Arctic Monkeys kick off 2023 UK tour with first performance of ‘Mardy Bum’ in 10 years

30 May, 2023

Arctic Monkeys performs at the Clockenflap music festival in Hong Kong on March 3, 2023

Arctic Monkeys kicked off their UK stadium tour in Bristol last night (May 29) — check out the full setlist and fan-captured footage below.

The gig marked the first of 15 live dates the band have lined up on this UK and Ireland tour, which will make stops in Sheffield, Manchester, London and more.

Kicking off at Bristol’s Ashton Gate Stadium last night, the band played a total of 21 songs, including a number of tracks from their latest LP ‘The Car’, which was released last October.

Alex Turner and co. opened the gig with a live rendition of ‘Mardy Bum’. Taken from their 2006 debut ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’, the Bristol show marked the first time that the original album version of the track had been performed live since 2007. It was last performed live by the band in 2013.

Another AM rarity also arrived midway through the set when the band delivered their first performance of ‘My Propeller’ in nearly 10 years. Other highlights from the show included classic tracks ‘Teddy Picker’, ‘The View From The Afternoon’ and ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’, as well as a cover of John Cooper Clarke’s ‘I Wanna Be Yours’.

Arctic Monkeys also performed the likes of ‘505’, ‘Arabella’ and ‘Do I Wanna Know’, and closed the show off with a three-song encore of ‘Sculptures Of Anything Goes’, ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’ and ‘R U Mine?’.

Check out the full setlist and fan-shot footage from the Ashton Gate gig below.

Arctic Monkeys played:

1. ‘Mardy Bum’ (first time original album version has been played since 2007)
2. ‘Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair’
3. ‘Brianstorm’
4. ‘Snap Out Of It’
5. ‘Crying Lightning’
6. ‘Teddy Picker’
7. ‘The View From The Afternoon’
8. ‘Four Out Of Five’
9. ‘Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?’
10. ‘Arabella’ (with ‘Pretty Visitors’ instrumental interlude)
11. ‘My Propeller’ (first time live since 2014)
12. ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’
13. ‘Suck It And See’
14. ‘Do I Wanna Know?’
15. ‘There’d Better Be A Mirrorball’
16. ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ (John Cooper Clarke cover)
17. ‘505’
18. ‘Body Paint’

19. ‘Sculptures Of Anything Goes’
20. ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’
21. ‘R U Mine?’

Arctic Monkeys are next set to make a stop at Coventry’s Building Society Arena tomorrow night (May 31), before playing back-to-back shows at Manchester’s Emirates Old Trafford on June 2 and 3.

From there, the band will head to Middlesbrough and Norwich, play two shows in their Sheffield hometown, and eventually move through Swansea, Southampton and London. For the latter, they will play three shows at Emirates Stadium on June 16, 17 and 18, before then moving through to Ireland. Find any remaining tickets here.

Arctic Monkeys released their latest LP, ‘The Car’, to critical acclaim last year — following on from their 2018 LP, ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’. In a five-star review, NME praised the band for the precise songwriting in the album, as well as their innovative ideas.

“The band ‘pick up where they left off’ on 2018’s ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’,” it read. “Their masterful – and divisive – collection that traded razor-sharp riffs and stadium-sized choruses for loungey space-pop, obfuscating characters and a shady lounge lizard persona for frontman Alex Turner.”

The band kicked off the European leg of their tour in Austria last month (April 24), where they also surprised fans with the first live performances of both ‘Suck It And See’ and ‘Fluorescent Adolescent’ since 2014.

The post Arctic Monkeys kick off 2023 UK tour with first performance of ‘Mardy Bum’ in 10 years appeared first on NME.