The British rock band Arctic Monkeys, formed in the early 2000s, became one of the first bands to promote their own music through the Internet and thanks to that earned the BRIT Awards in the categories Best British Group and Best British Album and five nominations to the prestigious Grammy Awards. Composing compositions in the genre of indie rock, postpunk revival and psychedelic music, the members have recorded six studio albums and performed twice on the stage of the famous English festival Glastonbury.
The story of Arctic Monkeys creation reminds a Christmas fairy tale about how British teenagers Alex Turner and Jamie Cook made their dream come true, getting electric lead guitars from Santa Claus. After mastering their instrument techniques, the boys decided to form a band and began playing tunes by popular musicians.
Soon the friends were joined by like-minded Matt Helders and Andy Nicholson, who supplemented the company with a drum kit and bass, and their mutual acquaintance Glen Jones was the first vocalist.
Some time later, when the guys decided on a name and drew a poster with the Arctic Monkeys logo, probably borrowed from a popular 1960s band, the singer considered the creative process childish and handed the microphone to Alex, who later became the permanent lead singer.
The lineup of the band has not changed much since then, except for the case when in 2006, according to the official version, bassist Andy Nicholson got tired of touring and was replaced by Nicholas O’Malley, who continued the nearly failed North American tour.
The creative career of Arctic Monkeys was successful from the very beginning, as the first serious rehearsals were held in the professional studio Yellow Arch. There they created a 17-track demo recording that was released on a reusable CD titled “Beneath the Boardwalk”.
The songs “Bigger Boys And Stolen Sweethearts”, “Fake Tales Of San Francisco”, “A Certain Romance” and “Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor” quickly gained popularity and appeared on the fan page on the Myspace platform. And after promotion in the North of England, the band earned the attention of BBC radio DJs and print publications interested in new artists.
At the same time, photographer and cameraman Mark Bull shot a pirated video of the team’s club concert and posted a music video for the song “Fake Tales of San Francisco” on his own page. Moved to the Arctic Monkeys’ account, the clip garnered thousands of views and as a result was a good follow-up to the debut professional single “Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys”, released in 2005.
The record, containing the hit “Fake Tales of San Francisco” and the novelty “From the Ritz to the Rubble”, was issued in limited editions on CD and vinyl and got into the hands of the founder of the British company Domino, who signed contracts with musicians who deserved personal sympathy. Thanks to his offer of cooperation the young Sheffield team released the singles “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor” and “When the Sun Goes Down”, which with minimal publicity in the media took the top places in the British charts.
In 2006 Turner and his company released another 10 fresh tracks and recorded a full-length album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, which sold over 360,000 copies in an instant. Becoming the fastest-selling debut release ever, the record received positive reviews and, upon its release in the United States, took the authors to the next level, reaching number 24 on the Billboard 200 charts.
It is true that the musicians were repeatedly criticized for promoting smoking because of the picture of a young man with a cigarette placed on the cover, but after a successful tour of America the talks calmed down and the record entered the list of “500 greatest albums of all time”. In addition, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not won awards in the UK, Japan and Ireland and in 2007 won two prestigious national BRIT Awards.
To build on their success Arctic Monkeys recorded the EP “Who the Fuck Are Arctic Monkeys?”, which due to profanity only received internet rotation, and then began work on their second studio album “Favorite Worst Nightmare”.
The official release on the 18th of April 2007 was preceded by the presentation of the single “Brianstorm”, which managed to overtake the competitors and made its way to the top of the national audience ratings, paving the way for the success of the other compositions on the album.
The result was a heavier, more aggressive sounding album that included “Old Yellow Bricks” and “Only ones who know”, again scooped many UK Music Awards, and the Arctic Monkeys were voted Best Rock Band at the 2007 Brit Awards.
However, the members ignored the event and sent a thank you video instead of attending in person, where they were dressed up as characters from The Wizard of Oz.
Some listeners saw this behavior as mockery, but most respected the band’s decision and attended their 2007-2008 concerts in Dublin, Manchester and Britain’s largest festival, Glastonbury.
After a short break, during which Alex Turner was engaged in The Last Shadow Puppets project, the drummer of the main band was interviewed by journalists and announced the new album. And in June 2009, the single “Crying Lightning” and a 3 track EP of “Catapult”, “Sketchead” and “Fright Lined Dining Room” appeared on the web and radio after the “Humbug” title presentation.