“The singer and guitarist, Alex Turner, 23 — wearing la denim jacket over a Mexican-style knitted cardigan picked up in a second-hand shop in Austin, Texas (“I were looking for a chair”), and loafers — sparks up a Camel. “We’ve had a lot of this recently in interviews. The first record is usually on the list that’s put in front of us,” he says of Arctic Monkeys’ debut. “I’m happy that people think that.”
He gazes off, his mind turning, as it often does, on its own wheels, in marked contrast to the direct conversational zip of his lyrics. He fiddles with his hair, stares at the wall, studies his knees. He thinks it’s good that these lists mention the Strokes’ Is This It, an album that reminds him of sitting on the 266 bus at home in Sheffield, listening on his Walkman. But he thinks it’s bad that Highly Evolved by the Vines — the “Australian Nirvana” and the first band Turner saw live, “seems to have ducked off the list. I love that record. His melodies.”
”
The Times newspaper: November 21, 2009.
It is Christmas 2001. Two lads from High Green, Sheffield, receive electric guitars from Santa. They are 15 and 16, and the first thing they learn to play together is Monty Norman’s James Bond Theme. Then they learn Oasis chords. They form a band with two other mates from school and, when they’re not hanging about the school playing fields drinking cider and cheap wine, they play White Stripes covers and The Ballad of Chasey Lain by the Bloodhound Gang.
Graduating from the older guitarist’s dad’s garage, they play their first gig, supporting a band called the Sound at a local pub, the Grapes. Their eight-song set comprises three covers and five self-written songs. The drummer recalls that their mates said afterwards: “You’re actually quite good!” It is Friday, June 13, 2003, and Arctic Monkeys have just had the first hint that the band might be on to something.
It is Friday, November 13, 2009. Backstage at the 11,000-capacity Liverpool Echo Arena with Arctic Monkeys. Two dressing rooms, tagged Sexy Room 1 and Sexy Room 2. Their rider isn’t particularly lavish, but they have been provided with a clothes iron of such beauty that the guitarist Jamie Cook, 24, feels compelled to use it. “I don’t even need to iron owt,” the chirpy, time-served tiler says as he whips out a shirt.
From the Grapes in Sheffield to Budokan in Tokyo: Arctic Monkeys have come a long way, fast. Their first fully available — ie, not limited-edition — single, I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, entered the charts at No 1 in October 2005. Their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, was, at the time, the fastest-selling debut album in British history. It went on to win the Mercury Music Prize. Within 18 months of those feats they’d released a second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare (which was also nominated for the Mercury), and headlined the main stage at Glastonbury. They have, to date, won five Brit Awards.
