2 X Arctic Monkeys Tickets Newcastle Metro Standing

Arctic Monkeys achieved chart success with their second single, "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor", which reached number one in the UK Singles Chart. Their debut album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not", released in January 2006, became the fastest-selling debut album in British music history, surpassing Oasis's "Definitely Maybe" and remaining the fastest-selling debut album for a band. It received critical acclaim, winning both the 2006 Mercury Prize and the 2007 BRIT Award for Best British Album. It was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album, but lost to Gnarls Barkley's "St. Elsewhere". The band's second album, "Favourite Worst Nightmare", was released on 23 April 2007, sold over 225,000 copies in its first week, and was nominated for the 2007 Mercury Prize. The group also picked up the award for Best British Album and Best British Group at the 2008 BRIT Awards.

Arctic Monkeys were heralded as one of the first acts to come to the public attention via the Internet (fan-based sites rather than from the band), with commentators suggesting they represented the possibility of a change in the way in which new bands are promoted and marketed. The band eventually signed to the independent record label Domino Records.

Initial releases:

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 success without marketing or advertising led some to suggest that it could signal a change in how new bands achieve recognition.

They finished recording their debut album, "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not", at Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire in September 2005. Its name was taken from the 1960 film "Saturday Night and Sunday Morning". Although early versions of many tracks were already freely available to download from the band's pre-label demo CDs, it was widely expected to be one of the biggest releases of 2006 with thousands of copies pre-ordered. In January 2006, Domino announced the album's release would be brought forward one week to 23 January, citing "high demand". While the same thing was done with the release of Franz Ferdinand, there has been continued speculation that the move was the result of the album's leak and the impact of file sharing - a controversial suggestion given the part file-sharing played in establishing the band's fanbase.

"Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" became the fastest selling debut album in UK chart history, selling 363,735 copies in the first week. This smashed the previous record of 306,631 copies held by Popstars by Hear’Say, and sold more copies on its first day alone — 118,501 — than the rest of the Top 20 albums combined.

The record was released a month later in the U.S. and entered at #24 on the Billboard album chart after it sold 34,000 units in its first week, making it the second fastest selling for a debut indie rock album in America. However, U.S. sales for the first year did not match those of the first week in the UK for the album. US critics were more reserved about the band than their UK counterparts, and appeared unwilling to be drawn into the possibility of "yet another example of the UK's press over-hyping new bands". However, the band's June 2006 tour of North America received critical acclaim at each stop — the hype surrounding them "proven to exist for good reason". Meanwhile, the UK's NME magazine declared the band's debut album the "5th greatest British album of all time". They also equalled the record of The Strokes and Oasis at the 2006 NME Awards, winning three fan-voted awards for Best British Band, Best New Band and Best Track for "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor".

Favourite Worst Nightmare:

The band's second album, "Favourite Worst Nightmare", was released on 23 April 2007, a week after the release of accompanying single "Brianstorm". Turner described the songs as "very different from last time", adding that the sound of some tracks are "a bit full-on - a bit like "From the Ritz to the Rubble", "The View from the Afternoon", that sort of thing." A secret gig played at Sheffield's Leadmill on 10 February 2007, debuted seven new songs (six from Favourite Worst Nightmare and one other). Early reviews of the release were positive, and described it as "very, very fast and very, very loud."

Meanwhile, the band continued to pick up awards from around the world, namely the 'Best New Artist in the United States' at the PLUG Independent Music Awards, the "Album of the Year" awards in Japan, Ireland and the US, awards for "Best Album" and "Best Music DVD" at the 2007 NME Awards. They ended the year by clinching the "Best British Band" and "Best British Album" at the 2008 BRIT Awards. For the second year in a row, the band were nominated for the annual Mercury Prize, although they failed to match their feat of 2006 after the award went to Klaxons' "Myths of the Near Future".

On 29 April 2007, the day "Favourite Worst Nightmare" charted at #1 in the UK Albums Chart, all 12 tracks from the album charted in the Top 200 of the UK Singles Chart, ranging from "Brianstorm" at #7, to "If You Were There, Beware" at #189. On 27 April 2007 they had a total of 18 tracks in the Top 200. "Fluorescent Adolescent" and "505" charted in the Top 75, at #60 and #74 respectively.

The third single from Favourite Worst Nightmare, "Teddy Picker", was released on 3 December 2007. It charted at #20 and remained only one week in the top 40 staying in this position, making it the lowest charting single for the band so far. Prior to this release the band released an extremely limited number of 250 vinyl under the pseudonym Death Ramps containing two of the b-sides from the "Teddy Picker" single.

Humbug:

The band began to write and record demos for the third album in January 2008, Turner said they had recorded six songs they had already been playing on tour. In July, Cook said he did not yet know what musical direction it would take. It was announced in August that Josh Homme would produce a number of tracks, which would be recorded at the Rancho De La Luna in Joshua Tree, California. The band premiered new material from the unreleased album during their January 2009 tour of New Zealand, playing small venues in Wellington and Auckland ahead of the Big Day Out festival. Their first show in more than a year was on 13 January 2009 at Wellington Town Hall.

The band recorded a total of 24 songs; 12 in the Rancho De La Luna recording sessions with Josh Homme and 12 in the New York sessions with James Ford. It was later revealed by Matt Helders in a video diary that the album would consist of 14 tracks and that Alex Turner would stay in New York to oversee the mixing of the material. However, the claim that there were 14 tracks was proved wrong, as the tracklisting, revealed on 1 June 2009, listed only 10.

In a preview article on ClashMusic.com, writer Simon Harper claimed that the band had "completely defied any expectations or presumptions to explore the depths they can reach when stepping foot outside their accepted styles", and that "Turner is his usual eloquent self, but has definitely graduated into an incomparable writer whose themes twist and turn through stories and allegories so potent and profound it actually leaves one breathless". On the same site, Alex Turner revealed that the band had listened to Jimi Hendrix and Cream while writing the new album. It was revealed via a bulletin on the band's MySpace page that the title of the album will be Humbug. As announced on the Arctic Monkeys website the first single will be "Crying Lightning". It was released on 6 July, digitally through iTunes and also got its first radio premiere on the same day. On 12 July 2009, the single "Crying Lightning" debuted at number 12 in the UK Singles Chart and number 1 on the UK Indie Chart.

A web transmission showcasing Humbug aired at 9pm on 30 July on the official Arctic Monkeys website. It contained 5 songs in total which were: "Pretty Visitors", "Crying Lightning", "Potion Approaching", "Red Right Hand" and "Secret Door".

In August 2009 it was announced that Arctic Monkeys are to release a vinyl version of their new single "Crying Lightning" exclusively through Oxfam shops, with proceeds going to the charity. The 7-inch release also came with a code to enable download of a free MP3 version.

In October 2009, the band announced that "Cornerstone" would be the second single from Humbug. It is set to be released on 16 November. The video premiered on 15 October. The music video, directed by Richard Ayoade, who worked on the videos of "Fluorescent Adolescent", "Crying Lightning" and their "At the Apollo" DVD, shows frontman Alex Turner singing the song alone in a white room during the whole video. The band will once again team up with Oxfam for the release of the single.

Arctic Monkeys embarked on the first leg of the Humbug Tour in January, 2009. The tour has already gone through several North American and European legs and is expected to extend well into 2010.