Arctic Monkeys Merch
Early Start And Background
The Arctic Monkeys, like most rock bands before them, had incredibly humble beginnings. In 2002, a group of friends decided to form a band. The band consisted of four original members: Jamie “Cookie” Cook (guitar), Matt Helders (drums, vocals), Andy Nicholson, and Alex Turner (vocals, guitar). Any Nicholson left in 2006, citing exhaustion from touring, and was replaced by Nick O’Malley (bass), who became a permanent fixture.
Before the group wrote any songs, they had already decided that the band would be called Arctic Monkeys, which was given to the group by James Cook, although none of the band members can recall why. The group members had all been school friends in Sheffield, England, but they did not start playing locally until mid-2003.
Arctic Monkeys Merch Achievements
The group’s beginning can largely be attributed to neighbors Alex Turner and Jamie Cook, who both received guitars for Christmas in 2001. Soon, the pair roped in fellow friends Any and Matt, and the quartet began rehearsing and recording CD-R demos. Within a short time, the quartet had built up a cult following through regular and widespread gigging, which created the perfect platform for them to start releasing demo material.
The group would hand out CD-R demos to fans at their gigs, and before long, their growing fan base started spreading the songs on various message boards, which became their gateway to success. Three months after releasing their first recordings on the limited edition EP, Five Minutes with the Arctic Monkeys, the Arctic Monkeys made their London debut in February 2005. That same year, the band got another opportunity to perform at the Reading and Leeds Festival, and although they were placed low in the running order, Arctic Monkeys managed to consolidate an even larger base of fans from the enormous crowd in attendance.
In August 2009, Arctic Monkeys released their third album, which was heralded by the single “The Last Shadow Puppets.” In the coming years, subsequent albums At the Apollo (a concert album), Humbug (released in August 2009), Suck It and See (released in spring 2011 after collaborating with James Ford), and Entitled (released in the summer of 2013) followed. In 2012, Arctic Monkeys played at the London Summer Olympics opening ceremony, performing “I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor.”
After the fifth album AM was released, it debuted at number 1 in the UK album charts, managing to sell over 157,000 copies in its first week. Because of this, the Arctic Monkeys made history and became the first independent label band with five successive number-one albums in the UK.
As a result, the band was nominated a third time for the Mercury Prize, and following the supporting tour for the album, Arctic Monkeys took an extended hiatus, which allowed each of the members to pursue solo projects. Early in 2018, Arctic Monkey resurfaced with Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino, which featured a much softer sound than their fans had become used to.