Jamie Cook using a Gibson SG standard on stage live at Glastonbury on June 2013. Jamie Cook Jamie Robert Cook (born 8 July 1985) is an English guitarist and songwriter. He is best known as the lead guitarist and a founding member of the indie rock band Arctic Monkeys, with whom he has recorded six studio albums. Originally a next door neighbour of fellow band member Alex Turner, Cook and the other band members picked up their respective instruments and formed the Arctic Monkeys in 2001. He is the son of an engineer. He is the band's most outspoken member, going on
Alex Turner did not read regularly and was too self-conscious to share his writing with others. Nonetheless, he enjoyed English lessons. His teacher, Simon Baker, later remembered him as a clever pupil who was "quite reserved ... a little bit different." He noted that Turner had an "incredibly laid-back" approach to school work, which worried his mother. Turner then spent two years at Barnsley College (2002–2004), where he studied for A-levels in music technology and media studies, and AS-levels in English, photography and psychology. After watching friends perform in local bands, Turner, Helders, Nicholson and another friend, Jamie Cook, decided to form