Arctic Monkeys Biography

This was life in satellite-town England, as cutting and observant as anything you'd hear from Mike Skinner. But it wasn't always like that.

"Lyrics were a dark patch," admits Alex. "Nobody wanted to admit they wrote them so we kept trying other singers so they'd do it for us. But I'd secretly been writing since school and I enjoyed it. I just never told anyone because I didn't want to have piss took out of me!"

Even with their poetic obstacles overcome, it was a year before the Monkeys dared venture onto a stage. Why? It had to be perfect. And by the time they played their first gig at The Grapes in Sheffield, it was. People went berserk and the band walked offstage thinking they might just be onto something. A few gigs later and they found themselves playing Sheffield Forum, in front of a crowd who knew words that Alex hadn't learnt properly yet. They couldn't understand it, but there was a reason their fan base had been swelling: the demos they'd been handing out for nowt at gigs in true DIY punka style.
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