Stay up to date with notifications from The Independent

Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.

Watch Arctic Monkeys cover The Beatles live in New York

The band played 'All My Loving' for the encore at Madison Square Garden

Jess Denham
Monday 10 February 2014 10:51 GMT
Comments
Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys - the group covered 'All My Loving' by the Beatles at Madison Square Garden on Friday night
Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys - the group covered 'All My Loving' by the Beatles at Madison Square Garden on Friday night

Arctic Monkeys celebrated playing their biggest US headline gig on Friday night by covering The Beatles in New York. (Scroll to watch video.)

The Sheffield indie outfit, who topped the bill at Madison Square Garden for an hour and a half set, kicked off their encore with a rendition of "All My Loving" to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Fab Four’s first US tour.

"So apparently almost to the day, I believe, it’s 50 years since Ed Sullivan first brought the Beatles to the United States," frontman Alex Turner told the crowd. "We thought, seeing as we’re in New York, as they were all those years ago, that we’d play a little Beatles song for you tonight.

"Apparently one in three Americans actually watched that performance, so if we’re lucky one or three Americans might watch this YouTube video."

Saturday marked 50 years since the legendary group first appeared on The Ed Sullivan Show, shortly after holding an historic press conference on John F Kennedy Airport’s central terminal.

Arctic Monkeys performed just two songs from their 2006 debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not: "Dancing Shoes" and "I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor".

The quartet played 20 songs in total after opening their energetic set with "Do I Wanna Know?" from their fifth and most recent album, AM. Other tracks to make the cut included "Fluorescent Adolescent", "Brianstorm" and "Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair".

Miles Kane, from Turner’s side project supergroup, The Last Shadow Puppets, joined the band for “505”.

Arctic Monkeys had played Madison Square Garden twice before in 2012, but in a support slot for US rock group The Black Keys.

Amazon Music logo

Enjoy unlimited access to 70 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music

Sign up now for a 30-day free trial

Sign up
Amazon Music logo

Enjoy unlimited access to 70 million ad-free songs and podcasts with Amazon Music

Sign up now for a 30-day free trial

Sign up

They have also covered The Beatles in the past – at the opening ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics, when they played "Come Together" as part of a musical tribute to British pop.

Join our commenting forum

Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies

Comments

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in