High Green, Sheffield · 2002 to 2007
Before their first record, their songs went round Sheffield on free CD-Rs. Tap the tracklist on the disc.
High Green, on the northern edge of Sheffield
The band grew up in High Green, a northern suburb of Sheffield. As teenagers they hung around St Mary’s Field in High Green, lying on the grass and talking about music.
Around 2003 the four teenagers from High Green were dropped off here by their mums after school for their first proper practice sessions. They used rehearsal room three to work up the songs that became their debut album.
Yellow Arch · RehearsalRoom 3
Nobody has signed in yet.
Shay House Lane, Stocksbridge, north-west Sheffield · Summer 2002
The band met and formed while they were at Stocksbridge High School. In the summer of 2002, aged about 16, they started playing together in the school’s music room in their lunch hours.
A working secondary school. See it from Shay House Lane; the grounds are not open to visitors.
30–36 Burton Road, Neepsend, Sheffield
Yellow Arch calls itself the band’s former rehearsal space. It is still a recording studio and a venue.
A working recording studio and venue with a courtyard. Go to a gig: Yellow Arch lists its shows on its own site.
Alex Turner often opens gigs by telling the crowd the band are from High Green, Sheffield. Matt Helders put 0114, Sheffield’s dialling code, on his drum kit for the AM tour.
Sheffield
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Compare tours80 Trippet Lane · 13 June 2003
Arctic Monkeys played their first gig at The Grapes on 13 June 2003, when they were 16. They had rehearsed for six months in a warehouse in Neepsend first. Alex Turner had never been on a stage before.
Turner says the set lasted about 25 minutes and that he kept his eyes shut for most of it.
The room is lit. Ready when you are.
About 40 people saw it. Three songs from the night were recorded. Two of them, Ravey Ravey Ravey Club and Curtains Closed, later turned up among the Beneath the Boardwalk demos.
A working pub. The room where they played is now accommodation, so drink in the bar downstairs.
Sheffield city centre
A four-star hotel of 89 rooms in a building first designed as a grammar school, on Leopold Square, a short walk from The Grapes on Trippet Lane. 5% off when you book direct; parking nearby at £16 a day.
See rooms
2fly, John Street · Autumn 2003
Arctic Monkeys recorded 17 tracks here in five and a half days, in the autumn of 2003. They became the demos known as Beneath the Boardwalk. The band handed out free CD-Rs of the demos at their gigs, and fans burned the discs again and shared the songs online.
The disc is blank.
Snig Hill, Sheffield city centre
Alex Turner worked behind the bar here, and the venue gave its name to the band’s first demos. It was here that Turner asked Alan Smyth of 2fly to come and see his other band, Judan Suki, play.
The building, a jazz club in the 1930s, also hosted The Clash’s first gig under an earlier name. It closed after breaches of licence under its last name, Bassbox. In 2021 the council accepted a bid to list it as an asset of community value.
The venue has closed. See the building from Snig Hill.
Stag Works and Harland Works, John Street, Sheffield
Alan Smyth set up 2fly as a one-man studio in October 2001, in a small concrete shack in Stag Works. Smyth heard the band’s American-sounding accents fade as the sessions went on, and heard fans singing the words back at gigs.
In November 2008 the studio moved next door, into Harland Works.
Working buildings on John Street, near Bramall Lane. Look from the street; the studio is not open to callers.
South Thoresby, in the Lincolnshire Wolds · 2005
The building was a Wesleyan Methodist chapel, built in 1874 to seat 100. It closed in 1980 and was turned into a recording studio.
Jim Abbiss chose it for the debut album because he knew it well and the band were wary of London. They could drive there from Sheffield in about an hour and a half.
Put each part in its place.
He wanted them live. They played together in the main room on headphones, the guitar amps in a booth and the bass amp in a corridor, with almost no overdubs except Turner’s lead vocal. The album took about 15 days. The studio is in the Lincolnshire Wolds, about ten minutes’ drive from the coast.
A working studio in a small village, booked by bands. The pin marks the village; see the old chapel from the lane, as it is not open to callers.
117–123 Church Road, Barnes, London SW13
Jim Abbiss and Simon Barnicott mixed I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor here, live, with no automation. The band heard the mix and asked to hear it again.
The mix is done.
The studio closed in February 2009. Olympic Studios Barnes is now a cinema with a bar and bistro, a members’ club and a recording studio.
Now a cinema with a bar and bistro. Go to a film.
London
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Compare toursOctober 2005 · then 2006
The single came out in October 2005 and went straight to number one. The album sold 363,735 copies in its first week, then the fastest-selling debut in the UK.
Each case here stands for 10,000 copies, so the week needs 37.
One burned CD-R. Nothing in the shops yet.
2005 to 2007 · measured from High Green, as the crow flies
Richfield Avenue, Reading
In 2005 they played the Carling Stage tent at Reading with no official release out, only Myspace tracks and the Beneath the Boardwalk demos.
The tent was about twice over capacity before they came on. They played eight songs.
Turner’s black Stratocaster was on stage with them again at Reading in 2006.
The 2027 festival runs from 26 to 29 August.
Meadows by the Thames outside festival time. You need a festival ticket to reach the stages.
Twice over capacity in 2005; the field is ready again in 2027.
