Best Alex Turner (Arctic Monkeys) Trivia on the internet!
100 Interesting facts:
1. His full name is Alexander David “Alex” Turner.
2. He was born on 6 January 1986) is an English musician.
3. Alex Turner was born in Sheffield to Penny and David Turner.
4. He is an only child and was raised in High Green, a suburb of Sheffield.
6. His mother is from Amersham and his father grew up in Sheffield.
7. Both parents worked at local secondary schools; his mother was a German teacher and his father taught physics and music at Rawmarsh Community School.
8. Alex Turner took piano lessons until the age of eight and was exposed to “all sorts” of music at home, including records by Frank Sinatra, The Carpenters, The Beatles, Led Zeppelin, The Beach Boys, David Bowie and The Eagles.
9. His father was a “jazz-head”,had been a member of big bands, and played the saxophone, clarinet and piano.
10. Turner was educated at Stocksbridge High School (1997–2002).
11. His form teacher, Mark Coleman, remembers him as a well-liked student who excelled at sports, particularly basketball.[13] His English teacher, Steve Baker, described him as “quite reserved … a little bit different, with a brightness and a cleverness that would serve him well.
12. Turner then spent two years at Barnsley College (2002–2004), where he studied English, psychology (for the first year), music technology and media.
13. After college, Turner’s parents reluctantly agreed to let him defer university for one year to pursue his musical ambitions.
14. During this time, he worked as a barman at the Sheffield venue The Boardwalk.
15. Before Arctic Monkeys signed a record deal, Turner was “half-heartedly” filling out university application forms and hoped to study in Manchester.
16. Alex Turner and Matt Helders became friends at the age of seven. They were neighbours and attended the same primary school.
17. They performed Oasis’s “Morning Glory” together in their final primary school assembly.
18. They met Andy Nicholson at secondary school and, for most of their teenage years, the three friends listened to rap artists such as Dr. Dre, Wu-Tang Clan, Outkast, Cypress Hill and Roots Manuva.
19. They spent their weekends “making crap hip-hop” beats using Turner’s father’s Cubase system.
20. Following the breakthrough of The Strokes, Turner was drawn to guitar bands including The Hives and The White Stripes.
21. Jamie Cook, a neighbour, introduced him to Queens of the Stone Age and The Coral and he first listened to The Libertines on Nick O’Malley’s Walkman during a bus ride from High Green to Barnsley College.
22. Alex Turner attended his first gig in 2002, watching The Vines in Manchester.
23. In 2003, at the age of sixteen, he travelled to London with Helders and Nicholson to watch The Strokes play at Alexandra Palace; they met Pete Doherty in the audience
24. Turner’s parents bought him a guitar for Christmas 2001.
25. In mid-2002, Turner, Cook, Nicholson and Helders decided to form a band, having watched friends including Milburn play at local pubs.
26. The name Arctic Monkeys was conceived by Cook.
27. Alex Turner initially did not want to be the singer; a number of schoolmates including Glyn Jones tried out before he became the frontman.
28. Their first gig was on Friday, 13 June 2003, supporting The Sound at a local pub called The Grapes. Their eight-song set comprised three covers and five self-composed songs.
29. Also in the summer of 2003, Turner played seven gigs in York and Liverpool as a rhythm guitarist for the funk band Judan Suki, after meeting the lead singer Jon McClure on a bus.
30. In August 2003, Turner recorded a demo with Judan Suki at Sheffield’s 2fly Studios and asked Alan Smyth if he would produce his other band.
31. Smyth introduced the band to Geoff Barradale, with whom he had once played in a band called Seafruit. Barradale became their manager after their third gig (at The Boardwalk) and paid for them to record four more three-song demos from late August 2003 to November 2004.
32. After finishing college in mid-2004, Turner worked as a barman at Sheffield music venue The Boardwalk and met well-known musicians including Richard Hawley.
33. In May 2005, they self-released their first EP, Five Minutes with Arctic Monkeys.
34. Arctic Monkeys signed to the independent label Domino Records after a bidding war in 2005. Their first album Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not (WPSIATWIN), released in January 2006, became the fastest-selling debut album in British music history.
35. Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, which is often considered to be a concept album, centered around nightlife in the UK.
36. Their second album, Favourite Worst Nightmare, was released in April 2007. They filmed a concert at the Manchester Apollo, where Richard Hawley made a guest appearance.
37. Turner recorded an album with Miles Kane, James Ford, and Owen Pallett.
38. They named the band The Last Shadow Puppets and the album, The Age of the Understatement, was released on 21 April 2008. It reached number one in its first week.
39. In October 2008, Turner made his debut as a short story writer, performing a spoken word track “A Choice of Three” on his bandmate’s compilation Late Night Tales: Matt Helders. Turner worked with Dizzee Rascal on the song “Temptation Greets You Like Your Naughty Friend” from Arctic Monkeys’ Brianstorm EP and “Temptation” from Rascal’s album Maths and English. Turner also appears in the Reverend and the Makers song “The Machine” from their first album The State Of Things
40. Arctic Monkeys’ third album, Humbug, was released in August 2009. The record was produced by Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age, whom Arctic Monkeys played a show with in Houston in October 2007.
41. Turner then wrote and performed all six tracks for the soundtrack for Submarine, the first feature film by Richard Ayoade, a friend and director of various Arctic Monkeys music video
42. He was named by The Guardian as one of the Great Lyricists, with Turner responding: “They spelt me name wrong as well. On the front, they missed the first r out of Turner, so unfortunately I was Alex Tuner, which is significant, as it really was a bit premature to induct me into that company”.
43. Turner has a reputation as a reluctant interviewee. Upon the release of Arctic Monkeys’ debut album, Turner and his bandmates became known for being uninterested in self-promotion and suspicion of the media, even abandoning a press event in Paris.
44. While Turner became known for “cocky onstage bravado”,he was generally “quietly spoken” in interviews.
45. Fidgety and intense, he’s the least talkative member of the group, chewing over his answers for so long that he ends up doubting his own words.