Current members: Alex Turner, Matt Helders, Jamie Cook, Nick O’Malley
First Single: I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor (October 2005)
Discography: Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (debut album, January 2006); Favourite Worst Nightmare (April 2007); Humbug (August 2009); Suck It And See (June 2011); AM (September 2013); Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino (2018).
“Don’t believe the hype” were the words that Alex Turner, Arctic Monkeys lead singer, mumbled into his microphone at the start of the I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor video. His plea wasn’t unjustified because the band were stars before they’d even been signed.
The Sheffield four-piece are a band of the MySpace generation. Their tunes fused punk, funk and ska and, accompanied by Turner’s observatory eye and acerbic wit, spread like wildfire throughout the worldwide web. By the time their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, was released in January 2006, it became the fastest selling debut album in UK chart history.
