Hillsborough Park hosted just shy of 80,000 fans over the weekend across two nights of live music. Attending on the Friday evening, seeing the Arctic Monkeys return to their roots to play an open-air set in Hillsborough Park was a special bucket list moment for many, myself included.
Upon arrival, the whole of the surrounding area was echoing with the pounding bassline of the first support act as they took to the stage. Waves of people filtered through the gates of the park which has been hosting Sheffield music festival Tramlines since 2018, and as the evening sun beat down on the bustling crowd, the portaloos, food stalls and long bar queues really did make you think you were at a summer festival.
Some exciting supporting acts
The bassline in question belonged to Liverpool grunge-rockers The Mysterines, who warmed up the already sun-soaked crowd with headbanging hits, the powerful vocals of Lia Metcalfe ringing throughout the park and sparking excitement for the night ahead. As they exited the stage, it was time to navigate through the crowd and secure our standing space for the evening – a bit of a challenge as the whole park was packed with Monkeys fans from near and far, all desperate at the chance to catch this worldwide phenomenon in their hometown.
But before we could be treated to the main event, Swedish rockers The Hives appeared in their iconic, matching suits to blast out their catchy opener Bogus Operandi which got pockets of the crowd bouncing. In between classic hits such as Come On and Tick Tick Boom, as well as stand-out favourites Main Offender and Hate To Say I Told You So, animated frontman Howlin’ Pelle Almqvist interacted with the crowd with unapologetic arrogance, which he can get away with.
“We are The Hives from Sheffield – it’s great to be home,” he jokingly announced, alongside chat of the band inventing the steel industry 2500 years ago, building a rapport with everyone gathered in the Steel City and setting a light-hearted, wholesome, and patriotic tone for this special evening.
An endless choice for the setlist
After queuing at the bar for what seemed like an age, we began speculating over Arctic Monkeys’ setlist – will they open with When The Sun Goes Down to mirror the sun which had just begun to set over Hillsborough Park, or Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured for that famous line referencing a taxi home to High Green via Hillsborough? With so many tunes in their back catalogue, there was no point speculating, we would just have to wait and see…
It was then the crowd erupted as Alex Turner, Matt Helders, Nick O’Malley, and Jamie Cook appeared on stage and flung straight into the unmistakable riff of A Certain Romance, its first live play in 10 years! It oozed with nostalgia and hearing this tune from their 2006 debut album, the crowd couldn’t contain their excitement, singing along with a volume I’m positive you could hear 5 miles away up the road in Sheffield’s most Northern suburb and the lads’ home village; I can confirm this as we heard the wind carried some of their set to High Green on Saturday night.
20 years of indie-rock bangers
These homecoming shows mark 20 years since the band’s first gig at The Grapes pub in Sheffield on Friday 13 June 2003, and it hit home to see how far they’ve come. Alex singing about ‘classic Reeboks’ and ‘tracky bottoms tucked in socks’ contrasted with his suave shirt and pinstripe suit and emphasized how much their musical and aesthetic style have evolved and matured over the years, worlds away from the cocky yet awkward teenage lads almost two decades ago.
Their 21-song set included classics spanning all 7 albums and didn’t fail to get everyone singing at the top of their lungs from start to finish as the four-piece blasted through high-tempo Brainstorm and Teddy Picker contrasting with mellower tracks Cornerstone and 505.
It’s hard to choose but my personal highlights had to be Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair, Crying Lightning, and newest track Body Paint from latest album The Car, which was surprisingly good live and felt like a big, classic moment – I feel they made a track from an album with mixed reviews into such an epic set closer that was full of emotion and really resonated with the crowd and inevitably left us us begging for more.
The Arctic Monkeys living up to the hype
Their encore got us all swaying with emotional AM love song and John Cooper-Clarke cover I Wanna Be Yours before their famous 2005 debut single I Bet That You Look Good On The Dance Floor got everybody moving. But it was the iconic guitars of closing track R U Mine? that sent a deafening wave of cheers through the park. Teasing us all with one final chorus, they gave it their all as fans were jumping and relishing the final few moments of a show that had lived up to its huge expectations.
I knew that those with tickets for the following night were in for a treat and later learnt that Saturday’s crowd had a few minor tweaks in their set list to feature From The Ritz To The Rubble and Pretty Visitors. It was definitely a night to remember – seeing the High Green lads back on their home soil, blasting out bangers in the shadows of Sheffield Wednesday’s Football Ground as dusk fell over Hillsborough Park. A bucket list moment ticked off paired with some beautiful weather – there’s nowt’ finer.
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