Ex-Arctic Monkeys touring musician recalls 'time of my life'
Little did he know, this young Sheffield four-piece would soon take him around the world – and he would eventually be given the dream offer of joining them.
As he prepares to auction off his collection of Arctic Monkeys-related memorabilia, the musician recounts "the time of my life" to BBC News.
The band ripped through future indie club night classics including I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor and When The Sun Goes Down at the capital's Islington Academy, with John "absolutely blown away".
"I had never seen anything like that and I have never seen anything like it since," he recalls.
"It was sold out, everyone knew all the words."
John, who has also worked with the likes of Tame Impala, remembered the band being "fully formed" as a live act despite their tender years.
"It was already all there, it was just astonishing."
Their first two singles, bellowed back to them from the sweat-drenched moshpit at the London venue, went straight to number one - with their debut album becoming the fastest-selling debut album in UK chart history.
"It was an event when they arrived," says John.
"Oasis were important but they didn't arrive in the charts like the Arctics did."
John was asked to join the touring operation when "it looked like it was going supernova" for the-then teenagers, with their rapid rise seeing them graduate from playing pubs and small venues to large arenas in the space of two years.
Frontman Alex Turner offered him the opportunity to join them as a live member around the time third album Humbug was released, with John also featuring on several track recordings.
"On the Favourite Worst Nightmare tour I used to play [James Blunt hit] You're Beautiful on the guitar to entertain them," he says.
"He would borrow my iPod and ask me about certain artists, songs and things, we just started exchanging music."
Having already played live with Turner on side project The Last Shadow Puppets, John describes the process of joining Arctic Monkeys as "very organic".
"It was just in passing," he says.
"Alex was like: 'Oh, by the way, do you want to join the band on keyboards?'
"I was like, well, of course!"
"I remember [drummer Matt] Helders had his headphones on, Alex nudged him and said: 'He's in.'
"He just replied: 'Oh, right' and put his headphones back on."
John moved on at the end of 2011 and had to decline an offer to rejoin as a touring musician due to the imminent birth of his son.
"The one regret for everyone who tours is always that they missed their children growing up - I just couldn't do it," he says.
"I had the time of my life with them - it was brilliant as a sound engineer, then it just went up a notch to amazing."
John runs a studio in Gateshead, where he lives, and works as a production manager at Newcastle's Boiler Shop venue.
Meanwhile, his now 11-year-old son likes to boast about his father's former life.
"He does show off with it from time to time, but at the same time he can't possibly let on to me that it's any good."
His memorabilia collection, which will be auctioned on 27 March, includes tour t-shirts, signed posters, a branded flight case and a custom-made amp from his time playing with the band.
"I hadn't realised I had so much, it's all very evocative," he adds.
Listen to highlights from South Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, catch up with the latest episode of Look North
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9 hours ago
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Cynthia Nixon's Go-To Lunch: Worth The Hype?
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Geek Girl Authority
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A neighbor woman comes by and tells him that Jackie moved out. He tells her that he's the new tenant, but she knows he's lying. He jabs her with a needle, drags her inside, and closes the patio door. The Rainmaker airs new episodes on Fridays at 10/9c on USA Network. Episodes stream a week later on Peacock. TV Review: BUTTERFLY Season 1 Diana lives in Vancouver, BC, Canada, where she invests her time and energy in teaching, writing, parenting, and indulging her love of all Trek and a myriad of other fandoms. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. You can also find her writing at The Televixen, Women at Warp, TV Fanatic, and TV Goodness.
Geek Tyrant
a day ago
- Geek Tyrant
How Old Is Aunt Gladys in WEAPONS? The Witch Theory That Changes Everything — GeekTyrant
If you walked away from Weapons wondering what the deal was with creepy Aunt Gladys, you're not alone. Her eerie presence, strange behavior, and influence over everyone around her suggest there's way more going on than just a creepy relative showing up after a long absence. So how old is she really? And is she even human? While Weapons never comes right out and says how old Aunt Gladys is, there are plenty of clues that she might be centuries old. One of the biggest red flags is her use of the word 'consumption' when talking about tuberculosis. That's a term that hasn't been commonly used since the 19th century. Either she's a history buff or she's been around a very long time. Then there's the timeline mess. Alex's parents claim they haven't seen Gladys in 15 years. But Gladys insists the last time she saw Alex was when he was a baby. That doesn't line up at all. When you add in her ability to implant false memories. Gladys shows up after Alex's parents get sick, presenting herself as his great-aunt. But it quickly becomes clear that she's more than just a distant relative. She's a witch who practices sympathetic magic, a nasty form of sorcery that lets her control and feed off others. She needs a piece of someone (like hair or a personal item), her own blood, and blackthorn branches to activate her spells, which she casts using a bell covered in occult markings. She keeps all of this hidden from everyone, except Alex, forcing him to promise not to tell anyone about her or what she's doing. At first, she takes control of his parents. Then she sends Alex to gather items from his 17 classmates. Using those items, she traps the kids in her basement and feeds off their life force to heal herself and slow down the disease that's consuming her. Her reach goes beyond just Alex and the kids. She hypnotizes Principal Marcus into murdering his husband. She sets her sights on Justine Gandy and Archer Graff too, using her controlled victims to attack and kill anyone who threatens her plan. The magic-fueled chaos doesn't stop until Alex finally figures out how to take control of her powers. So, is Aunt Gladys immortal? Not exactly. But she may have found a way to cheat death. Zach Cregger, the film's director, explained the character's true nature like this: 'Gladys is either a human who turned to dark magic to survive illness or a non-human creature posing as one.' Either way, she's a witch in the story, and everything she does revolves around draining others to keep herself going. In the end, the very kids she imprisoned are the ones who take her down. Her reign of terror collapses the moment she loses control. Whether she's a centuries-old sorceress or something even darker, Gladys is a extremely chilling and evil character, not just because of her powers, but because of the mystery around who, or what, she really is. Personally, I don't think this is Aunt Gladys at all, I think Aunt Gladys is dead, and an ancient witch has taken over her body and is trying to keep it alive. Maybe in the movie she is trying to find a new human vessel to transfer her conciousness into, but the vessel has to have all the right elements? What do you think?
