"Put Me in a Terror Pocket" and "Sandtrap" (lost unreleased studio versions of Arctic Monkey songs; 2008)

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Arctic Monkeys.

Status: Lost

In late 2007, whilst nearing the end of their tour promoting their second album, Favorite Worst Nightmare, the British rock band Arctic Monkeys debuted two entirely new songs that had never been heard before. These songs were known as "Put Me in a Terror Pocket" and "Sandtrap", with the former being first performed in late November 2007 in France, and the latter being first unveiled at a gig in Argentina a month earlier in October 2007. This was not a new phenomenon for the band - the song "Nettles" would itself be first played live in September 2007 before getting a release on the Teddy Picker single later that year, however in the case of Sandtrap and Terror Pocket, no studio release ever came about.

The fate of these two songs would be revealed by user "nobodytoldme" on the Arctic Monkeys US forums. A reliable source for information regarding the band, nobodytoldme revealed, that he had asked the band's producer, James Ford, regarding what happened to both Sandtrap and Terror Pocket.[1] In a shocking response, Ford revealed that both the songs had, in fact, received a studio recording in a session taking place in February of 2008. This studio session can be corroborated with a 2009 Mojo article[2] claiming that the band recorded a "three-day session at RAK Studios in London, trying to capture the clutch of the manic, high-tempo songs they had been using for soundchecks during the previous year's tour."

In the end, the band's third album, Humbug, took a radically new direction for the band, meaning that neither song would ultimately fit in terms of a B-Side release. Therefore, the recordings remain locked away and unreleased.

Status

There has been little evidence to suggest the tracks will ever receive a proper release. When contacted in 2010, a representative for Domino Records (the band's record label) claimed they had "no plans at present to release the songs"[3], and the lack of any compilations of past material from the band officially has further decreased chances. However, the band has shown references to the songs since.

In 2009, the band released a cover of Nick Cave's song "Red Right Hand" as a B-Side to their Crying Lightning single. Fans with a keen ear noticed that the cover shared a very similar instrumental structure to Put Me in a Terror Pocket, indicating that the song may have been recycled for use here. Furthermore, with the release of the song "Evil Twin" as a B-Side to the 2011 Suck It and See single, the lyric "how can I believe you, when you can't believe your luck?" appeared, a lyric that had originally been used on Sandtrap four years prior. As a result, the hope of an official release burns on.

Bootlegs

There have been many bootlegs and audience recordings of the songs that have surfaced since they were played live in 2007. The most high-quality recording for Sandtrap appears to be the original Argentinian gig, with a poor-quality soundboard recording, however, the existence of a radio-show recording of an instrumental version of the song (performed in September 2007 for KCRW, prior to the Argentinian debut of the full song) has assisted people in making "reconstructed" versions of Sandtrap. Sadly, though, there are few high-quality recordings of Terror Pocket available online, with the only passable recording originating from the band's gig at Alexandra Palace in London at the very end of the tour.

Gallery

The Argentinian live debut of Sandtrap.

The only decent quality live recording of Terror Pocket, from the London gig.

A "reconstructed" version of Sandtrap, using a radio-show performance of the song's instrumental done in September.

References