Play list: Tuesday 21st June (Show no.267)

1. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - I let love in

2. Pisco Sour Hour - At the ranch house

3. Kaiser Chiefs - Caroline, yes

4. Godtherapy - Mainstream

5. Arctic Monkeys - Love is a laserquest

6. Stiff Little Fingers - Nobody's hero

7. The Early Cartographers - Thread

8. Elephant Keys - I wanna be there

9. Pete & The Pirates - Cold Black Kitty

10. The Small Faces - Hey Girl

11. Mabel Love - Hardened face

12. Death Cab for Cutie - Some boys

13. The Black Lips - Mad dog

14. Tiny Dancers - Bonfire of the night

15. The Special Guest Stars - Snakes

16. Whispering Dolls - Play with fire

17. Deltasound - Probably

18. Toads - ECT

19. Cats:For:Peru - Duck in the over

20. The Only Ones - The Beast

21. The Smiths - There is a light that never goes out

22. Circulus - Lucy in the sky with Diamonds

23. The Book Club - Perspex Princes

24. Dan Williamson - I Cooked her heart

25. Young Knives - Human again

26. Floating Death Picnic - Angst man

27. New Order - Temptation

Sheffield Index: 48%

Play list: Tuesday 14th June (Show no.266)

1. Jonathan Richman & The Modern Lovers - Astral Plane

2. Kimmy Yeah - Sticklebricks

3. Jack & The Beanstalks - Telephones, TVs and Computer Screens

4. Pulp - Mishapes

5. Miles Kane - Come Closer

6. Ian Britt - Run Lola Run (live session)

7. D4 - Party

8. Ian Britt - Me & My Friend Cupid (live session)

9. Gruff Rhys - Honey all over

10. Ian Britt - Boom Boom

11. Starlings - Sirens

12. Marmalade Sun - Monkey boy

13. Ian Britt - The way you make me feel (live session)

14. The Vaccines - Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)

15. Velodrome 2000 - Jetboystargirlpunk

16. The Nature Set - I am a planet

17. The Ridgeways - Yo Farabakish

18. The Soft Hearted Scientists - The trees don't seem to know it's September

19. Tiny Dancers - I will wait for you

20. Arctic Monkeys - Black Treacle

21. The Fall - Hit the North (live)

22. The Horrors - Still life

23. Glistening Pelt - La Plage

24. Dead Sons - City nights

25. Girl Spit - Blindfold

26. Coldplay - Every teardrop is a waterfall

27. Ghostlab - Half castle face

28. Everything Everything - Leave the engine room

Sheffield Index: 64%

Arctic Monkeys/Miles Kane/The Vaccines Review

Arctic Monkeys/Miles Kane/The Vaccines

It’s Arctic Monkey’s first home show since May 2009 and the sense of anticipation in the specially erected big top at Don Valley Bowl is tangible. As always the band do things on their own terms opting for two nights under canvas where over  20,000 people will get to see them, across the way from the more conventional surroundings of the Don Valley Arena.

The hand-picked bill includes local lads and Arctic’s buddies Dead Sons, who sadly we miss. The tent swells for The Vaccines though as they deliver a sharp and direct set of post-new wave tunes, unsurprisingly revolving around their acclaimed debut “What did you expect from”.  Providing excellent bed-partners for the Monkeys with a same ‘all about the music’ ethos, front-man Justin Young looks equally at ease with or without his guitar slung around him.  Big cheers greet debut single “Wreckin' Bar (Ra Ra Ra)” and the band’s signature tune, “Post-break-up sex”. The sentiments of their debut LP echo loud but that’s OK as the hanging base lines boom, surfey, scuzzing guitars slash in and out and Young’s 60’s inspired melodies float over the top. It’s hard to imagine that the London-based four piece embarked on their first tour as recently as September 2010.

Next up, main support Miles Kane cuts a familiar figure with his association with Alex Turner going right back to his Little Flames days and more recently Liverpool based trio The Rascals. He takes his band through a tight and compelling set that oozes confidence and makes it very clear just how much influence Kane has had on Alex Turner, their joint Last Shadow Puppets side project included. His retro-brand of 60s/psychedelic pop goes down a treat as he works the crowd well with his cheeky Scally swagger. Debut solo album “Colour of the trap” is given a good work-out; the garagey buzz of “Inhaler” gets the crowd moving, and “Quicksand” and it’s ‘ba ba ba's’ shows that retro doesn’t have to be about musical regression. “Kingcrawler” wouldn’t have been out of place on the aforementioned The Last Shadow Puppets album and the T-Rex-tinged stomp of “Come closer” also his the mark.

