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Arctic Monkeys

A Sheffield band whose demos spread online before their first single, and whose debut album became the fastest-selling in British chart history.

Origin
Sheffield, England
Years active
2002-present
Genres
indie rock, garage rock, psychedelic rock
Labels
Domino, Bang Bang

Sheffield

Arctic Monkeys formed in Sheffield in mid-2002 around friends Alex Turner, Matt Helders and Andy Nicholson, with Jamie Cook added as a second guitarist. Turner and Helders were neighbours, and the band began as instrumental only, with Turner reluctant to become the singer. They played their first gig at The Grapes in Sheffield on 13 June 2003 and recorded demos at 2fly studios, burning eighteen songs onto CDs to hand out at shows. Fans passed the discs around online, and the band said they had never made the demos to make money. A local photographer, Mark Bull, filmed them and put a video for Fake Tales of San Francisco on his website.

In May 2005 they released the EP Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys on their own Bang Bang label, limited to 500 CDs and 1,000 seven-inch records. They signed to Domino in June, drawn to owner Laurence Bell, who ran the label from his flat. I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor went straight to number one in the UK in October 2005, and When the Sun Goes Down did the same in January 2006.

The debut

Jim Abbiss produced the first album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, which came out on 23 January 2006. It sold 363,735 copies in its first week, more than the rest of the top 20 combined, and became the fastest-selling debut album in British chart history. Its songs are first-person scenes from Northern nightlife, among them Mardy Bum and A Certain Romance. Tim Jonze at NME called Turner a master of observation, while Pitchfork's Scott Plagenhoef found the record charming and promising but "something less than life changing". It won the 2006 Mercury Prize and the Best British Album award at the 2007 Brits.

Nicholson left in 2006. Nick O'Malley, who had been drafted in as temporary bassist for the tour, was confirmed as his replacement.

Changing sound

Favourite Worst Nightmare arrived on 23 April 2007, recorded at Miloco Studios in East London with James Ford and Mike Crossey. It sold 227,993 copies in its first week and won Best British Album at the 2008 Brit Awards. Petridis wrote that if you removed everything except Helders' drumming it would still be gripping. The single Fluorescent Adolescent reached number five. That summer the band headlined Glastonbury on 22 June and played two nights at Old Trafford Cricket Ground in July.

For Humbug in 2009 they worked with Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age at Rancho De La Luna in California, and with James Ford in New York. Homme said the band came to him asking to be taken to "the weird and the strange". Suck It and See followed in June 2011, recorded in five weeks at Sound City Studios in Los Angeles, mostly live in the studio. Each of the first four albums went straight to number one in the UK.

AM and after

In 2013 the band recorded AM in Los Angeles and at Rancho De La Luna, with James Ford producing and Ross Orton co-producing. Turner said it sounded like a Dr. Dre beat given an Ike Turner bowl-cut and sent galloping across the desert on a Stratocaster. Do I Wanna Know? opened the album and became their first song to enter the Billboard Hot 100. AM went to number one in the UK and number six on the Billboard 200, their highest US placing, and won British Album of the Year at the 2014 Brit Awards. They announced a hiatus in August 2014, after the AM tour.

Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (2018) was written by Turner on piano and imagines a luxury hotel on the Moon. It gave them a sixth consecutive UK number one. The Car followed on 21 October 2022 and peaked at number two in the UK, and in June 2023 they headlined Glastonbury for the third time. In January 2026 they released Opening Night, a single for the War Child compilation Help(2). Laurence Bell of Domino said it is very rare for a band to come out so big and then have another massive moment, as they did with AM.

Members

Records

Songs

The Last Shadow Puppets, Queens of the Stone Age, John Cooper Clarke, The Strokes

Where to go next

Official

Reference

Writing and criticism

Sources

  1. Arctic Monkeys, Wikipedia
  2. Arctic Monkeys: Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, Pitchfork (2006-01-24)
  3. Arctic Monkeys, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, The Guardian (2006-01-13)
  4. Arctic Monkeys album breaks UK chart record, BBC News (2006)
  5. How Arctic Monkeys' debut single changed the music industry, The Guardian (2015-10-22)
  6. Suck It and See, Wikipedia