Music Video
Filmed in late April 2007, the music video was directed by Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd/Nathan Barley) and features Stephen Graham (who previously appeared on the Scummy Man DVD and the "When the Sun Goes Down" video) as a clown. The music video premiered in the UK at 23:40, 5 June 2007 on Channel 4, and was available online the next day.
The music video is based around a fight between a group of clowns and a group of non-clowns at an abandoned warehouse. The presumed leaders of the two groups have a flashback showing that they were friends when they were young children. During the flashback, photos of the band as young children are shown. Throughout the fight, each group leader attempts to kill the other. As the music video climaxes, the non-clown leader tries to run over the clown leader. However the clown leader notices that the non-clown leader's car (with the non-clown leader inside) has been leaking fuel and drops his cigarette lighter. The car quickly catches fire and the clown leader looks on as his former friend burns and the music video ends. The car used is a Morris Marina. This scene is similar to the ending of Radiohead's "Karma Police" video.
The video is loosely inspired by the poem "Out of Control Circus" by John Cooper Clarke. Turner says he's a fan and gets lyrical inspiration from Clarke. The poem is also printed inside the CD release of "Fluorescent Adolescent." The lines such as "out of control fairground" and "homicidal clowns" support this.
The video was preceded by a warning of violent images. In an MTV interview, Turner stated that the music video "is the best thing we've ever done" while Jamie Cook hailed it as "...probably one of the best videos in the last, like, 10 years".
During a live performance of the song on Friday Night With Jonathan Ross, the band played the song dressed as clowns, with Alex Turner dressing with the same make up and clothing as the main clown in the video.
Another live performance of the song became a popular hit on YouTube when it showed the whole band laughing at an in-joke and nearly being unable to complete the song.
Read more about this topic: Fluorescent Adolescent
Famous quotes containing the words music and/or video:
“I am advised to give her music a’ mornings; they say it will
penetrate.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“These people figured video was the Lord’s preferred means of communicating, the screen itself a kind of perpetually burning bush. “He’s in the de-tails,” Sublett had said once. “You gotta watch for Him close.””
—William Gibson (b. 1948)