VIDEO: The truth about Arctic Monkeys' Brianstorm

16 April 2019, 19:03

Celebrate 12 years of the thunderous Arctic Monkeys single, which opens the Sheffield band's Favourite Worst Nightmare album.

Brianstorm is the opening track from Arctic Monkeys' second studio album, 2007's Favourite Worst Nightmare.

Also the first cut to be taken from the record, the epic single packed a punch and showed their fans that their follow-up album meant business.

Arctic Monkeys Brianstorm single artwork
Arctic Monkeys Brianstorm single artwork. Picture: Press/ Artwork

Released in April 2007, the thunderous track debuted at UK number 21 on downloads alone, before peaking at number two overall.

But where did the name and inspiration for their raucous and defiant single come from?

Brian is a real-life person who met the band while in their dressing room after a gig in Osaka, Japan.

Needless to say, the guy was a real character, and left a lasting impression on the Sheffield rockers. So much so they started writing a "brainstorm" about him.

As NME reports, frontman Alex Turner previously revealed: “When he left the room, we were a bit freaked out by his presence. So we did a brainstorm for what he was like, drew a little picture and wrote things about him."

"He was right weird," added guitarist Jamie Cook. He just appeared with like a business card and like a round neck T-shirt and a tie loosely around it, I’d never seen that before. It felt like he was trying to get inside your mind. We were checking out his attire – it freaked us out."

"And I wonder
Are you putting us under
'Cause we can't take our eyes
Off the t-shirt and ties combination?
Well, see you later, innovator"

He added: “He definitely left a mark on us. He might have been a magician. He might even be here now. But if we ever find out who he was, it might spoil it.”

Although Arctic Monkeys never quite got their heads around the character they encountered, it's quite clear his unapologetically oppressive presence made quite the impact on them and caused one of their most defiant-sounding tracks.

While the inspiration behind the track could be considered an open and shut case, the story of Brianstorm doesn't end there.

In 2017, the noughties single was given a new lease of life when it was confirmed that an actual storm named Brian would be hitting our shores.

The batch of bad weather came a mere few days after the deadly Storm Ophelia, which caused 80 mile-an-hour gale-force winds, flooding and even power cuts.

Watch a clip of a weather report on the storm:

Though its name was a complete coincidence after being named by by Met Éireann, the joke wasn't lost on Arctic Monkeys fans or the band themselves, who warned fans to "take care".

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