ARCTIC MONKEYS MEMBERS

'Arctic Monkeys' are a band from Sheffield, England, whose first two singles, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" and "When the Sun Goes Down", both went straight to number one in the UK Singles Chart. The band's debut album, ''Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not'', sold 360,000 copies in its first week alone, setting the record for the largest first week sales of a debut album in UK history.^[1], while its follow-up ''Favourite Worst Nightmare'' outsold the rest of the Top 20 combined.
Arctic Monkeys formed in 2002, and currently have four members: Alex Turner, lead vocalist and guitarist; Jamie Cook, guitar; drummer and backing vocalist Matt Helders and Nick O'Malley on bass.

Contents

Alex Turner

Jamie Cook

Nick O'Malley

Matt Helders

Former members

Andy Nicholson

Glyn Jones

References

Alex Turner

Main articles: Alex Turner (musician)

Jamie Cook

Jamie "Cookie" Cook (born 8 July 1985) is the band's guitarist and also provides backing vocals. Cook and Turner are neighbours in High Green^[2], and like Turner, Cook asked for a musical instrument as a Christmas present in 2001, receiving his first electric guitar^[3]. Cook has been the band's most outspoken member, going on record as saying he ''"fucking hates the [print] news"'' and defending the band's numerous successive records by saying ''"I couldn’t see us being like Coldplay, it’d just be fucking boring. You tour your album for three years and play the same fucking gig night after night. It must really be depressing. Some people might enjoy doing that, but we couldn't."'' ^[4].
Cook has sometimes worked with Turner in providing the band with lyrics, for example in the song Still Take You Home, a track about an animal rescue centre.
Despite leaving home, Cook has maintained residence in the Sheffield area. Aswell as keeping close to his hometown Jamie has also kept close relationships with his school friends, he has been spotted around the local area with two pals Jade and Karisse, chatting like normal trendy young kids do. Arctic Monkeys conquer UK; Is America next? . He has been described as ''"the bullishly confident blue-collar lad [of the group]"^[5].
Cook is also considered to be the "indie music fanatic" of the group. In an NME article, it was mentioned that before Jamie joined the band, they had a funkier groove and resembled the sound of Jamiroquai. Armed with the likes of musical tastes for great bands such as The Smiths, Oasis, and QOTSA, Cook supposedly stopped the band from becoming another Jamiroquai ^[6].

Nick O'Malley

O'Malley (born 5 July 1985 in Saarbrücken), was drafted in as a temporary replacement for bassist Andy Nicholson when the latter announced he would not make the band's North America tour in May 2006. Arctic Monkeys play gig in tiny pub O'Malley says that he learned the whole of the band's debut album in two days of intensive play where he ''"pretty much didn't even leave the house."''^[7] His baptism of fire continued as the band were imminently recording their new single, "Leave Before the Lights Come On", in which he bassed.
His first appearance with the band came on 25 May, when the band played a secret gig at the "Old Blue Last" pub in East London . The 120 capacity venue was seen as an opportunity for O'Malley to have a test run before the band's first North American gig in Vancouver on 27 May and festival dates in front of fifteen to twenty thousand people.
O'Malley broke his hand following some drunken antics with his former Dodgems bandmates only a week after agreeing to fill in for Nicholson - "''As we were walking home from the pub, our roadie grabbed him (O'Malley) and pulled him over our neighbour's wall. It's quite high and he landed on his right hand''" Dodgems singer Phil Goodwin was quoted as saying on the music website Angry Ape. However, despite being his plectrum-hand he was still able to play the bass and joined the band in the successful tour.
Although O'Malley was only expected to continue until Nicholson has fully recovered, Nicholson's departure from the band saw the announcement that O'Malley will become a full member of the band.

Matt Helders

Main articles: Matt Helders

Former members

Andy Nicholson

An attendee of Stocksbridge High School, Andy was the only member of the original four to not live in the High Green district, residing in nearby Hillsborough , and this fact is featured in lyrics to the song "Red Light Indicates Doors Are Secured" - ''"I said it's High Green mate – via Hillsborough - please"''. Nicholson played bass guitar, and was seen as ''"the band wit, reliably swift with a self-deprecating quip"'' . Nicholson emphasised that the band are just normal people, saying ''"We don’t look like superstars...I think people look at us and think, 'They’re just normal people making good music. I’m sure I could do it.' Anyone can do it. We’re living proof of that."'' Nicholson's style was known to be poppy and original, and was often featured in a song with either no backing or guitar chords in the background. When this wasn't the case, the bass usually followed the lead guitar with slight or no variation.
The band announced in May 2006 that Nicholson would miss the band's forthcoming North America tour as he was suffering from ''"fatigue following an intensive period of touring"'', and would be temporarily replaced by Nick O'Malley of The Dodgems while Nicholson recovered ^[8]. However, on 19 June 2006, the official website of the band announced that he was no longer part of the band. ^[9]. Now Nicholson has been making a name for himself in Sheffield as a DJ, performing at Reverend Soundsystem (now performing under the name AndyGun [1]) and remixed a Reverend and The Makers song "You Get So Alone Sometimes it Just Makes Sense".

Glyn Jones

An article in ''Blender Magazine'' in May 2006 suggested that Alex Turner was not the original vocalist of the band - ''"When their first vocalist, Glyn Jones, left after a few months, Turner cautiously stepped up to the microphone"'' . This was soon followed by a more detailed article in UK tabloid ''The Sun'', who reported that in the very early days of the band - before they had played a gig - Glyn Jones, another attendee of Stocksbridge High School, used to be the band's singer. Jones said that he and Turner ''"were bored [after our GCSE exams] so we started writing a song about a geek in our year..."''.^[10] Glyn says that he was lead singer only because ''"Alex was really humble and didn’t realise how great his own voice was... he was happy just playing his guitar."'' ^[10] However, Glyn says that he ''"did not have the dedication to take it any further... to me we were just a gang of kids messing around because we were bored."'' ^[10]

References

1. Arctic Monkeys make chart history
2. Arctic donkey
3. Brits go bananas
4. Young Brains
5. The Lads Are Alright
6. Mardy Bum.com
7. Chill out: Arctic Monkeys blast into Boston this weekend Alan Sculley
8. Arctic Monkeys lose a member
9. Official site of Arctic Monkeys
10. Arctic donkey
11. Arctic donkey
12. Arctic donkey