But did you know the story behind the blurry eyed man holding a cigarette that graces it?
Chris McClure was just 16 years old when he first met the Arctic Monkeys.
"We’d go to the same gigs, then see each other on the number 77 [bus] - so we became friends," he told The Guardian in 2016.
Then, when Chris was a student at Manchester Metropolitan University, he got a call from bassist Andy Nicholson saying they wanted pictures of a guy on a night out for the artwork of their debut album.
Chris agreed and later met up with a photographer and assistants in a Liverpool bar.
He asked them: "What do you want us to do?"
"Go out and get drunk - come back after midnight," they allegedly replied, handing Chris and his mates a 'wad of cash'.
Chris McClure featured on the cover of Arctic Monkeys' debut album when he was just 19 years old (Domino)
So they did just that, returning to the venue of the photoshoot past 2am.
"[It was] just me sat on a stool. They gave me more whisky and I threw up half way through. Everything was blurry," he recalled.
But the result was exactly what the indie band were looking for and they decided to use one of the shots on the album's cover.
"I was pleased but I don't think I grasped how massive it was going to be," Chris said. "It was only on the day the album was released, in January 2006, I thought, 'S**t, what have I let myself in for?'"
Soon after, everyone wanted to know who the man on the cover of the Arctic Monkeys album was.
According to Chris, reporters waited outside the pub he worked at part-time, E4 asked him to become a presenter and the Daily Star even offered him £10,000 to let them follow him on a night out.
The indie band's album went on to sell more than three million physical copies (Todd Owyoung/NBC via Getty Images)
Ultimately, Chris refused, not wanting to sell the band and his mates out but there were definitely some perks he took full advantage of.
He said: "I’d go to house parties and my face would be in the bedrooms. Strangers would ask me to do the cigarette pose. Clubs would call and offer free drinks all night if I just went down."
Chris joked: "I think that album cover is the reason I only got a 2:2 degree."
Nowadays, Chris works with adults who have learning difficulties but he has very few regrets regarding the famous picture.
"The only thing I might change is the money," he said. "I got paid £750 for that night. I should have asked for 10p of every album sale."
With more than three million physical copies of the album sold, according to Chartmasters, he'd be rolling in it.Featured Image Credit: Domino/X/chrismcclure86
A new update on ticket prices for the Oasis comeback has been issued and it's probably not what many fans want to hear.
There's been a flurry of activity since the band announced they were getting back together recently, announcing 14 tour dates for 2025 before upping that to 17 due to 'unprecedented demand'.
It seems like half the country wants to go and see the Oasis reunion and there's been plenty of information put out about when and how to buy tickets.
The quick version is you'll be buying from Ticketmaster on Saturday (31 August) morning, with tickets going on sale at 9am in the UK and 8am in Ireland.
There was a presale option, which has since closed as fans could sign up for a ballot and maybe get to the front of the queue for tickets, but anyone not already part of that will have to leave it until Saturday.
How much would you be willing to pay to see these guys? (Dave Hogan/Getty Images)
What people really want to know now is the price of the tickets so they'll have an idea of how much to pay when the time comes to put in those credit card details.
There's been an update on that front, but it's not made the picture much clearer for Oasis fans hoping to know how much they'll need to fork over.
According to the Mirror, a spokesperson has told them that ticket prices for the Oasis reunion tour next year won't be released until they go on sale on 31 August.
There's going to be such a rush for tickets as millions of people will all be trying to buy more tickets than are available, but it sounds like Brits won't know what to expect until they get on the ticket site and join the queue.
However, the Mirror also reports that the band's Irish promoter has said how much some of the tickets for their shows in Dublin will cost, with places going for €86.50 (£72.70), not including a booking fee.
Read on to find out where to buy tickets...
Ticketmaster is going to be busy as hell on Saturday (Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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If you want to beat the queues on Saturday then you'd best make sure you're already signed up to SEE Tickets or Ticketmaster and hopping onto the site at the right time.
Apparently you should get onto the site 10 minutes before tickets go on sale and refresh the page 10 seconds beforehand, so that's just before 9am in the UK and 8am in Ireland.
Then once you're in the queue you shouldn't keep trying to refresh the page as that might knock you to the back of the line.
From then on, maintaining a strong internet connection and taking your chance if it comes will be your best bet.
Expect there to be multiple prices on offer depending on where in the various venues your ticket is for, and remember that you can buy up to four tickets with your spot in the queue.
Beyond the cost of tickets you'll also need to consider the cost of hotels, as plenty of people have been saying they've seen prices surging while some have accused the hotels of cancelling their bookings and trying to resell the rooms for higher prices, though the hotels insist these were 'technical errors'.
Where will Oasis tickets be sold?
