In 2001 Arctic Monkeys Reading Festival, neighbours Alex Turner and Jamie Cook learned how to play the guitar, later the two boys received guitars as Christmas presents,the pair formed a band with Turner's schoolmates Andy Nicholson and Matt Helders.Nicholson already played bass guitar, so Helders ended up playing drums — "that was all that were left... they all had guitars so I bought a kit after a bit." According to an interview with Blender magazine, Turner was not the original singer of the band, but instead, Glyn Jones, another attendee of Stocksbridge High School, used to be the frontman.
Jones said that he and Turner "were bored [after our GCSE exams so we started writing a song about a geek in our year...", and that he left the band because 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." Although reports suggested they named themselves after Helders' uncle's (or even father's) band, Helders later admitted that "so many people asking us that in the UK, so we just started making stories up",and that he just didn't have the heart to tell the original reporter he'd been lying.
After a few performances in 2003 the band began to record demos and burn them into CDs to give away at gigs, which were promptly file-shared amongst fans. When asked about the popularity of the band's MySpace site in an interview with Prefix Magazine, the band said that they were unaware what it was, and that the site had originally been created by their fans. "[When we went number one in England] we were on the news and radio about how MySpace has helped us.
They began to grow in popularity across the north of England,receiving attention from BBC Radio and the British tabloid press. In May 2005, Arctic Monkeys released their first single, Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys, featuring the songs "Fake Tales of San Francisco" and "From the Ritz to the Rubble".
This release was limited to 500 CDs and 1000 7" records, but was also available to download from the iTunes Music Store. Soon after, the band played at the Carling Stage of the Reading and Leeds Festivals, reserved for less known or unsigned bands.
Eventually, they signed to Domino in June 2005. The band said they were attracted to the "DIY ethic" of Domino owner Laurence Bell, who ran the label from his flat and only signed bands that he liked personally.The UK's Daily Star reported that this was followed in October by a £1 million publishing deal with EMI and a £725,000 contract with Epic Records for the United States.Arctic Monkeys denied this on their website, dubbing the newspaper "The Daily Stir". However, Domino have licensed the Australian and New Zealand publishing rights to EMI and the Japanese rights to independent label Hostess.
Their first single with Domino, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor", was released on 17 October 2005 and went straight to #1 on the UK Singles Chart, beating Sugababes and Robbie Williams. Four months later, they made their first appearance on the cover of NME. Their second single, "When the Sun Goes Down" (previously titled "Scummy"), released on 16 January 2006, also went straight to #1 on the UK Singles Chart, selling 38,922 copies and taking over that position from Shayne Ward. The band's was unsuccessful marketing or advertising which led some to suggest that it could signal a change in how new bands achieve recognition.
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