Synopsis

Shot during Arctic Monkeys' early Sheffield days, the video is a rough, energetic collage of live performances in small venues and local bars. The band plays to increasingly animated crowds while quick cuts capture the cramped stages, youthful intensity, and scrappy atmosphere of their first gigs. Its homemade visual style places the group firmly in the local scene described by the song, contrasting their direct, grounded performance with the exaggerated rock-star image being mocked in the lyrics.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video originated around the band's first EP, Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys, released in May 2005, and was later reused for promotion of their debut album.

• Rather than following a scripted storyline, the clip is assembled from footage of some of the band's earliest performances. The small venues and rough presentation give it the feel of an informal document of the group before worldwide success.

• Former bassist Andy Nicholson appears in several shots. He left Arctic Monkeys in 2006, making the video an early visual record of the original lineup.

• The song was inspired by Alex Turner's experiences working behind the bar at Sheffield's Boardwalk, where he encountered local bands making grand claims about themselves and their musical ambitions.

• The title's San Francisco references are deliberately ironic. The song targets musicians who adopt fashionable, borrowed identities instead of reflecting their own local experience.

• The video was part of the band's early do-it-yourself internet presence. It circulated online alongside the demos later grouped under the name Beneath the Boardwalk, helping document the word-of-mouth growth that preceded the band's record deal.

• MTV Two aired the video in the United Kingdom in 2005, when the band was still being presented as a fast-rising local act rather than an established arena group.