Fans will be able to buy tickets from 9am on Saturday 31st August from SEE Tickets, Ticketmaster and GIGSANDTOURS. Hospitality packages will also be available via Seat Unique.Featured Image Credit: Simon Emmett/Fear PR/PA Wire / Paul Bergen/Redferns
It’s one of the most iconic images on an album in recent times, but do you know the story behind the cover star of Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not?
With the Monkeys back out on the road in the UK for the first time in a while, it’s worth revisiting how one photo changed the life of the subject forever, writing him into modern rock history.
Album covers tend to stick in people’s minds indelibly.
Think about The Beatles’ legendary Revolver, or Bruce Springsteen’s bum on Born in the USA.
You can see what we mean, right?
Well, few albums have had such an enduring cultural impact in the UK and abroad in recent times as the Arctic Monkeys’ 2006 debut album.
Arctic Monkeys
Sitting right there on the front of that album in black and white is Chris McClure, puffing away on a cigarette and scowling down the camera lens.
McClure, who is actually the brother of Reverend and the Makers frontman Jon McClure, met the band on the bus once upon a time, then was contacted by the then-bassist of the band Andy Nicholson, who said he wanted pictures of a man for the album art.
Chris never knew that he’d be featuring front and centre on the cover, so didn’t realise he was about to be immortalised.
Speaking to The Guardian a few years back, he explained: "We met the photographer and assistants in a bar at 2pm.
"I said: 'What do you want us to do?'.
"They said: 'Go out and get drunk - come back after midnight'.
"They gave us a wad of cash, literally hundreds of pounds.
“We were young and made the most of it.
"When I arrived back it was gone 2am.
Domino
“There was a venue below the bar and we did the pictures there, just me sat on a stool.
"They gave me more whiskey and I threw up half way through. Everything was blurry."
He was 19 at the time, and after the album came out he was suddenly an unlikely celebrity.
On the 15th anniversary of the album’s release in 2021, he said: “What a record.
“Met some great people since… literally through having my photo taken.
“Pleasure to be associated with it.”
In that Guardian article, he elaborated: “That Monday [release date], my phone never stopped. It was bonkers; like being dipped into fame.
“Everyone in the world wanted to know who I was.
“I worked part-time in a pub and I got a call from the landlord to say there were 15 reporters there looking for me; another five were outside my mum’s house.
15 years. What a record. Met some great people since... literally through having my photo taken. Pleasure to be associated with it 🙏🙏🙏
“The TV channel E4 asked me to present slots.
“The Daily Star offered me £10,000 to let a photographer follow me on a night out.
“They said they’d bring along a couple of models.
“When you’re 19, it’s not easy to refuse, but I didn’t want to sell the band out. I refused everything apart from interviews with Soccer AM and BBC News.”
He continued: “It made student life surreal. I’d go to house parties and my face would be in the bedrooms.
“Strangers would ask me to do the cigarette pose. Clubs would call and offer free drinks all night if I just went down.
“I think that album cover is the reason I only got a 2:2 degree.
"Noel did a double take. He said: ‘I’ve got you hanging in my house!’ I said: ‘I’ve got you in mine!’”
It wasn’t all great though, as he explained: “It wasn’t all good. I was at a gig once and this guy kept putting his cig in my face.”
Still, it seems as if it’s been a largely positive experience.
Chris concluded: “Would I do it again? Absolutely.
“The only thing I might change is the money. I got paid £750 for that night. I should have asked for 10p of every album sale.”Featured Image Credit: Arctic Monkeys/Twitter/@chrismcclure86
The Arctic Monkeys have asked the BBC not to broadcast their headline set at Reading Festival tonight.
It’s not immediately clear why the Sheffield band have asked for the set not to go out live across the national broadcaster this evening, but BBC Radio 1 confirmed in a tweet that it would not go out at the band’s request.
The band are one of a host of big stars set to play at the Reading and Leeds Festival, with performances from Megan Thee Stallion, The 1975, Dave, Halsey, and Bring Me The Horizon amongst others set to feature.
Alex Turner and his bandmates are set to take to the stage on the southern leg of the festival from 09:20pm to 11:20pm this evening, but the set won’t be available to stream at the time.
On Twitter, BBC Radio 1 said: “At the artists request, we will not be able to bring you the Arctic Monkeys set live this evening.
“But you will be able to watch them tomorrow on BBC One, from 23:35.”
There’s some good news for the armchair Monkeys fans out there, if you haven’t got a ticket to the big events, you will still be able to catch the set at a later date, they just seem to not want it going live.
Obviously fans aren't best pleased about not being able to catch the set live tonight.
One said: "Why do they get to decide this?"
