By distilling the sounds of Franz Ferdinand, the Clash, the Strokes, and the Libertines into a hybrid of swaggering indie rock and danceable neo-punk, the Arctic Monkeys became one of the U.K.'s biggest bands of the new millennium. Their meteoric rise began in 2005, when the teenaged bandmates fielded offers from major labels and drew a sold-out crowd to the London Astoria, using little more than a self-released EP as bait. Several months later, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not became the fastest-selling debut album in British history, entrenching the Arctic Monkeys in the same circle as multi-platinum acts like Oasis and Blur.

Frontman Alex Turner and guitarist Jamie Cook began their music careers in 2001, when the friends both received guitars for Christmas. Two years later, they began performing shows around their native Sheffield with drummer Matt Helders and bassist Andy Nicholson, two fellow students at Stocksbridge High School. A series of demo recordings followed, and the Arctic Monkeys' audience swelled as fans circulated those recordings via the Internet. The musicians soon found themselves at the center of a growing media circus, with such outlets as BBC Radio examining the band's music and mounting hype.

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By distributing their homemade material on the Internet, the Arctic Monkeys were able to build a rabid fan base without the help of a record label, effectively circumventing the usual road to superstardom. They continued to buck tradition by signing with Domino Records in 2005, eschewing a major label's help for Domino's D.I.Y. mentality and hip roster (which also included Franz Ferdinand, a touchstone for the band's sound). The smart moves paid off as the Arctic Monkeys' first two singles -- "I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor" and "When the Sun Goes Down" -- both topped the U.K. charts. Critical reception was similarly favorable, but few could have predicted the whirlwind success of the band's debut album, which ousted Oasis' Definitely Maybe as the fastest-selling debut in British history (a record that was lost one year later to Leona Lewis' Spirit). Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not sold 363,735 copies during its first week alone, transforming the Arctic Monkeys from underground stars into mainstream figures.

The Arctic Monkeys' debut sold approximately 300,000 total copies in America -- enough to warrant more media coverage, but notably less than the album's British sales during its first week alone. Nevertheless, the band's success continued as they released a spring EP, Who the F**k Are Arctic Monkeys, and prepared for a stateside tour. Temporary bassist Nick O'Malley was brought aboard for the band's American shows, while a fatigued Nicholson stayed at home. Nicholson then announced his official departure when the band returned home in  June 2006, and O'Malley remained with the Arctic Monkeys as a permanent member. That fall, the musicians received the 2006 Mercury Prize and donated the accompanying money to an undisclosed charity. Additional accolades included Best British Breakthrough Act at the Brit Awards and Best New Band at the NME Awards. NME also made a bold assertion by deeming the band's debut one of the Top Five British albums ever released.

Released in April 2007, Favourite Worst Nightmare updated the the Arctic Monkeys' sound with louder instruments and faster tempos. The bandmates had recorded the sophomore album quickly, wishing to return to the road as soon as possible, and the speedy turnaround between records only helped solidify the band's popularity at home. Favourite Worst Nightmare sold 85,000 copies during its first day of release, while all 12 tracks entered the Top 200 of the U.K. singles charts. As Alex Turner briefly turned his attention to a side project, the Last Shadow Puppets, the Arctic Monkeys received another Mercury Prize nomination and took home two titles at the 2008 Brit Awards.

Recording sessions for a third album commenced in early 2008 and lasted throughout the year. Meanwhile, the band released a concert album entitled Arctic Monkeys at the Apollo -- with accompanying video footage captured on 35mm film -- to maintain their prolific pace. ~ All Music Guide

Source: Andrew Leahey

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The leaders of the Scottish neo-pop uprising, Orange Juice formed in Glasgow in late 1976. Originally dubbed the Nu-Sonics, the group comprised vocalist/guitarist Edwyn Collins, guitarist James Kirk, bassist David McClymont and drummer Steven Daly; following the formation of the Postcard label by Collins protege Alan Horne, the quartet renamed itself Orange Juice in 1979, adopting the new moniker as well as an aura of romantic innocence as a direct reaction to the increasingly macho aggression of punk.

As Postcard's flagship band, Orange Juice quickly distinguished the label as a leading proponent of independent pop music; their 1980 debut single "Falling and Laughing," recorded for less than 100 pounds, garnered massive critical acclaim, and subsequent releases like "Blueboy," "Simply Thrilled Honey" and "Poor Old Soul" further established the group as a major new talent. Soon, sessions began for a full-length album; however, in the midst of recording, Orange Juice left Postcard to sign to Polydor, which funded the LP's completion. After the 1982 release of the album, titled You Can't Hide Your Love Forever, ex-Josef K guitarist Malcolm Ross joined the group, hastening the exit of Kirk and Daly (who went on to form Memphis) and paving the way for Zimbabwe-born drummer Zeke Manyika.

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Manyika's addition gave Collins the new capability of exploring a more complex fusion of pop and blue-eyed soul; consequently, 1982's Rip It Up was a more ambitious affair than its predecessor, veering from the buoyant Motown tribute "I Can't Help Myself" to the energetic pop of the title track, Orange Juice's lone Top Ten single. However, subsequent releases failed to chart, and relations between the group and Polydor began to disintegrate; amid these tensions, both Ross and McClymont quit, with Ross later resurfacing in Aztec Camera. Reduced to the duo of Collins and Manyika, Orange Juice enlisted reggae producer Dennis Bovell to record the 1984 EP Texas Fever.

