Arctic Monkeys live at Glastonbury: mercurial, magical stuff from a band on fine form

Well, Alex Turner made it, then. Perhaps the greatest achievement of Arctic Monkeys’ Glastonbury headline set was that it happened at all. Earlier this week, the band cancelled a show in Dublin after Turner suffered from acute laryngitis, and had the frontman resting before a career-defining gig. This isn’t quite Kurt Cobain being wheeled-out for Nirvana’s legendary 1992 Reading Festival headline set levels of drama, more Turner holed up with some strepsils and chicken soup, presumably.

And what a relief it is. The band have been on red-hot form on their recent stadium run in the UK. NME dubbed it a new “golden age for the band”, and has seen them dig out once-dormant classics (‘Mardy Bum’, ‘A Certain Romance’) and offer up a Greatest Hits-style tour. Songs from latest album ‘The Car’ – understated, but grand in a way – have been parked for now while they give the masses what they want.

But there’s certainly an element of self-actualisation; the band’s star has got bigger and brighter – these are the most momentous gigs they’ve ever played in a 20-year career – despite the relative lack of immediacy of the recent material. Opener ‘Sculptures of Anything Goes’, featuring moody rock and falsetto vocals, is as strong a statement as any: ‘this is what we’re here for, and what we’re about now’. It’s pleasing to see: 2007’s headline set was marred by sound issues and nerves, while 2013’s – their crowning glory – offered a hand to the crowd, one that may look steadfast but was jittering with ‘do you love us now?’ energy. When Turner belts out one of his few comments – “The Monkeys on the farm on a Friday night. Wow!” – it may sound laced with sarcasm, but is quietly sentimental.

Despite the thrills – Turner’s range in ‘Arabella’ suggests the vocal injury truly was a minor blip – there’s a hint of feeling that something was left on the table. The band’s runtime of just over 90 minutes pales in comparison to their fellow headliners Guns N’ Roses and Elton John, and the majesty of ‘Perfect Sense’ struggles to connect fully with the crowd. Rumours of an orchestra to supplement these lush songs prove unfounded, while ‘A Certain Romance’ has been dumped after one mid-tour showing in Sheffield. Who knows if the band will make it back here again? There’s something of finality and a swansong to this tour, quietly lingering over every show.

It gives ammo to the tedious armchair experts watching on live streams and commenting on social media calling the songs “too slow”, but in the crowd, at the front and with the fans, this is a special, scintillating performance that connects. They are one of the few unifying bands across generations, and they stand alone in their field of British indie-rock as true superstars. ‘Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino’s ‘Four Out of Five’ is lodged in as a fan-favourite now, and ‘Pretty Visitors’ comes armed with a tense key-change towards the end. Full crooner-mode is activated for ‘Cornerstone’, a song that seems to grow with power as it gathers momentum; ‘I Wanna Be Yours’ works in lines of ‘Star Treatment’. The raw power of ‘Body Paint’ – perhaps their finest composition – shows how far the band have come; “Ocado of rock” this ain’t.

The ferocity of ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’ and ‘R U Mine?’ cap off a show that felt fraught until the moment the first noises slunk out of Turner. On the way to the south East corner, there’s a collective giddiness from the crowd: “they pulled it off” one fan says to her mate, relieved and still beaming from ear-to-ear. It’s not hard to imagine the band saying that to each other backstage, too.

Arctic Monkeys played:

‘Sculptures of Anything Goes’
‘Brianstorm’
‘Snap Out of It’
‘Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair’
‘Crying Lightning’
‘Teddy Picker’
‘Cornerstone’
‘Why’d You Only Call Me When You’re High?’
‘Arabella’
‘Four Out of Five’
‘Pretty Visitors’
‘Fluorescent Adolescent’
‘Perfect Sense’
‘Do I Wanna Know?’
‘Mardy Bum’
‘There’d Better Be a Mirrorball’
‘505’
‘Body Paint’
‘I Wanna Be Yours’
‘I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor’
‘R U Mine?’

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