Arctic Monkeys are a four-piece band from Sheffield, England. Originally formed in 2002, the band has seen two of its members depart over the subsequent 5 years.
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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. However, on 20 June 2006, it was announced that he was no longer part of the band, with Alex Turner later stating "we sorta found ourselves in a situation where we wanted to move forward". 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".
In November 2007 he made his DJ debut in London for a very special club night called Threads vs Filthy Few Filthy FewThreads
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...". 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." 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."