Montagues, Capulets and Banging DJ Sets

In 2005 a band from Sheffield burst onto the scene with a song. At just over two and a half minutes it was short snarling affair. That showed the bands intent. I am of course talking about the Arctic Monkeys and 'I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor.'

The song hit number one and has become a universal indie anthem. It talks about nights out, drinking and trying to meet people on the Dancefloor. Lyrically Alex Turner wrote like a young Morrisey and Jarvis Cocker, set to the backing track of snarling guitars and pulsating drums. The chorus is powerful and the word play in the verses very clever to reference Shakespeare and to make it rhyme with banging DJ sets is genius. Alex Turner was a mature song writer even as a teenager.

The song was the catalyst for one Britain's biggest bands ever,it was the first time we heard of them, and let's face it. As opening statements go, it's a pretty good one. Based around a US Pop Punk melody,with gun like drums and Turner playing a guitar solo three times. Lyrically it is quintessentially British. Confrontational, bitter and deftly sarcastic. We quickly realised we had a special talent on our hands. In a time were guitar music was more prevelant than ever, Kasabian, Kaiser Chiefs, The White Stripes, Franz Ferdinand The Strokes and Bloc Party were all kicking about but this song seemed to blow them out of the water. 

It hit the Number One Spot instantly despite the band being on an indie label 'Domino Records' and not having had the backing of the other bands. Word of mouth, the internet and Turner's genius had gotten them this far and they would never look back.

A true classic. It still sums up teenage and early twenties life in Britain. As the NME said “the perfect encapsulation of what it is to be young, pissed, lusty, angry and skint in modern day Britain."

Even the story of how they celebrated getting a Number One record encapsulates what it was like to be young in modern day Britain. Alex Turner told Matt Wilkinson in 2016 'We all went to the pub near where we’d grown up and they announced that it was the number one record. They put the radio on in the pub and everyone just jumped up.' 

This songs impact has gone to become huge, it still gets played at indie nights up and down the country, it is still the first Arctic Monkeys song most of us hear, it still gets the biggest cheer at there gigs, and although they may have moved on from Sheffield Nights Out, to Hotels on the Moon and beyond. It remains the first chapter and arguably most important chapter of the bands story.