Alex Turner Arctic Monkeys in mid-2002. In the early days of the band, Helders has recalled that Turner "wasn’t necessarily going to be the singer" but was the obvious candidate for lyricist: "I knew he had a thing for words." Before playing a live show, the band rehearsed for a year in both Turner and Helders' garages and, later, at an unused warehouse in Wath. Turner gradually began to share lyrics with his bandmates. According to Helders' mother, who drove the teenagers to and from their rehearsal space three times a week: "If they knew you were there, they would just stop
Humbug (album) exception of the album's singles, which were handled by session and touring keyboardist John Ashton. The presence of new percussion instruments was also evident, as the band used xylophones, glockenspiels and shakers. Early soundbites of tracks from the album appeared in the band's periodical video diary on YouTube. While being interviewed for the BBC's "The Culture Show", Turner and Matt Helders cited Jimi Hendrix, Cream, Jake Thackray, John Cale, Nick Cave, Roky Erickson and The Beatles as influences on the recording of the album. The first single of the album was "Crying Lightning". It was released on 6 July, when