Why aren’t Spoon filling stadiums?

Here’s a mystery for you. Why were Spoon, one of the most dynamic, sharpest rock bands in the world, playing a single night in a north London town hall (capacity 890) while Arctic Monkeys were playing three nights at Arsenal’s ground (capacity 59,000) as part of a UK tour that encompassed eight other stadiums in the UK, plus one arena, one park and Glastonbury? It’s not that Arctic Monkeys aren’t good – no one gets that kind of critical unanimity without being good. It’s just that Spoon are better, and better than almost everyone else.

So why aren’t Spoon filling stadiums? First, they rarely come to the UK. They do big rooms in America where they’ve had number one albums, but for many years their albums were hard to come by here so there wasn’t much point touring. Second, they’re called Spoon, which is a terrible name for a band.