“Casting a shadow on a wall”: The night David Bowie was quietly removed from Arctic Monkeys’ VIP section
It’s a common motif in music: George Michael was once turned away from his own concert for not looking enough like George Michael, Bob Dylan was once mistaken for a vagrant, and David Bowie was seemingly shunned by the latest indie darlings once upon a time.
In a strange way, these mishaps seem like a mark that you’ve made it. But it is how you handle the embarrassing snub that defines whether you’re a star worth your salt. George Michael simply laughed his cap off in delight at the comedy caper. Dylan apparently didn’t even refute that he was a vagrant. But what did Bowie do when he turfed out of his seat?
Well, if you know anything about the man, you can probably guess, but it is all the more charming coming from Arctic Monkeys’ drummer Matt Helders. “They had tables up the top for guests and VIP guests, and I think Bowie was sat there with whoever he came with,” the thundering sticksmith told Joe Whiley.
With demand high for the lucrative seats, Arctic Monkeys’ roadies had assigned the best seats to the young band’s family members. “And our tour manager didn’t even realise and he moved him so my brother and his wife could sit there and watch it and have a better view,” Helders explained.
Now, not to besmirch the achievements of the extended Helders family, but if Matt’s brother and sister-in-law have achieved a triumph that matches ‘Heroes’ I’d be very bloody surprised. Typically though, Bowie remained humble during the experience, “He didn’t say anything like, ‘I’m David Bowie’ – he just moved politely and then came to say hello afterwards,” Helders recalled.
When he arrived backstage, the band were completely oblivious to the fact that earlier in the night he had been uprooted from his favoured seat. In fact, it is not even clear that they knew he was there. But somewhere in the world, Matt’s brother, at any given moment, is now likely to be sat in a bar telling the story of how ‘David Bowie once gave his se’t up fuh muh’.
Beyond the innocuity of the tale, it is another example of two things that seem central to Bowie’s character and artistry: a) how much he continued to keep up with culture, and b) how humbly he purveyed it. He was always checking out new bands, and you suspect he was always giving his seat while he was at it.
That’s what made him so unique: not the relinquishing of VIP treatment, but the odd paradox he presented of quite clearly being an alien from whichever creative planet Tranquility Base + Hotel and Casino was set, while also being deeply human and relatable. This odd blend – and his not-to-be-overlooked ability to right a banger – has always inspired Alex Turner and the band.
Turner has made no secret of his admiration for Bowie in the past, detailing how his first listening of ‘Moonage Daydream’ inspired his songwriting to take on a more abstract approach. “I suppose the things I’d been writing before I heard this were a lot more [holds hand close to face]. The first Shadow Puppets album lyrically was definitely the first dip of the toe into the abstract for me,” Turner told MOJO previously.
“I recognised that sometimes the lyrics can be just another component along with the melody and the music. You might write a song about a girl you’re in love with, or a comedown, but there’s the space in-between all that that we’re interested in occupying sometimes,” he added when explaining the influence of ‘Moonage Daydream’.
Colourfully concluding, in a manner that you can see reflected in records like The Car, “It’s like casting a shadow on a wall. And it’s like that’s the thing, rather than the object that’s causing the shadow. It’s like a secret, and you’re kind of wrapping it in a sugary shell with imagery.”
Whether he probed such songwriting wisdom from the Starman backstage in New York or he was too busy just apologising for the seating faux pas remains to be seen, but it’s clear that Arctic Monkeys’ oeuvre has adhered to Bowie’s mantra of refusing “to play to the gallery” no matter who is sat there.
