HELLO
GOODBYE
Andy Nicholson and Arctic Monkeys
They began as schoolfriends in Sheffield. Then it ended suddenly with the cruellest timing.
Snooker loopy: Arctic Monkeys (from left) Alex Turner, Jamie Cook, Matt Helders, Andy Nicholson, 2006.
Andy Willsher/Getty (2)
HELLO SEPTEMBER 2002
I joined Stocksbridge High School in Sheffield at the start of year eight, and the first two people I talked to were Alex [Turner] and [Matt] Helders. We were just mates before any type of instruments were happening, learning to skateboard and rollerblade and drink for the first time together.
Al’s dad was a music teacher, so there were instruments lying about, and one day Al said, “I’ve learned some chords on a guitar.” There and then it was like, Let’s start a band. At the time we were listening to a lot of hip-hop, but The Strokes had released their first album not long before then, and then it was The White Stripes and The Libertines, so that energy was coming over here as well.