Arctic weather can’t stop these monkeys

THE arctic weather didn’t cool the ardour of 20,000 bon vivants in Malahide Castle.

Looking barely old enough to order an alcoholic beverage, Arctic Monkeys completely disproved Oscar Wilde’s theory that youth is wasted on the young with the gig of the summer - if not the year - in Co Dublin last night.

They hardly cut imposing figures. They look more like your nephews than pop’s young dream. You imagine with songs as sublime and soaring as Mardy Bum, A Certain Romance and Leave Before The Lights Come On that Arctic Monkeys will stay eternally youthful.

They came onstage at 8.45pm to a barnstorming View From The Afternoon, followed by an equally explosive Brainstorm. It was a veritable storm throughout the young crowd.

Lead singer Alex Turner is a manic ball of energy, playing the Stratocaster guitar like Paul Weller in his Jam pomp channelling The Strokes. The Sheffield quartet were a revelation, not least because it was hard to fathom that those so bloody young could write such extraordinary tales of ordinary life.

They say that one of the great rules of British rock is that the songwriters are best at the language of wet Wednesdays. And the Arctic Monkeys’ Fake Tales of San Francisco says it all with lyrics like: “You’re not from New York City, you’re from Rotherham.”

Well, last night in Malahide Castle was a soggy Saturday, but it was an unforgettable one - Saturday Night Fever from South Yorkshire. Fluorescent Adolescent had 20,000 young ‘uns dancing like crazy to this Joe Orton-esque tale of sexual despair.

When The Sun Goes Down and Leave Before The Lights finished a 90-minute set to the kind of cheers normally reserved for local heroes like U2.

They encored with 505 and A Certain Romance.