Arctic Monkeys tell BBC to delay Reading headline set
FOR legions of Arctic Monkeys fans it was the day they had long waited for, a headline billing at the Reading Festival marking the band’s return to live music in the UK after a four-year absence.
But anyone outside Reading hoping to watch the Sheffield rockers take to the stage were left disappointed after the band asked the BBC not to broadcast the performance on Saturday night.
The BBC revealed the group’s request hours before they were due to play, leaving fans unable to sample highlyanticipated music from their upcoming seventh studio album The Car.
Only pictures of the band’s headline set, which featured the unreleased track I Ain’t Quite Where I Think I Am, were shown.
Sharing the news on Twitter, BBC Radio 1 said on Saturday: “At the artists’ request, we will not be able to bring you the Arctic Monkeys set live this evening. But you will be able to watch them tomorrow on BBC One, from 23:35.”
No further explanation for the band’s request was made public.
Performances of other bands that played at the festival on Saturday were available to live-stream.
The intervention received a mixed response on social media with some venting frustration at the move, while others applauded the band for apparently prioritising a live audience.
One fan tweeted: “I’m so annoyed about this! I was so looking forward to watching their set as they’re one of my favourite bands.”
Others speculated the band wanted to please those who paid to watch the shows by avoiding any new material being heard before they played yesterday at Leeds.
“It’s probably because they want people that paid to see it live at Leeds to see it before people at home which is understandable,” one suggested.
Days before the headline return, Alex Turner, the band’s frontman, told how he was “very much working” on the setlist for the shows at Reading and Leeds. He told the Big Issue: “It’s quite mysterious... the setlist and what the order of that should be.
“This time has passed over the last few years and certain things don’t feel the way you expected them to anymore. That sounds sad, but it’s not.
“There are just certain things that represented certain moments in the past that now feel like something else, so they should be somewhere else.
“I’m still definitely very much working it out.
“It’s exciting to perform again.” The Arctic Monkeys and the BBC have been approached for comment.
Formed in 2002, the Arctic Monkeys, made up of singer-guitarist Turner, drummer Matt Helders, guitarist Jamie Cook and bassist Nick O’malley, have enjoyed six consecutive UK number one albums.
The band’s new album is due to be released in October.