NMEs and different editions of Rolling Stones 500 Greatest Albums of All Time lists. History 2002–2005: Early years and record deal Arctic Monkeys was formed in mid-2002 by friends Alex Turner, Matt Helders, and Andy Nicholson. Turner and Helders were neighbours and close friends, and they met Nicholson in secondary school. Turner, who had grown up in a musical household as his father was a music teacher, played guitar in the then-instrumental-only band, with Helders on drums, Nicholson on bass, and a new band member, Jamie Cook as a second guitarist. The name "Arctic Monkeys" was Cook's idea, and is perhaps a play on "northern monkey", a derogatory term for someone from northern England. Initially, Turner was reluctant when it came to being the lead singer. As time passed, Turner became the lead singer and frontman of the band as he had "a thing for words", according to Helders. The band began rehearsing at Yellow Arch Studios in Neepsend, and played its first gig on 13 June 2003 at The Grapes in Sheffield city centre. After a few performances in 2003, the band began to record demos at 2fly studios in Sheffield. 18 songs were demoed in all and the collection, now known as Beneath the Boardwalk, was burned onto CDs to give away at gigs, which were promptly file-shared amongst fans. The name Beneath the Boardwalk originated when the first batch of demos were sent around. The first sender, wanting to classify the demos, named them after where he received them, the Boardwalk. Slowly, as more demos were spread, they were all classified under this name. This has led to many people falsely believing that Beneath the Boardwalk was an early album, or that the early demos were all released under this title. The group did not mind the distribution, saying "we never made those demos to make money or anything. We were giving them away free anyway – that was a better way for people to hear them." The band began to grow in popularity across the north of England, receiving attention from BBC Radio and the British tabloid press. A local amateur photographer, Mark Bull, filmed the band's performances and made the music video "Fake Tales of San Francisco", releasing it on his website, alongside the contents of Beneath the Boardwalk – a collection of the band's songs which he named after a local music venue. When