They've progressed from the St James Theatre to Big Day Out's main stage - and now The Arctic Monkeys are preparing for their biggest New Zealand headlining shows yet.
The Sheffield band are set to perform two stadium shows here next year - at Auckland's Vector Arena on Friday, May 2, and Wellington's TSB Bank Arena on Saturday, May 3.
The announcement proves the Monkeys have steadily climbed their way through rock's ranks, from a 2006 show at Auckland's now-in limbo St James, to a main stage slot at the 2009 Big Day Out - which included a sweaty and heaving sold out sideshow at The Powerstation the night before.
In May the Monkeys will be bringing with them five albums of wry British rock, from the jumped-up story-telling jubilance of their 2006 debut Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not and their hit single I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, to the Josh Homme-inspired swagger and guitar-driven maturity of this year's widely-acclaimed newbie, the Mercury Music Prize-nominated AM.
"When we came to make the record we just knew what we wanted to do a bit more and how to achieve it. Whereas in the early days, we didn't have a clue what to do. And we're over the moon with how AM turned out," guitarist Jamie Cook told TimeOut back in August.
