Often truculent in interviews, Alex Turner has no real need to court the media – when he deigns to grant an interview he knows full well that the media will be queueing up.

Which is why the Sheffield lad hasn't been promoting the tour of his new band The Last Shadow Puppets – a side project to the Arctic Monkeys.

Even without shouting about the tour in the media, several venues on the short UK tour have already sold out well in advance.

The Last Shadow Puppets, playing Leeds Academy on Monday and Sheffield City Hall on Oct 23, is made up of Turner and another frontman, Miles Kane, who leads the band The Rascals.

Questions about any kind of ego competition when you put two singers used to fronting a band on the same stage are answered quickly when Kane and Turner are seen together – if anything the closeness they clearly share has led to speculation about just how close they are – speculation the pair are aware of and which they have made light of on several occasions, with Kane calling it "purely platonic, contrary to rumours".

Turner joined forces with Kane for the first time when his band Arctic Monkeys were recording their second and hugely anticipated album Favourite Worst Nightmare.

The pair forged a close relationship when Kane's band supported Arctic Monkeys on tour.

A shared interest in types of music, particularly in Scott Walker whose sound has heavily inspired their
debut album, united the two and they began to swap musical ideas.

When Turner and the Monkeys toured with Favourite Worst Nightmare, a highlight was the relatively low key song 505 which was normally performed by Turner playing keyboard and the band's guitarist on stage. When it was played at Glastonbury Kane joined Turner on stage for the song and it was clear to everyone who saw the performance that there was a chemistry between the two.

The pair decided to start writing tracks together for "a bit of a laugh".

They quickly realised, however, that their musical partnership could very likely be a fruitful one. The Last Shadow Puppets were born.

Seizing the moment, the duo eloped to the West Coast of France with producer James Ford, where they recorded their debut album The Age of The Understatement in just two weeks, in secret, towards the end of last year.

When it was released, in April this year, the album went straight to number one in the UK album chart, a position which Turner has grown used to occupying thanks to the massive success of his Sheffield band.

The title track of the album followed suit.

Given that the success of Arctic Monkeys was built on tales of the everyday, of getting drunk, failing to get off with a girl in a club and then trying to catch a taxi home, the sound of The Last Shadow Puppets, universally described with words like massive, epic and huge, is a change of pace.

"We knew we had a surprise up our sleeves, we wanted to make a record together that we were dead into and that people wouldn't expect,"
said Turner.

Expected, maybe not, popular, definitely.

An orchestra with a 22-piece string section is clearly very different to anything Turner has released before.

"We had this idea, we wanted to do this big album, dramatic and stuff, and have, like, strings and brass. But at first we were like, 'How are we gonna do that? Is that even possible?'"

A Mojo breakthrough award and a shortlisting for the Mercury music prize month suggests that not only is it possible.

But for now Turner can still do no wrong.

The Last Shadow Puppets play Leeds Academy Oct 23, Sheffield City Hall Oct 23.

Arctic Monkeys at the Apollo is being shown at Vue cinemas on Oct 14 across the country, including Leeds Kirkstall Road and The Light. For details and to book tickets go to www.arcticmonkeysatthe
apollo.com