Why Arctic Monkeys still key players...

Piano man Alex Turner guaranteed a noisy 3Arena welcome from Irish fans

Astripped down piano version of Florescent Adolescent was Alex Turner’s surprise gift to the Sheffield Arena on the night the Arctic Monkeys came home.

It had been five years since the High Green rock band played in Steel City but the home support made it as if they’d never left.

“I ‘ant sin you in aaages,” Turner had grinned before blasting into Four Out of Five at the show earlier this week.

Irish Monkeys’ fans will be hoping that the band bring the same energy to the 3Arena next week, September 24 and 25. Positioned straight after a run of three gigs in Sheffield, Alex Turner (right) and the Arctic Monkeys’ Irish dates have been hotly anticipated by fans on these shores since they were announced.

It’s not the first time they have graced the stage at the 3Arena, but it’s the first time songs from the Mercury Prize nomindated Tranquility Base Hotel and Casino will be heard at the venue.

While AM was widely touted as one of the finest rock records ever made, the bands follow up, released five years later, has divided the pack somewhat.

The slick sci-fi feel of Turner’s Tranquility Base is a significant departure from the huge drum sounds and vicious guitar riffs of

The Arctic Monkeys’ 2013 offering.

Swapping his guitar for a piano, bought for him as a gift on his 30th birthday, proved to be the inspiration for the album.

“Sitting at the piano took me immediately to a different place,” Turner told Billboard.

“There are chords that came out, my fingers were falling different places, and the sounds were giving me ideas.

“That I was the guy sitting at the piano also gave me ideas.”

The project probably lost the band more fans than they won but Irish fans will pack the rafters at the 3Arena for two sold out shows.

The Monkeys will be joined by US duo The

Lemon Twigs.

Signed to 4AD, the brothers Brian and

Michael D’addario released their debut album

‘Do Hollywood‘ in 2016 to critical acclaim.

Last month saw the band drop second album ‘Go The School‘, which was described by NME as “less like a night on Broadway and more like being dragged along to an amateur performance at your local village hall.

“It’s charming and full of heart, but you’ll be grimacing all the way through it.”