Last Shadow Puppets at Hammersmith Apollo

Hammersmith Apollo was the perfect venue for the 16-piece orchestra and dramatic lighting of last night’s vintage performance. The Last Shadow Puppets, brainchild of Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) and Miles Kane (The Rascals) is clearly so much more than a side project.

Their success over the past year includes a number one album: The Age of the Understatement, a prestigious Mercury Music Prize nomination and the latest announcement: Q Award Best New Act. It is no surprise the gig was a sell out and the atmosphere electric.

Concentrating on songs from their debut album they opened with In My Room. The distinctive grand theatrical sound – that would suit any Bond theme – continued through favourites such as The Age of the Understatement, Calm Like You, Separate and Ever Deadly  and latest single, My Mistakes Were Made for You.

The band’s influences were apparent as reflected in the covers they chose. You’d expect a Beatles number, and they did indeed deliver with a cover of I Want You (She’s So Heavy) – which they recently performed at The Electric Proms.

Later they were joined on stage by Rosalie Cunningham of support act Ipso Facto to perform the B-side for their new single, a cover of Lee Hazelwood and Nancy Sinatra’s Paris Summer, followed by David Bowie’s In the Heat of the Morning.

It was evident from their performance that the Puppets enjoyed every minute as they engaged in banter with the crowd, laughing with each other and drummer James Ford. Turner at one point regaled the audience with the ‘gifts’ that had been thrown on stage; bras, gold pants and some beautifully wrapped biscuits. ‘That’s right, most people get knickers, we get biscuits. We are grateful for the biscuits though,’ he joked.

The short encore was a climactic end to a great gig: a swing version of Leonard Cohen’s Memories and finally the epic Standing Next to Me, much to the delight of the capacity crowd. Turner and Kane’s on stage relationship has been compared to that of Lennon and McCartney; not just the retro look and the hair cuts, but the talent and the connection between the pair. Seamlessly swapping guitars and interchanging vocals it’s clearly a formula that works well, and if rumours of a 2009 album are true The Last Shadow Puppets are definitely ones to watch.

New single My Mistakes Were Made For You is out now.
www.thelastshadowpuppets.com

Image courtesy of SJM Concerts