Ex-Arctic Monkeys member shares meaning of band's name 20 years later
A former member of the Arctic Monkeys explained how the band got their name and what it's supposed to mean.
Andy Nicholson was the band's first bassist and when he sat down for a chat with Chris McClure he explained that the name Arctic Monkeys had been 'around long before any gigs'.
Nicholson left the band in 2006 and in 2019 he told NME that it had been 'soul destroying' to go, but he was on good terms with his former bandmates once more.
He said that 'time healed a lot of wounds' and they were at his wedding, while they'd also meet up if they were around Sheffield.
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Nicholson credited Jamie Cook with coming up with the name, but as for the meaning behind it he revealed that it was never really that deep at all and the names of one of the most successful bands in Britain came from a cool sounding thing their guitarist thought up.
He said: "Jamie just said 'that's what we're gonna call it if we're gonna do it', like, right okay. Alright, that's fine, no one's arguing with that.
"Because all band names are crap anyway, there's no good band names. Name me a good band name."
McClure then said he thought R.E.M. (which is based on the acronym for rapid eye movement) had a good name, with Nicholson joking back 'just because it's got a meaning doesn't mean it's good'.
The bassist also said that he reckons 'everyone who's ever been to an Arctic Monkeys gig think they were there' at the band's first gig, and he said that at that point he had been working as a hairdresser at Toni&Guy.
According to him the way to tell if someone genuinely did see them play their first gig at The Grapes in Sheffield is if they also worked at Toni&Guy.
Meanwhile, if you've ever wondered about something else from the early days of the Arctic Monkeys you might have seen the man on the cover of their debut album Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not.
That bloke is none other than Chris McClure, who Nicholson was speaking to about the meaning behind the band name and his new book I Bet This Looks Good On Your Coffee Table.
McClure once revealed that they paid for him to have a night out in Liverpool and told him not to come back until he'd spent all the money they gave him, some £700.
After one hell of a time he got back and had his photo taken, which ended up on the album cover.
Chris now spends his time playing fictional football manager Steve Bracknall, so he's done pretty well for himself in the years since the album cover.
Topics: Arctic Monkeys, Music, Nostalgia
Joe Harker