Arctic Monkeys are an English Alternative rock band.[1][2][3] Formed in 2002 in High Green, a suburb of Sheffield, the band currently consists of Alex Turner (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Jamie Cook (lead guitar), Nick O'Malley (bass guitar, backing vocals), Matt Helders (drums, backing vocals) and John Ashton as a touring member (keyboard, guitar, backing vocals). Former members include Andy Nicholson (bass guitar, backing vocals) and Glyn Jones (lead vocals, guitar).
Their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, released in early 2006, became the fastest-selling debut album in British music history, surpassing Elastica's Elastica[4] and remains the fastest-selling debut album for a band in the UK.[5] Since then the band have released two more albums: Favourite Worst Nightmare (2007) and Humbug (2009). The band is currently in the studio, recording their fourth album, expected to be released in 2011.
Arctic Monkeys are heralded as one of the first acts to come to the public attention via the Internet (fan-based sites rather than from the band), with commentators suggesting they represented the possibility of a change in the way in which new bands are promoted and marketed.[6]
Formation and early years (2001-2003)
In 2001, neighbours Alex Turner and Jamie Cook learned how to play the guitar. Later, after the two boys received guitars as Christmas presents,[7] they formed a band with Turner's schoolmates Andy Nicholson, Macauley Pritchard and Matt Helders.[8] Nicholson already played bass guitar, so Helders ended up playing drums — "that was all that were left... they all had guitars so I bought a kit after a bit."[7] According to an interview with Blender magazine, Turner was not the original singer of the band,[9] but instead, Glyn Jones, another attendee of Stocksbridge High School, used to be the frontman. Jones said that he and Turner "were bored [after our GCSE exams] so we started writing a song about a geek in our year...", and that he left the band because he "did not have the dedication to take it any further... to me we were just a gang of kids messing around because we were bored."[10] Although reports suggested they named themselves after Helders' uncle's (or even father's) band, Helders later admitted that "so many people asking us that in the UK, so we just started making stories up",[11] and that he just didn't have the heart to tell the original reporter he'd been lying.[7]....They began rehearsing at Yellow Arch Studios in Neepsend,[12] and played their first gig on 13 June 2003 at The Grapes in Sheffield city-centre.[13]
After a few performances in 2003 the band began to record demos at 2fly studios in Sheffield, 17 songs were demoed in all and the collection now known as 'Beneath the Boardwalk' and burn them into CDs to give away at gigs, which were promptly file-shared amongst fans. The name 'Beneath the Boardwalk" originated when the first batch of demos were sent around. The first sender, wanting to classify the demos, named them after where he received them, the Boardwalk. Slowly as more demos were spread, they were all classified under this name. This has led to many people falsely believing that 'Beneath the Boardwalk" was an early album, or that the early demos were all released under this heading. The group did not mind the distribution, saying "we never made those demos to make money or anything. We were giving them away free anyway — that was a better way for people to hear them. And it made the gigs better, because people knew the words and came and sang along.",[11] admitting that they did not even know how to get their songs onto the Internet.[11] When asked about the popularity of the band's MySpace site in an interview with Prefix Magazine, the band said that they were unaware what it was, and that the site had originally been created by their fans. "[When we went number one in England] we were on the news and radio about how MySpace has helped us. But that's just the perfect example of someone who doesn't know what the fuck they're talking about. We actually had no idea what it was."[11]
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