This is not really about the Arctic Monkeys or even about the BRITs. It is more about a grumpy old man’s grumbling about, well about being grumpy and old mainly.

I watched a bit of the BRITs tonight, and that in itself is saying something because I did only watch it for a while and then decided to take the dogs out for a walk. Say what you like about Mick Fleetwood and Sam Fox but you weren’t going to turn that off and go for a walk were you?

I did catch the Arctic Monkey pick up an award and was a bit knocked back when the commentary said how they had first won a BRIT in 2006. That is ages ago. I still think of them as one of the new bands but they have been around for ages, with their first single coming out in 2005 and their first album in January 2006. There is me thinking I am still in touch by liking new bands like the Monkeys and they have, actually been putting out albums for an amount of time equal to the Beatles’ whole recording career!

I guess that part of the problem is that I grew up in the 70s when bands, and solo artists, were often putting out an album a year, sometimes two, and subconsciously I must be estimating the length of a band’s career by how many records they have released. By that reckoning the Arctic Monkeys’ five studio albums should represent about four years and not eight.

Not that I am knocking them. Their productivity must be about average for these days, maybe even a bit above, and the songs are a lot more fun to listen to than most. Just for fun though, here are some of the older artists and how many albums they knocked out in their first 8 years of releases:

• Stevie Wonder – 14 (and then another 5 in the subsequent 4 years)
• The Beatles – all 12 of their studio LPs
• The Rolling Stones – 15 LPs
• Elton John – 11LPs (2 of them doubles)
• Deep Purple – 10 LPs
• David Bowie and Queen – 9LPs each
• Genesis, Yes, Black Sabbath – 8 LPs each

And that is just studio albums. Many of them had knocked out compilations and live albums inbetween. And it wasn’t just the legends doing it either: In their first 8 years Nazareth released 8LPs. Even the notoriously recluse Kraftwerk released 7 albums in their first 8 years!

All them started in the 60s or early 70s. Since then, I can only think of Prince as being similarly prolific (8 studio albums in his first 8 years I think)

Mind you, having listened to some of the current artists I think I’m more than a little thankful that they don’t all knock out at least 1 album a year (and that many will not last more than 7 years)

Not that I’m entirely writing off any music later than 1979… of the newer bunch I do quite like the Strypes, Disclosure, Traams, Toy and Public Service Broadcasting but can’t think of much else I bother to listen to by artists established in the last ten years.