In the world of rock, there are good names and not-so-good names. A lot of people will put “Arctic Monkeys” in the latter category. What were they thinking?
Original bass player (who was with the band until 2006) says the name had been kicking around for a long time and can be traced to something bass player Jamie Cook once said. Okay, but why? We’re still not sure except that Jamie said, “This is what we’re going to call the band, and that’s all there is to it.” No one wanted to argue, so “Arctic Monkeys” it was.
We’ll put this on the pile with other name origin stories, including singer Alex Turner saying that it was the name featuring drummer Matt Helders’ dad back in the 1970s. Whatever the truth, once the band started getting big, there was no going back on the name.
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