The Last Shadow Puppets

Infobox musical artist
Name = The Last Shadow Puppets


Img_capt =
Landscape = yes
Background = group_or_band
Origin = England
Genre = Indie rock
Years_active = 2007–present
Label = Domino
Associated_acts = Arctic Monkeys, The Rascals, The Little Flames
URL = [http://www.thelastshadowpuppets.com thelastshadowpuppets.com]
Current_members = Alex Turner
Miles Kane James Ford

The Last Shadow Puppets is a side project of Alex Turner of the band Arctic Monkeys and Miles Kane of the band The Rascals.

History

According to an interview with Miles and Alex in British magazine "NME", the pair met while on tour with Miles's former band The Little Flames and Alex's band Arctic Monkeys. In Miles's words, the connection between the two was "purely platonic, contrary to rumours". They cultivated a very intimate relationship (fuelling rumours of an actual relationship), which lead the two to form "The Turner and Kane project" (original name), after a suggestion from a friend of the pair. This name was abandoned and replaced by "The Last Shadow Puppets".

Formation

In August 2007 "NME" 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 James Ford producing and playing drums. [ [http://www.nme.com/news/arctic-monkeys/30076 Arctic Monkeys front man to record surprise album this month] ] Turner & Kane became friends when Kane's previous band The Little Flames played support for Arctic Monkeys on their May/June 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. [Arctic Monkeys interviewed by Tom Doyle, Mojo, May 2007, p. 96] Their collaboration extended into Arctic Monkeys material, with Kane playing guitar on "505", the closing track of second Arctic Monkeys album "Favourite 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 album took place in France in late August 2007 with additional material added between August and December. 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. [ [http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/a87744/monkeys-star-making-film-about-new-album.html Monkeys star making film about new album] ]

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" to 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 April 14, 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 [ [http://www.avclub.com/content/feature/random_rules_alex_turner_of Random Rules:Alex Turner of Arctic Monkeys] ] ) as b-sides. [ [http://www.nme.com/news/the-last-shadow-puppets/35161 Alex Turner and Miles Kane cover David Bowie] ] The duo have said they took inspiration from Scott Walker and early Bowie.

The second single, "Standing Next to Me", was released on 7 July, 2008. [ [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0019M6386 Standing Next to Me pre-order] ] The third single from the album will be "My Mistakes Were Made for You".

The album was nominated for the 2008 Mercury Music Prize [ [http://beardedmagazine.co.uk/wp/?p=281 | Bearded magazine] ] but lost out to Elbow's, The Seldom Seen Kid.

econd album

Kane has said in an interview with The Sun that The Last Shadow Puppets will be looking to record new material in 2009. [ [http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/music/article1218177.ece Rascal Miles Monkeys around] ]

Live appearances

The band played their first ever show in Brooklyn, New York at Sound Fix Records on 4 March 2008, [ [http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/music/a90866/turners-shadow-puppets-play-debut-gig.html Turner's Shadow Puppets play debut gig] ] playing a second gig at the Lower East Side's Cake Shop the following night. [ [http://www.nme.com/news/the-last-shadow-puppets/34956 Alex Turner and Miles Kane play second New York gig] ]

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 June 28, 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". [ [http://www.nme.com/news/the-last-shadow-puppets/37711 Last Shadow Puppets and Jack White play secret Glastonbury gig] ]

On July 4 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.

The band and a 16 piece orchestra embarked on two intimate live shows as warm up sessions for Reading and Leeds Festivals 2008, and also for their upcoming tour that will take them across the UK, Europe and America. The warm up shows were at Portsmouth Guildhall and Oxford New Theatre.

Awards and Nominations

References

External links

* [http://www.dailymusicguide.com/Reviews/last_shadow_puppets_my_mistakes_were_made_for_you_single_26092008_1149.aspx Review of the LSP's latest single 'My Mistakes Were Made For You']
* [http://www.thelastshadowpuppets.com/ Official website]