Home · 19 September 2018
6 Leadmill Road, Sheffield city centre
Arctic Monkeys played the Leadmill regularly early on. In August 2020, with the venue shut by Covid, Alex Turner raffled the black Fender Stratocaster he had played at early shows, the Leadmill’s among them, for the Music Venue Trust.
The draw is open.
The raffle drew 14,410 supporters in 14 days and raised £128,544.
The building’s owner planned to reopen it in spring 2026 as Electric Studios. Check its listings before you go.
Broughton Lane, Attercliffe, east Sheffield
On 19 September 2018 the band played a homecoming show here, when it was called the FlyDSA Arena. Turner ended the night by telling the hall they were Arctic Monkeys from High Green.
NME put the Arena a few miles from the Boardwalk and The Grapes, where the early shows were.
A working arena, now named the Utilita Arena. Check its listings for shows.
12 places you can visit; 8 of the 12 are in High Green and Sheffield. The band’s family homes are private and are not on this map.
Pins mark public places; private homes are named but not pinned.
General reference · Public access · Coordinate precision: area · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A suburb of homes, pubs and fields on the city’s northern edge. Walk Wortley Road and the roads off it; the band’s family homes are private and are not named here.
General reference · Restricted access · Coordinate precision: site · Not an exact scene or camera position; not a visitor route. A working secondary school. See it from Shay House Lane; the grounds are not open to visitors.
High Green, on the northern edge of Sheffield
The band grew up in High Green, a northern suburb of Sheffield.
A suburb of homes, pubs and fields on the city’s northern edge. Walk Wortley Road and the roads off it; the band’s family homes are private and are not named here.
Shay House Lane, Stocksbridge, north-west Sheffield
The band met and formed while they were at Stocksbridge High School.
A working secondary school. See it from Shay House Lane; the grounds are not open to visitors.
Stay
The Leopold Hotel, a short walk from The Grapes.
Sheffield city centre
A four-star hotel of 89 rooms in a building first designed as a grammar school, on Leopold Square, a short walk from The Grapes on Trippet Lane. 5% off when you book direct; parking nearby at £16 a day.
See roomsGo there
Guided walks round Sheffield and London music tours on the marketplace.
Sheffield
Live marketplace results for guided walks round Sheffield. Check each itinerary for Kelham Island, the city centre and its music.
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Compare toursLondon
Live marketplace results for London music tours. Check each itinerary for its stops; Olympic Studios in Barnes is a cinema you can visit yourself.
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Compare toursWhat’s on
No Arctic Monkeys date after today has been announced. The festival where they filled a tent twice over in 2005 is back in August 2027.
Checking current event dates…
Take it home
An original 2022 Prague poster from our own store, sold out and kept for reference, a biography, and the EP, the first single and the first two albums.
An original 2022 gig poster for the band in Prague, by Dan Stiles. 16.5 × 23.4 in, rolled, mint.
Sold out · archive reference
View posterBen Osborne
A biography of the band, published by Omnibus Press.
Find the bookArctic Monkeys · CD, Bang Bang Recordings BANGBCD1, 2005
The 2005 EP on Bang Bang Recordings, before the Domino singles.
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Find a copyArctic Monkeys · CD single, Domino RUG212CD, 2005
Recorded at Chapel, mixed at Olympic, straight in at number one.
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Find a copyArctic Monkeys · CD, Domino WIGCD162, 2006
The debut album, played live in a Lincolnshire chapel.
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Find a copyArctic Monkeys · CD, Domino WIGCD188, 2007
The second album, from the year of Old Trafford.
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Find a copyDates, prices, rooms and stock change: confirm with the provider before you travel or buy. A stay or tour is described as a filming location only where the card says so.
Every place and moment behind this page, with sources.
12 of 12 places · 16 of 16 Moments
High Green, on the northern edge of Sheffield
Teenagers on the grass in High Green, talking about music.
Shay House Lane, Stocksbridge, north-west Sheffield
They start playing together at school in their lunch hours.
30–36 Burton Road, Neepsend, Sheffield
Dropped off by their mums for their first proper practice.
80 Trippet Lane, Sheffield city centre
The first gig, about 25 minutes, to about 40 people.
Snig Hill, Sheffield city centre
Turner works the bar at the Boardwalk and asks Alan Smyth to a gig.
Free CD-Rs of the demos handed out at gigs, burned again by fans and shared online.
Stag Works and Harland Works, John Street, Sheffield
Seventeen tracks in five and a half days at 2fly.
6 Leadmill Road, Sheffield city centre
Early shows at the Leadmill, on a black Stratocaster.
Turner raffles the black Stratocaster for small venues.
Broughton Lane, Attercliffe, east Sheffield
A homecoming at Sheffield Arena.
South Thoresby, in the Lincolnshire Wolds
The debut album, played live in a converted chapel in Lincolnshire.
117–123 Church Road, Barnes, London SW13
The single mixed live at Olympic; the band ask to hear it again.
I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor goes straight to number one.
Richfield Avenue, Reading
The Carling Stage tent at Reading, before any official release.
The same guitar on stage at Reading again.
Brian Statham Way, Old Trafford, Manchester
Their own mini-festival at Old Trafford, 50,000 a night.
