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Arctic Monkeys · S1 E6
Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys
The debut EP on Domino Records and the first taste of something massive
May 30, 2005. Three thousand copies of a two-track EP hit record shops on a label nobody has heard of, released by a band that still hasn't signed a record deal.
Arctic Monkeys, I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor (2005). Their first single on Domino Records, filmed to look like a lost episode of BBC2's The Old Grey Whistle Test using 1980s Ikegami cameras. Turner opens with four words that sum up everything about this moment: "Don't believe the hype."
I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor, Arctic Monkeys (2005)
I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor is the sound of a band arriving fully formed. Turner wrote it early, before the hype, before the press, when it was just about watching someone across a club in Sheffield. The production is deliberately raw: Jim Abbiss recorded the band playing live together at Chapel Studios in Lincolnshire, keeping the energy of a gig intact. Listen for how the guitars are panned hard left and right, making it feel like you're standing between Turner and Cook as they tear through it.
Sources
Sound on Sound, 'Classic Tracks: Arctic Monkeys I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor'
Bang Bang Recordings
The "Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys" EP lands on the band's own label: Bang Bang Recordings. It contains re-recordings of two demo favourites, "Fake Tales of San Francisco" and "From the Ritz to the Rubble," pressed onto about 3,000 copies across CD and 7-inch vinyl. They recorded it at the Motor Museum in Liverpool, playing together in one room without headphones, committing takes straight to tape.
Sources
Wikipedia, 'Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys'
Mike Crossey portfolio, mikecrossey.com
The Motor Museum, Liverpool
A recording studio owned by Andy McCluskey of Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. Arctic Monkeys recorded their debut EP here with producer Mike Crossey, deliberately choosing a studio outside London.
“He was who came to sign us in the first place. He allowed us to try different things. It's not a situation like you hear about with a label guy in the studio saying: 'I was looking for this or that.'”
— Alex Turner on Domino founder Laurence Bell, Gigwise
TAP TO REVEAL: What was "Bang Bang" almost used for instead of a label name?
The Indie That Beat the Majors
One month after the EP, in June 2005, Arctic Monkeys sign with Domino Records. Laurence Bell started the label in 1993 with a £40 weekly government grant, a phone, and a fax machine on his bedroom floor. The band choose him over every major label in the country because he runs things his way and only signs artists he genuinely likes. The Daily Star reports a £1 million deal. The band call the paper "The Daily Stir."
Sources
Domino Recording Company, Wikipedia
Gigwise, 'Arctic Monkeys Rubbish £1m Deal Claims'
Where did Arctic Monkeys record the "Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys" EP?
Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts, Arctic Monkeys
B-side of "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" (2005). One of the original Beneath the Boardwalk demo tracks that never made the album but became a fan favourite in its own right. Turner tells the story of losing a girl to an older, taller lad with a car. Pure teenage heartbreak, specific to Sheffield but universal to anyone who's ever been seventeen and outmatched.
Bigger Boys and Stolen Sweethearts, Arctic Monkeys (2005)
"He's got a car now, he's fit and he knows it." Turner captures the specific sting of being a skinny kid watching someone bigger and older walk off with your girl. A fan favourite that never made the album but never needed to.
Behind the Deal Speed Round
The label is locked in, the EP is out, and the first single just went straight to number one. But this is still a band who play gigs for £7 a ticket and get dropped off at rehearsals by their mums. Next: how a converted chapel, fifteen days, and one producer turned a Sheffield buzz into the fastest-selling debut album in British history.
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