Arctic Monkeys/ Leeds Festival 2022 - Yes, you want to know (featuring the rock n' roll pigeon).

As much as I am a music fanatic, festivals are not my thing - what can I say I like my own bed.  However, I think Leeds fest will always have a special place in my heart. I first went when I was 16, it was the furthest I’d been since coronavirus held us all hostage and it was a big deal for everyone there. For give or take a year we’d stayed in our homes following various changing rules and continuously being let down by any promises of normality. This festival was the first time I felt a sense of excitement in a long time, and I don’t think I was alone in that feeling.

We went on the Sunday to see Post Malone, Beabadoobee, The Wombats and Two-Door-Cinema club. I obviously sang my heart out to all of them, having religiously listening to the set lists for months, and I left with no voice, no leg power, and the inside of my nose black. We went in a random dance stage mosh pit in which my friend lost a shoe and nearly a leg, and got home past 3 in the morning exhausted, so I like to think we had an accurate experience.

Despite the glamourous experience we had last year, me and my friends decided to go again. Personally, I couldn’t stomach the idea of going for the full weekend (this having nothing to do with my bank account only harnessing enough money to buy a day ticket) so I bought a Sunday ticket when the headliners were announced.

The Arctic Monkeys, ahhhh, immediate heart eyes. I used to sneakily listen to them through a playlist I found on Tumblr (don’t blame my mother for giving me the internet young, she didn’t know better). Seeing that ‘you’re in!’ sign on Ticketmaster and knowing that I was going to see Alex Turner with my own eyes was something I don’t think I realised until the night before. I listened to my favourite songs huddled up in a ball in the corner of my room, my skin smelling of gradual tan and socks in my hair to curl it. I think the Arctic Monkeys were the first band I wasn’t influenced to listen to, I found them by myself. All the other music I had listened to was because of my family or the radio, but this was a band that my mum didn’t know -which made them insanely cooler. So, they were a big part of building my independent music taste, them linking to other British ‘indie’ bands like The Courteeners or The Kooks. Knowing I was going to see AM in under 24hours made sleeping that night incredibly hard.

Before the main act, we saw AJ Tracey who came on unknowingly without his backing track. Once the technical difficulty had been sorted, the crowd loved him. I only knew one song but enjoyed the set the same. It felt nice to have someone significant to the British crowds after Jack Harlow’s departure, which made me very salty against the VMA’s, and I think Tracey made up for it.

Wolf Alice were on just before Arctic Monkeys and so we got the barrier section in order to have it for AM. I am a new Wolf Alice fan, but they are something else. A female rock and roll front woman is so aspirational it makes me want to cry (as do Ellie Roswell’s outfits every show, they are always amazing). I sometimes feel a little guilty that my music taste is quite male dominated, only a third of people in the entire music industry are women and I can’t be helping it. However, growing up, most musicians on the charts and especially in the rock/ indie genres were men so knowing that little girls and boys now have talented women like Ellie Roswell to look up to makes me have a little faith in the future of the industry. Unrelated, there was pigeon that kept flying around the WA set who I nicknamed ‘the rock n’ roll pigeon’ and he was totally in his feels during ‘Last Man on Earth’ (pictured across) but I can’t blame him, I was too with ‘Safe from Heartbreak’.

Then it was time. After nearly 4 hours of waiting, my friend feeling violently ill, braiding some random Spanish boys hair and giving lots of random people eyeliner tattoos, they appeared. Like angels descended from heaven into the depths of Braham Park, they walked onto stage and the crowd went crazy. With no UK shows since 2018 and not appearing at Leeds Fest since 2014, you could feel every voice in that field during ‘505’ – I doubt many in the crowd cried, but my god did I crumble. Some were disappointed with the set list, which I understand to a certain degree. ‘Mardy Bum’ is a 2000’s British cult-classic song and would have probably gone down too well with a rowdy crowd. I was pushed back so many times during the set and if they had played ‘When the Sun goes Down’, I might not have been able to write right now. I don’t mind the odd mosh pit, but I felt like I had been waiting for this moment for so long that I didn’t want my main memory to be breaking a leg to the sweet, garage sounds of ‘From the Ritz to the Rubble’ playing in the back. 

I already knew about the new album 'The Car' but refused to listen to any leaked videos of the new song prior to the festival, and I am so glad I did. Matt Helders' little 'eyes roll back' lib was so good, I couldn't wait for each each chorus. Its funny how simple hooks in songs can catch your attention, something that AM have perfected - quick example, 'Teddy Picker', that bridge sends me every time. If you haven't already, pre- order/ keep a look out for the new AM album 'The Car'. Just from the taste of 'I ain't quite where I think I am', I know this is going to be a good one (I mean that was never in the question really was it). 

When it was all over, and I had registered that I had actually just seen Alex Turner with my own eyes, I remembered that even though staying over at festivals aren't for me, the crowd most certainly is. Hearing the little conversations filter throughout the masses about favourite songs, the nostalgia behind the band and how amazing their weekend was etc., is the sense of community that music creates and that I adore. Obviously people have their preferences but I truly believe that little else brings people together as well as music does. Just maybe I prefer not sleeping in a flammable tarp for 4 nights.

P.S.: As a tip to anyone travelling to Leeds fest, either alone or accompanied, get the coach. If you can afford to fork out the money for it, it is so worth it. In 2021 it took me around 4 hours to get home via car and this year it was only around an hour. It's easy to locate at the grounds especially with the Leeds app (I was so excited when I saw that you can see yourself as a little dot to help know where you are). But sadly, my coach driver did not bring a 50 litre bottle of water and a 30’’ pizza for each passenger for the way home, so I guess there's room for improvement.