Overrated?
I'm getting sick of this new indie riff-raff which tends to consist of some of the most boring guitar work ever...just my opinion
Although theyre selling in America (advanced bookings etc.), apparently the Americans aren't really taking a shine to them.
USA DOESN'T GIVE A MONKEYS
IT FEELS like they arrived only half an hour ago, but already the Arctic Monkeys are considered - flop in America.
"Overhyped Monkeys," was the verdict of one critic, echoed elsewhere, while their showcase performance on Saturday Night Live (the coming-out ball for any hot young band) was greeted with little more than polite smiles.
It's not as though America didn't want to love the singer Alex Turner's group. Tickets for the US tour sold out almost immediately and they were headliners at the massive South by Southwest festival in Texas.
But the reality of the Monkeys was greeted with the sound of one hand clapping.
"Perhaps, for all the sales and hype, the band has been brought up too quickly and isn't ready to headline," said Variety.
Every British band wants to be the Beatles in America, but most end up being more like Robbie Williams.
Before the Mop Tops went to the States they racked up hit after hit in their home country and served mg, hard apprenticeships in Liverpool and Hamburg.
The Beatles were sensations because they mastered their craft far away from the spotlight and didn't go anywhere near a recording contract before they were world-beaters.
It will never happen again. That's why we are left with so much talent that is only half-baked.
The Arctic Monkeys are a fine band that could have been a great band if they had been given a little room to grow - and a chance to play countless gigs in front of drunken sailors and violent prostitutes, or violent sailors and drunken prostitutes.
But nobody wants to serve an apprenticeship any more.
TONY PARSONS, THE MIRROR