Home
Results for: Arctic Monkeys
Musicians (1 of 4 sources) Open/Close data Source
Arctic Monkeys
Rock group

When the Arctic Monkeys released Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not in 2006, the album sold faster than any previous debut in U.K. history. The British indie quartet peddled some 360,000 copies of the album the first week of its release. "In terms of sheer impact … we haven't seen anything quite like this since The Beatles," one music retailer told the BBC. The Arctic Monkeys went on the win the 2006 Mercury Prize, awarded annually for the best album produced in the U.K. or Ireland. They followed with 2007's Favourite Worst Nightmare, which, like its predecessor, hit number one on the U.K. album chart.

Started Band as Teens
The Arctic Monkeys hail from Sheffield, England. Alex Turner, the band's frontman and guitarist, grew up in Sheffield, the son of two teachers. His father taught music and his mother taught German. Turner took piano lessons as a child and grew up listening to The Beatles, courtesy of his parents, whose favorite song was "In My Life." Along the way, Turner befriended Jamie Cook. With the notion of starting a band together, the two asked for—and received—guitars for Christmas in 2001 and started learning chords. Soon they were joined on bass by Andy Nicholson, a friend from school. They also recruited Matt Helders, who had known Turner since they were seven or eight years old. Helders agreed to play drums.

Speaking to Prefix magazine's Dave Park, Helders described their inspiration for wanting to start a band. "At fifteen or sixteen, some of our friends were in bands that we used to go watch, and we kind of thought it looked like an interesting thing to do. You see people in bands and you wonder how you get into that industry—it looks like a lot of trouble. But it's really quite easy to start a band up." Cook came up with the band's name while doodling on a textbook. At first, the group found songwriting hard. Then Turner realized he should just write about what he saw around Sheffield.

The teens rehearsed for several months, and the Arctic Monkeys played their first gig in June of 2003, initially focusing on Sheffield-area clubs. Early on, they joined forces with Geoff Barradale, former singer for Seafruit, who agreed to be their manager. During those early days, Cook laid tile to support himself, while Turner worked in a clothing store and Helders worked as a DJ.

The Arctic Monkeys made demo CDs, which they passed out for free at their shows. Fans posted the music online, which helped the Monkeys build their fan base. Helders told Park that the band members did not mind their music being swapped for free "because we never made those demos to make money or anything. … 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." By 2005 the Arctic Monkeys were well known in the Northern England club circuit. That year they appeared at Britain's Reading and Leeds Music Festivals and their shows began to sell out. In 2005 the Arctic Monkeys signed with Domino Records, an independent label.

Rose to Fame Quickly
Through word of mouth and Internet swapping, the band's popularity skyrocketed so quickly that even the Arctic Monkeys were astounded. When they hit London's Astoria Theater in October of 2005, the show was sold out, despite having been moved twice to larger venues. Even though the group had yet to release an album, let alone a single, fans at the Astoria knew all of the words and drowned out Turner's vocals through most of the concert. Nicholson was surprised by how quickly they gained recognition. "We're just four blokes playing some music together," the bassist told the London Independent's David Sinclair. "But every night there seems to be more and more people out there. It's kind of like there's this storm around us and we're at the eye of it."

In the fall of 2005, the Arctic Monkeys released their first single, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor," a song about temptation. Music critic Iain Shedden, writing in the Weekend Australian, called the song "a fabulous three minutes of undiluted punk pop, bursting with the band's frenetic, percussive, race-to-the-finish assault and Turner's inventive, visceral wordplay." The song, complete with falsetto backing vocals, debuted at number one on the U.K. singles chart, much to the surprise of British music insiders. Because the Arctic Monkeys had not signed with any major label and did not promote themselves in the press or on the radio, the song's instant popularity caught the music world off guard. "We didn't do any promotion," Helders told Mark Binelli of Rolling Stone. "There were no posters around London. So newspapers and people like that thought, ‘What the ---- is this? Must be the Internet!’ Well, the song's pretty good, too."

In January of 2006, the Arctic Monkeys released another single, "When the Sun Goes Down," which rose straight to number one on the U.K. singles chart. Within weeks, the Arctic Monkeys released their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. The album included the band's previously released hot singles, as well as eleven other tracks, many with literary-sounding names, such as the punk-funk opener, "The View from the Afternoon," and "You Probably Couldn't See for the Lights but You Were Staring Straight At Me." The disc also included "Mardy Bum," a song about an irritable ex-girlfriend. The album sold 118,501 copies the first day, which amounted to about 5,000 copies an hour. The first week it outsold all of the other U.K. Top 20 albums combined. When the album was released in Australia, it went straight to number one.

