The Last Shadow Puppets

The Last Shadow Puppets are an English-American rock supergroup consisting of Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys), Miles Kane (The Rascals, solo artist), producer James Ford (Simian Mobile Disco, Simian), and Zach Dawes (Mini Mansions).

History

Formation

In August 2007 NME magazine reported that Arctic Monkeys lead singer Alex Turner and lead singer of then newly formed the Rascals, Miles Kane would be recording an album with Simian Mobile Disco member and former Simian drummer James Ford producing and playing drums.^[2] Turner and Kane had become friends when Kane's previous band the Little Flames played support for Arctic Monkeys on their 2005 UK tour. The Little Flames also supported Arctic Monkeys on their April 2007 UK tour, when Turner and Kane wrote songs together for a collaborative project.^[3] Their collaboration extended into Arctic Monkeys material, with Kane playing guitar on "505", the closing track of second Arctic Monkeys album Favourite Worst Nightmare and on "Fluorescent Adolescent" B-sides "The Bakery" and "Plastic Tramp." Kane also guested on "505" and "Plastic Tramp" at several Arctic Monkeys gigs in 2007, including the summer mini-festivals at Lancashire County Cricket Club and Arctic Monkeys' 2007 & 2013 appearances at Glastonbury.

The initial recording of the songs that would eventually form their debut album took place in France in late August 2007 with additional material added between August and December of that year. In December Owen Pallett was appointed to arrange the strings, brass and percussion for the album with the 22-piece London Metropolitan Orchestra. During the recording of the album Turner and Kane hired a documentary film-making team, Luke Seomore and Joseph Bull, to capture the story of the project.^[4]

The Age of the Understatement (2007−2009)

On 20 February 2008, the duo revealed they would be known as the Last Shadow Puppets and that their album would be titled The Age of the Understatement and would be released on 21 April 2008. The album went straight to number one in the UK Albums Chart. The first single, "The Age of the Understatement", was released the week before on 14 April, with new song "Two Hearts in Two Weeks" and covers of Billy Fury's "Wondrous Place" and David Bowie's "In the Heat of the Morning" (a song previously mentioned by Turner as a favourite^[5]) as b-sides.^[6] The duo have said they took inspiration from Scott Walker and early Bowie. As well as this, there are also influences of the Beatles and late 60s/ early 70s progressive rock.

The second single, "Standing Next to Me", was released on 7 July 2008.^[7] The album produced a third single, "My Mistakes Were Made for You."

The album was nominated for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize^[8] but lost out to Elbow's The Seldom Seen Kid.

Everything You've Come To Expect (2015–present)

Although Kane said in an interview with The Sun that the Last Shadow Puppets were looking to record new material in 2009,^[9] nothing was subsequently announced during that year. In a March 2010 interview with Absolute Radio, Alex Turner said that there were no plans, however, Kane said in October 2010 they would get back together after he was done with his solo project.^[10] In March 2011, Turner confirmed his interests in recording a second album.^[11]

In January 2012, Miles Kane confirmed that he would reunite with Arctic Monkeys' singer Alex Turner to record again as the Last Shadow Puppets, saying that he and Turner would record the follow-up to The Age Of The Understatement "when the time is right."^[12]

On October 19, 2015, Owen Pallett, who contributed the string arrangements on The Age of the Understatement, confirmed work on the second album on Twitter.^[13]

In an interview with the Chilean site Rock & Pop on 17 November 2015, producer James Ford confirmed that work on the second album had been completed and that the record would be released sometime in spring 2016. When asked of his recent work, Ford said, "This year, I've just done a Last Shadow Puppets record, which is the guy from Arctic Monkeys and Miles. So we did the follow-up album to that. That's the last thing I did."^[14]

On 3 December 2015, the band's official Facebook and YouTube pages released a teaser trailer^[15] for the album, also confirming for the album to be released sometime in spring 2016. People such as Turner's current girlfriend, Taylor Bagley, and Zach Dawes of Mini Mansions made small cameos in the video. A second teaser trailer^[16] for the album was released on 28 December 2015. The video featured Kane impersonating wrestler Ric Flair along with videos from the studio and various cinematic shots.

On 10 January 2016, the band released their first single since 2008.^[17] The song, "Bad Habits", was accompanied with a music video^[18] filmed in the same style as the first two teaser trailers.

On 21 January 2016, the band announced that their second album would be entitled Everything You've Come to Expect, and would feature the return of all three previous band members, as well as the addition of bass player Zach Dawes. It is set to be released on 1 April 2016.

Live appearances

The Last Shadow Puppets at the Sound Fix Records Studio.

The band played their first ever show in Brooklyn, New York, at Sound Fix Records on 4 March 2008,^[19] playing a second gig at the Lower East Side's Cake Shop the following night.^[20]

The Last Shadow Puppets played a short two song set on 5 April at the Lock Tavern in Camden, London. They played "Meeting Place" and "Standing Next to Me" in support of Remi Nicole, who organised the party both to celebrate her birthday and to raise money for MS sufferers. The band have also performed on Jools Holland's show Later... with Jools Holland, with James Ford on drums, Stephen Fretwell on bass, John Ashton on keyboards and Owen Pallett conducting the string accompaniment. The duo also played on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross on 5 July.

The band played a secret set at Glastonbury on 28 June 2008 with Arctic Monkeys drummer Matt Helders playing drums on "The Age of the Understatement" and Jack White playing a guitar solo on "Wondrous Place."^[21]

On 4 July 2008, they performed "Standing Next to Me" as part of a birthday present for Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 1. They also performed a cover of Rihanna's "SOS".

The band and a 16-piece orchestra played two intimate live shows as warm up sessions for Reading and Leeds Festivals 2008, at Portsmouth Guildhall and New Theatre Oxford. In October and November 2008, the band embarked on their first full headlining tour of the UK and US, which was generally well received by both fans and critics.^[22][23]

On 3 February 2012, Miles Kane supported Arctic Monkeys at their Paris Olympia show. At the conclusion of the support slot, Alex Turner joined Miles Kane and his band to perform "Standing Next to Me". At Glastonbury 2013, Alex Turner joined Miles Kane on set near the end of his performance to play "Standing Next to Me" together. Miles Kane later on October joined the Arctic Monkeys on their headline set in Mexico to perform their last song "505" together. At Finsbury Park 2014, Alex Turner again joined Miles Kane for an acoustic performance of "Standing Next to Me".

In January 2016, the band announced their 2016 tour dates in support of Everything You've Come to Expect. Locations include Hackney Empire in London, Webster Hall in New York, and most notably Indio, California for The 2016 Coachella Music Festival.^[24] The band will also add two shows during March in Cambridge and Middlesbrough^[25] to bolster the UK portion of the tour.

Awards and nominations

Band members

• Alex Turner – vocals, guitar, tambourine (2007–present)
• Miles Kane – vocals, guitar (2007–present)
• James Ford – drums, percussion, production (2007–present)
• Zach Dawes − bass guitar (2015–present)

Former live members

• Stephen Fretwell – bass guitar (2008)
• John Ashton – keyboards, guitar (2008)

Discography

Studio albums

Singles

References

External links

• Daily Music Guide Standing Next To You review
• Review of the LSP's latest single 'My Mistakes Were Made For You'
• Official website
• Interview with Alex Turner, L.A. Weekly October 2008