Monday 5 December 2011

ADVERTISING: Needing no introduction.

The eve of Wednesday the 9th of November was pretty special. My best friend and I (Plus at least a 3rd of Liverpool) gathered in the Echo arena to witness the Arctic Monkeys Recklessly serenade us with a good helping of their new lyrically amazing album "Suck it and see".

 And they of course fantastically delivered with all the classics that they are known for also  A mind blowing 'Fluorescent Adolescent' had the crowd roaring and when they unfortunately finished after an amazing hour and a half set it was with an acoustic version of 'Mardy Bum' that was utterly sensational.

In the days leading up to the concert I had understandably been excited to see Alex Turner and the rest of the band, (well, just Alex but shhh.)
But what I was also was eagerly anticipating was the support act, in the form of the rather wonderous Vaccines. So much so that when I arrived I bought a Vaccines T-shirt as opposed to an Arctic Monkey's one. Proud of my decision I was especially after I'd saw them perform, as was Rebecca who then also joined me in spending twenty pound on a black tee emblazoned with their album cover.

But then, within seconds of Alex Turner simply being on stage I knew I'd made a huge mistake. We'd grumbled to each other about the Arctic Monkey's T-shirts being very simple and hinted that perharps, they were a bit of a waste of money compared to The Vaccines ones filled with images,  but by the time 'When the sun goes down' had finished I completely understood. The Arctic Monkeys didn't have to do a single thing to try and get people to buy their T-shirts. They didn't need a picture, or a quote, half of the T-shirts didn't even have tour dates on. But what did it matter?

A name was enough to connect to the T-shirt, it sold the experience. Where as, (and apologies to Rebecca who kept hers) The Vaccines T-shirts were a bit boring. Yes, they may have stereotypically looked better, but come on, just the "Arctic Monkeys" is enough. I'd decided in the last song that I would do everything in my power to swap my Vaccines T-shirt for an Arctic Monkey's one instead. I successfully persuaded the woman to let me exchange and I returned excitedly home with the last one that had to be taken down of the display.

Their second EP may have been entitled "Who the F*** are Arctic Monkeys?"  but these days they need no introduction. A simple plain T-shirt is enough to have thousands of fans dying to buy them. Me included.


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