After a makeshift tour, Collins and Manyika returned to the studio to record a dark, ambitious full-length effort; released in 1984, neither The Orange Juice nor its singles "What Presence?!" and "Lean Period" charted, and Collins was dropped from his contract, although Polydor kept Manyika on as a solo act. Only in 1995 did the stunning single "A Girl Like You" finally win Collins the commercial respect that had so long eluded him and his former bandmates. Later on, throughout the late '90s and early 2000s, the rise of Scottish bands as disparate as Belle & Sebastian and Franz Ferdinand won Orange Juice a younger set of fans, helped in great part by the 2005 compilation The Glasgow School. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide

Source: www.artistdirect.com

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Glasgow's art-damaged rock quartet Franz Ferdinand -- named for the Austro-Hungarian Archduke whose murder sparked World War I -- feature bassist Bob Hardy, guitarist Nick McCarthy, drummer Paul Thomson, and singer/guitarist Alex Kapranos.

In late 2001, Kapranos and Hardy had begun working on music together when they met McCarthy, a classically trained pianist and double bass player who originally played drums for the group despite no prior experience as a drummer. The trio had been rehearsing at McCarthy's house for a while when they met and started playing with Thomson, a former drummer for the Yummy Fur who felt like playing guitar instead. Eventually, McCarthy and Thomson switched to guitar and drums, and the band switched practice spaces, stumbling upon an abandoned warehouse that they named the Chateau.

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The Chateau became Franz Ferdinand's headquarters, where they rehearsed and held rave-like events incorporating music and art (Hardy graduated from the Glasgow School of Art, and Thomson also posed as a life model there). The bandmembers needed a new rehearsal space once their illicit art parties were discovered by the police, and they found one in a Victorian courthouse and jail. By summer 2002, they recorded an EP's worth of material that they intended to release themselves, but word of mouth about the band spread and Franz Ferdinand signed to Domino in the summer of 2003. The group's EP Darts of Pleasure, which led some to label Franz Ferdinand "the Scottish Interpol," was released that fall, and the band spent the rest of the year supporting groups such as Hot Hot Heat and Interpol. Franz Ferdinand's second single, Take Me Out, arrived in early 2004. The single propelled them to greater popularity in the U.K. and laid the groundwork for the band's debut album. Franz Ferdinand was released in February 2004 in the U.K. and a month later stateside.

Franz Ferdinand's success followed them across the pond; "Take Me Out" became a sizable modern rock hit, in part thanks to the song's cutting-edge video, which earned the Breakthrough Video award at that year's MTV Music Video Awards. The group's momentum continued with the release of the Michael single and Mercury Prize win over such artists as the Streets, Basement Jaxx, and Keane. Franz Ferdinand released their second album, You Could Have It So Much Better, in fall 2005. The bandmembers began writing songs for their third album that year, but scrapped them for a fresh set of songs that they planned to make into a "dirty pop" concept album. Franz Ferdinand tried out a few producers to help them go in a more dance and pop-influenced direction, including Erol Alkan and Xenomania, the production team behind many of Girls Aloud's hits, before deciding on Dan Carey, who had worked with Kylie Minogue, CSS, Hot Chip, and Lily Allen. The song "Lucid Dreams" appeared on the soundtrack to *Madden NFL 09 and was released on /iTunes in fall 2008; early in 2009, the single Ulysses arrived a week before the release of Franz Ferdinand's third album, Tonight. That summer, the band released Blood, an album featuring dub-inspired remixes of Tonight's songs.

artistdirect.com

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This information is provided as a brief overview and not as a definitive guide, there are other sources on the net for that. If however you have a story or information that is not generally known we would love to hear from you. Content@rokpool.com

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Equally inspired by Sonic Youth, Joy Division, Gang of Four, and The Cure, East London art punkers Bloc Party mix angular sonics with pop structures. Consisting of singer/guitarist Kele Okereke, guitarist Russell Lissack, bassist/singer Gordon Moakes, and drummer Matt Tong, the band was formerly known as Angel Range and Union before settling on Bloc Party. Okereke and Lissack met each other through mutual friends at the Reading Festival, and discovered that they had musical tastes as well as friends in common. Tong and Moakes soon joined their collaboration, and under the name Union, the quartet issued a demo in early 2003; later that year, they switched their name to Bloc Party. 

The group's demo and concerts began to attract attention from both the press and their peers; Okereke sent a copy of the demo to Franz Ferdinand, who invited them to play at the Domino tenth anniversary bash in fall 2003. Early the following year, the band released one of the demo's tracks, "She's Hearing Voices," as a single on Trash Aesthetics. A few months later, Banquet/Staying Fat arrived on Moshi Moshi. That spring, Bloc Party signed to Wichita to release their full-length album in the U.K., and to Dim Mak for U.S. distribution. The band spent summer 2004 recording and touring.

Late that summer, Bloc Party, which collected the band's first two singles, arrived in the States. Their debut album, Silent Alarm, appeared early in 2005 and was released by Vice Records in the States to widespread acclaim. Later that year, Silent Alarm Remixed capitalized on the band's burgeoning popularity, as did the 2006 EP Helicopter. A Weekend in the City, Bloc Party's second proper album, followed in 2007. A Weekend in the City leaked onto the Internet months before the album's street date, which inspired Bloc Party to issue their third album, Intimacy, online in late summer 2008; the album was released on compact disc that fall.

In 2009, the band released the single One More Chance before they went on official hiatus to pursue their own projects.

Discography:

Silent Alarm (2005)
A Weekend in the City (2007)
Intimacy (2008)

Source: artistdirect.com, 

This information is provided as a brief overview and not as a definitive guide, there are other sources on the net for that. If however you have a story or information that is not generally known we would love to hear from you. Content@rokpool.com

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