys album, .

For more fashion inspiration delivered straight to your inbox, sign up to the GQ Recommends newsletter.

1. A double-breasted blazer in navy

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Seven style essentials that Alex Turner loves - and you will too

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With The Car, Arctic Monkeys embrace the lounge and funk of the 1960's and 70s. Frontman Alex Turner's 2022 wardrobe is similarly louche, incorporating many an expensive shirt open at the neck. Archive-heavy though his wardrobe may be, it's still a cinch taking his style cue.

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This YouTube video, sees an influencer recreate Alex's 2013 hairstyle in a tutorial-style video which has amassed over three-hundred thousand views.

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Alex Turner / Elephant's Trunk Hairstyle | How To

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A fan making a tongue-in-cheek underneath the music video to Arabella, suggesting she would like to have sexual intercourse with Alex.

Whilst it is impossible to gauge how many of the six-thousand likes agree, or simply find the comment humorous, the likes and replies highlight Alex's status as a sex symbol.

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Over his career, both in and out of Arctic Monkeys, Alex's musical-style has evolved and changed significantly.

Naturally, his lyrics, tone and use of music-videos have all contributed to the shift in his star-image

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Taken from Arctic Monkey's debut album; the track contains everything that catapulted the band to national-fame: fast, clever, sharp lyrics, loud guitars and a rowdy subject-matter.

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Taken from the second AM album, '505' highlights Alex trialling new styles of music. For three quarters of the song, the melody is far slower than anything off of the first album.

Alex's northern accent is still clear, and his annunciations are sometimes non-standard. The subject matter is significantly more mature, and focuses on romance and style over speed and booze.

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The Last Shadow Puppets was a side project helmed by Alex and Miles Kane. The Last Shadow puppets style differed significantly to that of the Arctic Monkeys.

In the song, Miles Kane covers lead vocals and Alex joins in with harmonies and backing vocals. Focusing on a slower, more precise sound, Alex's ability as a singer is on full display.

Moreover, the song features stringed arrangements and does not have any electric guitars. Moreover the music video, directed by Richard Ayoarde, features the duo in sophisticated suits playing and singing.

The emphasis is entirely on the talent of both men.

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The Last Shadow Puppets - Standing Next to Me (Official Video)

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Giving the album four out of five; The Guardian praises the band for 'pushing gently but confidently at the boundaries of their sound'.

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CD: Arctic Monkeys, Favourite Worst Nightmare

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Whilst discussing the first 'shadow puppets album: 'The Age of understatement'; Alex refers to making a conscious effort to sing.

Unlike earlier records, he said Alex claims to have made an effort to sing rather than just talk.

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The Last Shadow Puppets interview with Zane Lowe

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Perhaps the most recognisable track Alex has ever penned; from an era that many people consider to be AM's best. The track marks a middle ground between Alex's early and current musical styles.

Whilst the song is slow and methodical, lacking overt Northern-colloquialisms common, the low tuning of guitar and overall rock sound harken back to past albums.

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Arctic Monkeys - Do I Wanna Know? (Official Video)

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For the first time in his career, one of Alex's albums sold one million units in both the UK and the USA.

The album is Arctic Monkeys' second best selling to date; and was the recipient of much critical praise too, with NME giving a perfect 10/10.

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Taken from 2018's 'Tranquillity Base Hotel and Casino', the track serves as a massive change in direction from Alex.

The album, interestingly, was first written on a piano by Alex in his Los Angeles home. He then recorded demos with Matt Helders and eventually had the whole band work on the tracks.

The album marks a departure from the 'guitar music' that Arctic Monkeys had become synonymous with; with Turner writing about a lounge-singer in a scifi setting.

The album sold just 425,000 units; making it (at the time) the band's worst selling album since their inception.

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Arctic Monkeys - Four Out Of Five (Official Video)

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'The guitar had lost it's ability to give me ideas.

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'The guitar had lost it's ability to give me ideas.

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When talking about the writing process behind the album; Alex talks of the importance of the piano in writing the album.

This shift in the labour of making music marks a transition away from stadium-rock, and towards his most experimental music yet.

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"I ended up making a world of my own": Alex Turner talks new music | Part 1/3

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Taken from 'The Car', the latest Arctic Monkeys' album. The album isn't as revolutionary as it's predecessor, rather a natural progression in style.

Whilst critics praised the album, with NME giving 'the epic' a perfect five stars, the album is their (financially) least successful to date.

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Arctic Monkeys - There’d Better Be A Mirrorball (Official Video)

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Band press-release takes a complete emphasis on Alex

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Band press-release takes a complete emphasis on Alex

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Fan art depicting various looks Alex Turner has donned

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Fan art depicting various looks Alex Turner has donned

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Using Alex's three headliner appearances at Glastonbury; these videos will demonstrate how Alex's image on stage has changed over time.

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On stage, Alex dons a raincoat and jeans. His outfit here clearly prioritises function over form.

The song, taken from the first album, sees the band allowing the crowd to sing the introduction. Once the main section of the song is underway, the band can be seen mildly head-banging as the crowd jumps up and down.

A high energy, cut throat, gritty set.

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Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down (Live At Glastonbury 2007) HD

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In this performance, the change in Alex's style is clear to see. His outfit is suave and stylish, and his hair is slicked back in his now-iconic quiff. Even the stage design has been updated, with more lights and glamour adding to the stadium-rock vibe the band were striving for.

Moreover, there is more variation in the notes that Alex chooses to sing. This aligns with the new-found emphasis on singing that he discovered during his work with Miles Kane.

Alex's abilities as a showman seem to have improved too, as he extends the gap between the slow opening and the fast-paced middle section; allowing crowd anticipation to build and signalling for them to cheer louder.

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Arctic Monkeys - When The Sun Goes Down [Glastonbury 2013] HD

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In their 2023 set, Arctic Monkeys didn't even play 'When the Sun Goes Down'; a long-time staple of their setlist for many years.

Here, Alex's look aligns with the post-2018 era described previously. The production value of the stage is at it's highest, demonstrating Alex's fondness of visual story-telling thrpugh music. Moreover the static-filter over the big-screen creates the 80's vibe now associated with the singer.

Alex's vocal performance is easily at it's most impressive here, as he alternates between chest-singing and falsetto. It is made all the more impressive given his laryngitis diagnosis just days before the show.

Less emphasis is placed on crowd interaction, as the sheer quality of musicianship carries the set.

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Arctic Monkeys - Body Paint (Glastonbury 2023)