Writing in the London Observer, music critic Craig McLean declared that the Arctic Monkeys' quick rise to fame was no fluke. He noted that the songs on their debut album, "are pretty much uniformly excellent." McLean, who spent several months on the road with the band, credited Turner—a "poet-chronicler of the times"—with helping push the band to the forefront. "His eye for detail, economy and turn of phrase are amazingly solid. You might not believe anyone could write a narratively coherent anthem about a late-night taxi journey (‘Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured’) or an evocative ballad about watching the cops trundle round the corner (‘Riot Van’). Alex can. He has an alchemical touch, the ability to transform the base stuff of life into solid gold rock 'n' roll."

Lost Founding Member, Yet Thrived
The Arctic Monkeys toured heavily in Europe in mid-2006 and sustained their first casualty. Nicholson, the band's 19-year-old bass player, took a leave of absence just before the group kicked off its 2006 North American tour. Nicholson said he was worn out from the constant touring. "People think that it's a glamorous life on the road, but it's really not," the band's PR agent, Anton Brookes, told Sinclair. Nick O'Malley, a friend from Sheffield and member of the Dodgems, took over on bass. For O'Malley, it was trial by fire—he had about two weeks to learn the band's songs. O'Malley practiced by playing along with the group's CDs.

In 2007 the Arctic Monkeys released another album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, which included "Fluorescent Adolescent," a song featuring a woman reminiscing about her more rowdy younger days. The album's success helped the band win the award for Best U.K. Band at the 2008 BRIT awards, as well as Best British Album. Over the years, the Arctic Monkeys have worked to distance themselves from the popular press, preferring instead to let the music speak for itself. They frequently shun interviews and promotions. On tour in Paris, they canceled an entire day's worth of interviews because members were not interested in playing the fame game. "We've been offered all kinds of things, from all kinds of corporations," Barradale told Perry. "But when a phone company rings up and says, ‘We'll give you a couple of hundred grand for doing half an hour on the side of the River Thames for some kind of launch,’ the answer's no. As a band, they're not into celebrity, fame or any of the side issues."

One thing that aggravates band members is the constant press coverage mentioning how the Internet made them famous. Band profiles constantly note how their music snaked across the Internet through their Web site and MySpace profile. Members insist that fans created the MySpace site and they never uploaded any songs. The Arctic Monkeys, however, believe they have been successful because of their music. As their manager quipped to McLean, "It was good old rock 'n' roll values, plus the Internet." He went on to credit the band's songs, too, noting that no amount of Internet hype or marketing would matter if the songs were poor. "You can't polish a turd," he said.

The Arctic Monkeys took a break through most of 2008 and reconvened to play at New Zealand's Big Day Out festival in January of 2009. During the time off, Turner made a disc of orchestral rock with his friend Miles Kane, using the name The Last Shadow Puppets. Helders spent his time compiling tunes for a "Late Night Tales" DJ-mixed CD. By early 2009, the Arctic Monkeys were working on a new record. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald's Bernard Zuel, Helders discussed the progress and pitfalls of making new music and whether new influences had crept into their repertoire during their break. "I don't know how to compare it. It's not like a massive change. You can obviously tell it's us. There are a couple that are heavier moments but there's still some nice ones with melodies."

Selected discography

Singles
"I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor," Domino, 2005.
"When the Sun Goes Down," Domino, 2006.
"Leave Before the Lights Come On," Domino, 2006.
"Fluorescent Adolescent," Domino, 2007.
"Brainstorm," Domino, 2007.

Albums
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not, Domino, 2006.
Favourite Worst Nightmare, Domino, 2007.
Arctic Monkeys: At the Apollo, Domino, 2009.

Sources
Periodicals
Daily Telegraph (London, England), February 2, 2006, p. 23; January 2, 2009, p. 42.
Evening Standard (London, England), January 27, 2006, p. 36.
Independent (London, England), May 26, 2006, p. 12.
New Musical Express, February 21, 2008.
Observer Magazine (London, England), January 1, 2006, p. 10.
Rolling Stone, March 23, 2006, p. 18.
Sydney Morning Herald, January 16, 2009, p. 4 (Metro).
Weekend Australian Magazine, July 14, 2007, p. 24.

Online
"Arctic Monkeys: Aren't Fooling Around (Part 1 of 2)," Prefix, http://www.prefixmag.com/features/arctic-monkeys/arentfooling-around-part-1-of-2/12565/ (March 18, 2009).
"Arctic Monkeys Make Chart History," BBC News, http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4660394.stm (March 18, 2009).
"Fast and Furious," Guardian, http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2005/sep/30/popandrock.arcticmonkeys (March 18, 2009).

logo Contemporary Musicians © 1989-2010 The Gale Group, Inc. All rights reserved.

Pop Artists Open/Close data Source
Wikipedia Open/Close data Source
Mentioned In Open/Close data Source