Shirley Bassey is closing Glastonbury on Sunday so Friday’s headliners the Arctic Monkeys thought that they would cover Diamonds Are Forever as a tribute…

Arctic Monkeys cover Shirley Bassey’s Diamonds Are Forever at Glastonbury 2007

The Arctic Monkeys are a great British band, following in the footsteps of many other fantastic Northern artists. And like several other great Northern bands, they have also now covered a famous song by a black soul/jazz singer. Whilst Isaac Hayes was covered by The Wedding Present, and Elbow produced an iconic cover of Independent Woman by Destiny’s Child (with added kittens), the Arctic Monkeys covered Shirley Bassey’s Diamonds Are Forever on Glastonbury last night.

Whilst the Monkeys’ lead singer Alex Turner’s vocal range doesn’t quite match that of Ms Bassey, the boys give a pretty good account of themselves with their cover of Shirley’s 2nd Bond theme. It’s no secret that the Arctic Monkeys have music tastes outside of rock, having worked with Dizzee Rascal (who also joined them on stage during the Glastonbury set), and this is probably what makes this cover work, where it probably shouldn’t.

It’s a bit weak during the verses, but when the chorus comes around and the drummer can get to work on the (almost break) beat, the Monkeys’ cover of Diamonds Are Forever really comes together. And thanks to all those lovely people around the world, for whom the word copyright means nothing, I have been able to upload the footage of the song which you can see above, less just a couple of hours after watching it on the TV.

God Bless The Internet, God Bless Shirley Bassey & God Bless The Arctic Monkeys.