Daniel Radcliffe has named Arctic Monkeys as the best band he has ever seen live.
The actor revealed that he had seen the Sheffield indie legends as they were on the rise around the release of their 2006 debut ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not’ and recounted the experience of seeing them on the precipice of fame in a recent interview.
“I went to the Reading Festival in [when I was] 16, and Arctic Monkeys were playing in a tent. They were halfway up the bill of the smallest tent of the festival because they were not yet famous, except they were,” he recalled to Rolling Stone when asked what the best concert he’d been to was.
“The album wasn’t out, but if you were illegally downloading music, which, I’m sorry, I did, you could have listened to the whole thing. Watching this band right on the cusp of becoming massive, where they were in a tent that was probably for a few thousand people, and there were probably like 10,000 people trying to cram in there, that was really cool.”
Radcliffe is currently in rehearsals for the Broadway production of Every Brilliant Thing, a one-man show in which his character creates a list of reasons life is worth living in an effort to help his suicidal mother. The West End version late last year featured a rotating cast made up of Lenny Henry, Ambika Mod, Sue Perkins, Jonny Donahoe (the show’s original co-creator), and Minnie Driver.
Late last year, he reunited with his Harry Potter co-star Tom Felton 24 years after the release of the franchise’s first movie.
As for Arctic Monkeys, they returned last month with the subtle and cinematic track ‘Opening Night‘, the first to be taken from War Child’s new charity compilation album ‘Help(2)‘.
Amid speculation the band could soon be ending their career, drummer Matt Helders has said making music with the band is something they “will always do”.
Speaking to BBC Radio 1’s New Music Show (via BBC News), he added: “I think we went into this knowing it was a one-off. But then, having done it, we probably went away feeling like we just had a lot of fun making this record.
“There’s no conversations about it, but it’s definitely something we love to do and we’ll always do.”