Arctic Monkeys at Glastonbury 2013
Tonight, the floor of Webster Hall is a sea of illuminated rectangles, with fans shooting video for minutes on end. Turner is ready for the crowd and the cameras now – he puts his guitar down to strut and dance, drops to his knees for solos when he does play, flirts shamelessly with the female fans (he introduces the band’s early hit “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” with an almost Beasties-ish cry of “laaaaadies!”).
It’s a very unnatural environment to be in, up on a stage,” he says later, admitting that his early shyness never really went away. “So you put up defenses to hide. Like looking at the ground with your hair in your eyes, or being tightly wound and quite aggressive and uncooperative, as I used to do.” His newfound showmanship, he suggests, is just a better way to hide.
How Arctic Monkeys Reinvented Their Sound by Brian Hiatt (October 24th, 2013 issue of Rolling Stone)