Monkeys to warm up Byron
Arctic Monkeys, Britain's fastest-selling band of all time, is tipped to be the headline act for this year's Splendour in the Grass event in Byron Bay.
Music insiders have revealed the band is already talking about an Australian visit, with the likelihood of extra shows in capital cities including Sydney.
The band's lead singer, Alex Turner, has fuelled the whispers by telling sources he is heading Down Under for the annual Byron Bay festival, which he cheerfully referred to as "Splendid" (instead of "Splendour").
Arctic Monkeys' debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not was released in Australia yesterday, through EMI.
In Britain it was selling at eight copies a minute in its first few days of release and the album eventually outsold the Beatles and Oasis in first-week sales figures. (Thankfully, the album measures up to the UK hype - for curious music fans in Australia, it's really worth a listen.)
The band is a group of working-class lads from Sheffield who seem to have the knack of capturing some of the truths of growing up in modern-day Britain.
Not only has their music captured the imagination of millions of fans, the strength of the band's music also lies in its lyrical content - the poetic, street-style singing of Turner has been a phenomenal success.
An official announcement about the Splendour in the Grass line-up will be made next month, but acts such as Coldplay and Franz Ferdinand have already starred at the music festival, which is generally staged in late July.
Source: The Sun-Herald