Autumn 2005 debut world tour
The Monkeys' debut world tour began in Liverpool on 2 October 2005. Beginning with performances across Britain, backed mainly by the Sheffield band Milburn, the tour included gigs in The Netherlands, Belgium, France, Germany, Canada and the USA. Although originally scheduled to finish in Tokyo, Japan, on 23 November, further dates were subsequently added in Spain, Sweden and Denmark for December 2005.
The UK leg of the tour coincided with the release of the band's debut single, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor", which went straight to UK Number One. The furore surrounding the band saw every show selling out and some venues having to be upgraded to handle the demand. Dates at popular locales were also added later on. Tickets with a face value of £7 were being resold on eBay for over £100 a pair. The band's home gig in Sheffield had a second night added due to floor space being required for film crews.
NME Awards Tour
January and February 2006 saw the band playing alongside Maxïmo Park, We Are Scientists and Mystery Jets on the NME Awards tour. The tour consisted of a series of gigs across the UK and Ireland, including Glasgow, London, Manchester, Dublin, Edinburgh, Cardiff and the band's home town Sheffield. The huge sales of the debut album created a situation where the Arctic Monkeys were the main pull, rather than headlining act Maxïmo Park.
April 2006 UK tourOn 30 January 2006, James Sheriff announced details of the Monkeys' UK tour in April 2006. The tour began at the Rock City in Nottingham on 13 April, and consisted of 12 gigs around the UK, culminating on 27 April at Brixton Academy in London. Advanced tickets to all 12 shows were made available on the Monkeys' web-site at 6pm that night, and sold out within 1 hour.
Tickets were put on general release at 6pm on 2 February, available online, by phone or box office. All 12 gigs were sold out within 10 minutes, with queuing at some venues beginning in the early hours of the morning.
May 2006 Europe tourIn May 2006 the band toured several venues in Continental Europe, beginning on 2 May in Paris and including Cologne, Amsterdam, Munich, Milan, Marseille, Barcelona and Madrid. The tour culminated in Lisbon, which would be subsequently turn out to be Andy Nicholson's last show before leaving the band.
June 2006 North American tour
June 2006 saw the band playing significantly bigger venues than their initial visit in March 2006. Andy Nicholson, whose departure from the band was announced upon the band's return to the UK, was replaced by Nick O'Malley during the tour. Supported by We Are Scientists, the band have received critical acclaim from the American media - the hype surrounding them "proven to exist for good reason" who have acknowledged that "the hype surrounding the band is there for a reason". Cities visited include Vancouver, San Diego, Los Angeles, Houston, Atlanta, Boston, New York City, Montreal, and Toronto, among others. Domino Records USA created a special site, The Riot Van, for information and interaction with the tour.
July-August 2006 Australasia tour
After announcing their first tour of Australasia in March 2006, the band performed in Auckland on 28 July. After gigs in Perth , Adelaide, Melbourne and Brisbane supported by Australian band The Grates, the Australian leg of the tour culminated in the Enmore Theatre in Sydney on 9 August.
Festivals 2006
The band's return trip to the UK from Australia included stops in Japan to play at the annual Summer Sonic Festival in Tokyo and Osaka on 12 August and 13 August respectively; as well as performances at the Frequency Festival in Salzburg, Austria; Belgium's Werchter and Pukkelpop festival and the Lowlands Festival of the Netherlands on the 18-20 August. Following near-continuous touring since Autumn 2005, the band's schedule came to an end following their performances at the Reading and Leeds Festivals on the last weekend of August. The band's spectacular rise up the billing from the small Carling Tent up to penultimate on the Main Stage in the space of a year was noted by many reviews, and the band delivered "a set that was typically low on spectacle but high on musical fire, [as] they confidently made the festival their own". The Leeds leg of the festival saw the original band members re-united following a backstage appearance by Andy Nicholson. Earlier in the summer Arctic Monkeys had taken the Main Stage at Oxegen by storm when they made an appearance on the rainy, windswept Saturday of the festival. The following evening at T in the Park, Kinross in Scotland they played a 60 minute set on the main stage before The Strokes took to the stage
