26 of July, 2005 Arctic Monkeys gig at Birdwell Working Men’s Club, Barnsley, UK

First performance of the “You Probably Couldn’t See For The Lights But I Was Staring Right At You”.

This song was most likely written in the tour or in hiatus from June 12th to July 25th 2005, when the guys worked on the first album in Liverpool with James Ford (their first attempt). Thinking, it was fresh, cos “no one knew the song” (according to witnesses). 

In one interview Alex said that the song is about the girl they knew who was in band. “When he was watching them do a gig, she was looking at the crowd and he was convinced, she was staring straight at him, but then it could have just been, that she didn't see him, because of the lights pointing at the stage.

 The Little Flames toured with the Monkeys, and that's when Alex and Miles became the best of mates. That is also when Alex wrote the song”.

 (from  shellfish_dimes’s blog, 18 december, 2008)

Maybe it’s not about the girl... But someone from the same band, we all know. 

Cos interaction between them more fits to the lyrics and some interesting details from Matt’s interview to Prefixmag (22 november, 2005):

THE STORY OF MILEX

3rd of June, 2005 –  Bristol, The Croft music venue. Now we know (thanks to The Flames' tour manager Jamie Bowman) that The Flames and Monkeys performed together there as well. He posted a photo from this tour on his FB. Huge Thanks Jamie! And we can say, more confidently than before, that other concerts were also joint. And quite confidently we can say that our baby Milex definitely fused together like Siamese twins hehe

6th of June, 2005 – The Little Flames perform as the opening act. O2 Academy Islington, London. Miles and The Little Flames. Support slot for Alex and Arctic Monkeys.

THE STORY OF MILEX

11th of June, 2005 – end of AM's "Five Minutes with the Arctic Monkeys" tour with The Little Flames as support at The Faversham Club, Leeds, UK.

Thanks to a Facebook post dated January 22, 2022, one of the TLF tour managers in 2005 Jamie Bowman with screenshots of photos from this very summer's first joint Milex tour. And they show that this is Leeds (thanks to the posters on the walls)! And the post itself is gorgeous. Let's read it and be melt once again by the fact that our couple was glued together at once (we see the word "friendship" in the post, we read "love").

And it was noticeable to everyone!

THE STORY OF MILEX

Next gig of AM tour with The Little Flames as support is a secret gig at Cavern Club, Liverpool (october 2, 2005).

THE STORY OF MILEX

9th of June, 2005 – next gig on tour together. Аrctic Monkeys & The Little Flames at the Jabez Clegg, beer hall and nightclub in Manchester University.

10th of June, 2005 – Performance at The Brickyard concert venue in Carlisle. We now know thi (thanks to recent photos from Jamie Bowman and a dialogue with Chris McClure, who was on this tour as roadie). He saw our post in insta and wrote:

And then he helped to clarify the moment with those photos, the place of which we could not determine before:

Just admire these funny and lovely beans Milex aka The Flames and Monkeys who are hanging out together! And enjoy this happiness! We say thank you to Chris!

I love Alex's persistence in wanting the world to know about Miles's band! Alex and the Arctic Monkeys during their first European part of the first Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys tour. He in The Little Flames T-shirt ofc) November 1, 2005. Paradiso, Amsterdam, where Al and Mi will back in 2008 with TLSP tour.

Photos: Michel Linssen, Cor Jabaaij