Another wrote: "I’m so annoyed about this! I was so looking forward to watching their set as they’re one of my favourite bands"
However, some agreed with the band's decision, with one writing: "It’s probably because they want people that paid to see it live at Leeds to see it before people at home which is understandable."
ANP/Alamy Stock Photo
Fans of the band have been ramping up through the gears in recent days as the news emerged that the band are preparing to release their next album The Car on 21 October.
The band’s seventh album and follow-up to 2018’s Tranquility Base Hotel & Casino is believed to have been written at Butley Priory, the gatehouse of an Augustinian monastery in Suffolk.
Drummer Matt Helders updated fans in 2021 on their progress, claiming that their next offering was ‘pretty much’ finished and likely to be available for public consumption before their 2022 tour.
That means there will likely be a few new tunes in tonight’s set at Reading.
Maybe that’s something to do with why they don’t want it going live?
Much like everything else, Helders admitted that the pandemic left the band ‘faced with various obstacles’ while trying to create their next album.
ANP/Alamy Stock Photo
At the time, he explained: “Being separated by the sea is one of them.
“We’re all eager to do it – we would have been doing it by now in a normal time.”
Still, there’s not long to go now, Arctic Monkey enthusiasts.
You’ll just have to wait a bit longer than tonight to hear new material.Featured Image Credit: Gonzales Photo/Roger Garfield/Alamy Stock Photo
Alex Turner forgot words to Mardy Bum during Arctic Monkeys gig in hometown Sheffield
One of the biggest bands in the UK playing one of their biggest songs in a huge gig in their hometown - it ticks all the boxes for a good time.
Now we just need the frontman to remember the lyrics.
The Arctic Monkeys are currently on tour to help promote their latest album The Car, and after kicking off their UK dates in Bristol a couple of weeks ago they returned to their hometown of Sheffield this weekend for two gigs in Hillsborough Park.
Thousands of fans flooded to the venue to watch the band perform some of their most popular tracks, even being treated to a live version of the 2006 song ‘A Certain Romance’ for the first time in a decade.
At the time, he explained: “Being separated by the sea is one of them.
“We’re all eager to do it – we would have been doing it by now in a normal time.”
Still, there’s not long to go now, Arctic Monkey enthusiasts.
You’ll just have to wait a bit longer than tonight to hear new material.Featured Image Credit: Gonzales Photo/Roger Garfield/Alamy Stock Photo
Alex Turner forgot words to Mardy Bum during Arctic Monkeys gig in hometown Sheffield
One of the biggest bands in the UK playing one of their biggest songs in a huge gig in their hometown - it ticks all the boxes for a good time.
Now we just need the frontman to remember the lyrics.
The Arctic Monkeys are currently on tour to help promote their latest album The Car, and after kicking off their UK dates in Bristol a couple of weeks ago they returned to their hometown of Sheffield this weekend for two gigs in Hillsborough Park.
Thousands of fans flooded to the venue to watch the band perform some of their most popular tracks, even being treated to a live version of the 2006 song ‘A Certain Romance’ for the first time in a decade.
Instagram/@beergjosefine
Alex Turner made his way through a setlist which included 'Brianstorm', 'Snap Out of It', 'Crying Lightning' and 'Why'd You Only Call Me When You're High?', and for the most part did well in leading the crowd through the lyrics.
There was at least one occasion, however, when he had to turn to the crowd for a reminder of how one of his songs goes.
It happened as Turner performed a classic AM track, 'Mardy Bum'; arguably the one song that even people who wouldn't consider themselves fans of the band will be familiar with.
Come on, I'll start: "Now then Mardy Bum, I've seen your face and it's like looking down the barrel of a gun."
TikTok/@kaaaadeeenn
Turner has no doubt sung those exact lyrics countless times since the song's release in 2006, but during the show in Sheffield they clearly disappeared from his mind entirely.
The crowd was singing along as the song began, and Turner got off to a good start as he nailed the words 'now then Mardy Bum'.
He then diverged from the audience as they carried on with the actual lyrics, and he apparently attempted to skip straight to the second chorus, which goes: "Oh, I'm in trouble again, aren't I? I thought as much."
TikTok/@kaaaadeeenn
Turner quickly realised he wasn't singing the right words and looked around in confusion, but thankfully he was able to rely on the audience to get him back on track.
Giving a quick nod of understanding, he soon got back into the swing of things as he caught up with the crowd.
Footage of him forgetting the words has been shared on TikTok, where one user joked he was a 'silly boy' for the slip, but fans who have attended the gigs have largely agreed that, correct lyrics or not, the group put on a good show.Featured Image Credit: TikTok/@kaaaadeeenn
Topics: Music, Arctic Monkeys, TikTok, Viral, UK News
