‘Beneath the Boardwalk’: How a CD burner delivered the Arctic Monkeys to the masses
Before there was TikTok, social media, or easy ways to get music out into the world as a young band of mates trying to get things underway, there was simply a CD burner and a dream. The humble demo tape is truly the thing music history all stems from, with so many of the biggest acts throughout time getting their big break from a few promising early tracks recorded cheaply and scrappily and handed out to anyone who would listen. That’s really how the tale of Arctic Monkeys begins.
Ask anyone in Sheffield, and they’ll probably come out with some story about how their cousin’s mate’s sister was at the first-ever Arctic Monkeys gig. It’s a city that’s incredibly proud of its musical history, holding Alex Turner and the band up as some of its more beloved children, alongside Jarvis Cocker, Richard Hawley, Def Leopard, Self Esteem and more. Everyone seems to find a way to connect themselves to the earliest days of the group when they were found playing the city’s smallest stages, like The Grapes or The Boardwalk. But there’s one relic that can prove they were there: a copy of the band’s Beneath The Boardwalk CD.
For early fans who were truly there for those first shows, they could have got their hands on a piece of history. At the time, it was probably just a novelty. With an audience that was mostly full of friends or friends of friends, the Arctic Monkeys boys were only starting to make real moves. After forming in 2002, they started rehearsing at Yellow Arch Studios, and in 2004, they decided it was time to try out recording for the first time and get some of their original songs on tape, just in case they could get it into the hands of any industry heads.
But while some bands might have a handful of half-decent tunes early on in their lifespan, Arctic Monkeys were always something special. For Beneath The Boardwalk, they recorded 18 tracks, including almost all of the songs that populated their 2006 debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not. The hits were already there; ‘Dancing Shoes’, ‘Fake Tales Of San Francisco’, ‘Mardy Bum’, ‘Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor’. They’re not even just rough shells of the songs the world knows, either. Those original demos are fully formed things, with the debut album’s final takes merely needing a slight polish and a good producer.
With the songs recorded and a CD burner at their disposal, the band got to work with their own production plant. For each small gig, they’d rip enough copies to hand out for free. As word of the group spread and their reputation heightened, the CDs were passed around like golden contraband as music fans of the north had an early insight into the band that would inevitably be huge. With all the potential bottled in those tracks, even if they were just demos on a cheap CD, it was impossible for anyone to deny that it was something special.
At some point, someone uploaded the tunes to a file-sharing site, expanding the secret beyond the band’s own scope of handouts. It wasn’t even the band’s own doing. “People used to share them on the Internet, which was a good way for everyone to hear it. So we used to share — not us personally, we don’t even know how to do it — but fans did,” Matt Helders explained. “There’s a guy who has come along to film us — two guys, actually; one of them is the main guy who put the songs on the Internet. So the fans just used to send them to each other, which didn’t bother us because we never made those demos to make money or anything.”
It was a tried-and-tested genius idea that helped the band on all levels get their name out there, prove their musical potential, and even make their shows better. “It made the gigs better, because people knew the words and came and sang along,” Helders said.
Soon, with full rooms of fans screaming their words back at them, the rest was history. Any A&R person would walk into a venue and witness the scenes Arctic Monkeys were causing, having fostered their own cultish following, and instantly make moves to sign them. Domino merely got there first. Having heard the demo tape, somehow landing in the label owners’ hands as they were passed around even further afield, and seen the self-made music videos they’d created with the help of some video camera-slinging fans, Beneath The Boardwalk bagged them a deal.
But it was bigger than that. Beneath The Boardwalk is proof that the band were always going to be giant. Sure, the sound is already there, along with the tracks that would make their name. But it’s the initiative to make it happen, the time spent ripping CDs just to hand them out for free, and the way they managed to create such a buzz around themselves off the band of the tape that seemed to solidify their golden path. Arctic Monkeys always had the talent to make it happen, but this early CD proves they had the drive, too.