Tonight (and tomorrow), however, is all about the Monkeys. The intro tape hints that the band might be in playful mood: Hot Chocolate's “You Sexy Thing”, only tenuously linked to Sheffield via the “Full Monty” soundtrack.  Another, Turner’s donning of a T-shirt emblazoned with ‘Monkeys’ and the Sheffield council logo. They launch into a rip-roaring version of the frenetic and jerking “View From The Afternoon”, segwaying seamlessly into the circling guitar vortex of “Brainstorm”. It’s also clear that tonight Turner is going to take us for an almost nostalgic walk through the band’s whole back catalogue. So much so that it’s five tracks in before the acclaimed new album “Suck it and see” gets a look in in the shape of the double salvo of  “Don’t sit down cause I’ve moved your chair” and “Library pictures”. Based on the number of people shouting out the line “Going into business with a grizzly bear” on the former, the new LP has been doing brusque business since its release earlier in the week.

A taught and powerful version of “Teddy Picker” shows just why Matt Helders is touted as being one of the best drummers currently pounding the skins. “Crying Lightening” crawls out and raps itself round some of Turner’s finest and most opaque lyrics to date, belatedly giving that difficult third album a run out. A crowd assisted “Mardy Bum” (‘I've forgotten the words’ jokes Turner as emotional fans sing them back at him) and a crunching but compelling “I Bet You Look Good on the Dance Floor” whips the crowd into a frenzy.

Gone are the technical problems that dogged previous enormo-gigs (Reading/Leeds 2009) as the band despatch Monkey’s classic after classic. Jamie Cook and the still hairy Nick O’Malley attack their guitars with maximum efficiency and a minimum of fuss, as Turner effortlessly rides the wave of hometown goodwill. The organ-driven “Pretty visitors” briefly breaks the guitar monopoly before the band bring the set down to a gentle conclusion with “Do me a favour” and then “505”, Turner’s sparing partner Miles Kane joining the band to spread shards of psychedelic guitar over the song’s meandering atmospherics.

After nineteen songs Alex bids the crowd farewell, but of course there will be encores. And what encores they are. The final trio of “When the sun goes down”, “Fluorescent Adolescent” and the first performance of “A Certain Romance” since 2007 threatens to blow the roof off the tent. “Thank you ladies and gentlemen, it’s been a pleasure” coos Turner. The feeling's completely mutual and a fitting end to the almost fairytale rise of four local lads that used to practice down the road in their Neepsend rehearsal room to global stadium fillers.

Denzil RepoMen

Setlist information

Don Valley, Sheffield

Friday 10^th June, 2011

Play list: Tuesday 7th June 2011 (Show no.265)

1. Lori & The Chameleons - The Lonely Spy and Me

2. Jon Windle - Love her like a woman

3. Shonen Knife - Twist Barbie

4. Art Brut - Lost weekend

5. The Stranglers - Hangin' Around

6. The Ratells - Something more

7. Arctic Monkeys - Piledrive Waltz

8. Fang - The money will roll right in

9. Young Knives - Go to ground

10. Psychotic Youth - Love machine

11. The Monicans - Angeline

12. Big Dipper - You're not Patsy

13. Luke Haines - Peter Hammil

14. Bottleups - Ramblin Wreckless hobo

15. Flashman - Exiles

16. The Monday Club - Long time coming

17. Pete & The Pirates - Winter 1

18. Sonic Walthers - No lies

19. Arctic Monkeys - Library Pictures

20. Marmalade Sun - McQueen

21. Sort Sol - Holler high

22. Meat Puppets - Plateau

23. RepoMen - Tonight

24. Ian Britt - Middle

25. Cat's Eyes - I knew it was over

26. The Vaselines - Jesus wants me for a sunbeam

27. The Tivoli - The Messenger

28. Beat Happening - Bewitched

Sheffield Index: 39%

Play list: Tuesday 31st May (Show no.264)

1. The The - Sweet bird of truth

2. Cabaret Voltaire - Nag Nag Nag

3. 747's - Fixing a hole

4. Wet  Nuns - Laura

5. Leather Nun - Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie

6. Harrisons - Loxley Bottoms

7. Sieben - A vision

8. Jeff Beck Group - All Shook up

9. The Vaccines - Out of the way

10. Eyes of Blue - Supermarket full of cans

11. The Violet May - TV

12. The Flamin Groovies - Milkcow blues

13. The Vibes - I'm in Pitsburgh and it's raining

14. Tiny Dancers - Hannah we know

15. Nat Johnson & The Figureheads - Margot

16. The M’s - Good morning good morning

17. Wire - Now was

18. Bloodbare - Beginning game

19. Mabel Love - Breaking it all

20. Dead Kennedays - Viva Las Vegas (live)

21. White Lies - Bad love

22. Pink Grease - Alien

23. Don't Sleep Dream - Grow

24. Ghostlab - 23 Rough stuff

25. Miles Kane - Inhaler

26. Dave Cloud & The Gospel of Power - Lovely Rita

27. Don Valley & The Rotherhides - I'm so far in the red I'm blue

28. Lime Spiders - Lot to answer for

Sheffield Index: 46%