The Carling Tent is packed out! As a rather confident Arctic Monkeys stand before us. They happily unleash ‘Fake Tales from San Francisco’ their only single release to date, and everyone knows the words. The crowd surfers go crazy at the front. ‘I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor’ follows and we all chant “monkeys, monkeys!” During the sing along to ‘Dancing Shoes’ a man dressed in a gorilla suit comes surfing over the crowd. “I bet you’re hot?” someone asks him. “Yeah but the monkey costume hides it.” Comes the reply. Looking out it seems as though the crowd stretch way beyond the sides of the tent.
“We’re f**kin’ fantastic!” lead singer Alex Turner yells before bursting into ‘Someday’ more monkey chanting before ‘From The Ritz To The Rubble’ how the hell does everyone know the words? I wonder, thinking perhaps there were a lot of those 20 track CDs for sale on ebay like the one I got.
‘Mardy Bum’ has everyone singing along to it and a prolific period of crowd surfing. The crowd continue in full voice for ‘All You People Are Vampires’ the song is stretched to a reprise and Alex tells us, “I enjoyed that.” And by the loud cheer in response he wasn’t the only one. Alex shouts is everyone outside the tent okay, the cheer back is astonishing, there must be even more out there!
‘Scummy’ has the crowd singing the words to the band, it’s incredible and the whole band are a bit taken aback. Alex calls out, “Whether you’re inside or outside now’s the time to get involved.” The largest chant of “Arctic Monkeys” then ensues and as it starts to subside, Alex tells us to “Stop it you’re making me blush!” and then they continue on with completing the song. The surfing crowd is now steaming.
Before ‘A Certain Romance’ Alex, says it will be the last song, adding, “We could play for you all day, but there’s a time limit, who makes the rules?” We’d like them to go on all day.
A brilliant performance from a band who have released little but they have sold out most of their tour and clearly have a huge fan base judging by the numbers at the Carling Stage. Destined to be huge and will be on main stage next year.
Reading Festival 
more pages about Arctic Monkeys
