The Last Shadow Puppets

All Music Guide:

A Scott Walker and David Bowie-inspired collaboration between the Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner and the Rascals' Miles Kane, the Last Shadow Puppets began when Kane's previous band, the Little Flames, toured with the Arctic Monkeys in 2007. Already friends from prior gigs together, the pair started writing songs that spring, and headed into a French studio late that summer with producer/drummer James Ford. Additional recording, including strings courtesy of the London Metropolitan Orchestra and arranger Owen Pallett (of Final Fantasy), was completed that December. Early in 2008, the Last Shadow Puppets played a pair of shows in New York and announced that their debut single and album, both titled The Age of the Understatement, would arrive that spring on Domino Records.

Wikipedia:

The Last Shadow Puppets is a band consisting of Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys, Miles Kane formerly of The Rascals, and composer/producer James Ford of Simian Mobile Disco and formerly of Simian.

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. 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. Their collaboration extended into Arctic Monkeys material, with Kane playing guitar on "505", the closing track of second Arctic Monkeys album Favorite 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 appearance 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.

The Age of the Understatement

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) as b-sides. 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. The album produced a third single, "My Mistakes Were Made for You."

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

Second album

Although Kane said in an interview with The Sun that The Last Shadow Puppets were looking to record new material in 2009, nothing was subsequently announced during that year and although in a March 2010 interview with Absolute Radio, Alex Turner said that there were no plans, Kane in October 2010 said they would get back together after he was done with his solo project.

In March 2011, Turner again confirmed his interests in recording a second album.

On 6 January 2012, Miles Kane confirmed that he will reunite with Arctic Monkeys' singer Alex Turner to record again as The Last Shadow Puppets, possibly as soon as at the end of this year. He is currently on tour with the Arctic Monkeys across Australia and has said that he and Turner will record the follow-up to 2008's The Age Of The Understatement "when the time is right."

Live appearances

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

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 producer 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 of The Raconteurs and The White Stripes playing a guitar solo on "Wondrous Place."

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 (Rescue Me).

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 Oxford New Theatre. 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.

On 3 February 2011, 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.