The curious connection between Arctic Monkeys and Bring Me The Horizon
Arctic Monkeys and Bring Me The Horizon are two of the chosen headliners for the 2022 edition of Reading & Leeds Festival, and the two bands share an unlikely history that traces back to their teenage years.
Both groups have been on different paths to their destination as headline acts, with Arctic Monkeys racing out of the traps as teenagers and becoming the biggest band in Britain overnight. Their 2005 performance at the aforementioned festival was a moment in which the Sheffield natives realised they had really ‘made it’, and the following year, they returned with a billing behind the headline act. This year will be their third time topping the line-up Reading & Leeds, following slots in 2009 and 2014.
Meanwhile, Bring Me The Horizon’s road to festival success has been long and winding. They made their main stage debut in 2008 as the first band to perform at the festival in the morning, and very few were attendance. In contrast, everybody who attended Reading & Leeds in 2005 desperately attempted to clammer inside a tiny tent to witness Arctic Monkeys’ debut.
When Arctic’s first headlined the bash in 2009, Bring Me The Horizon were on the same stage that their fellow Yorkshiremen debuted four years earlier. Some 13 years later, they are finally at the top of the bill, and their name is sitting side by side with Alex Turner’s mob.
It’s remarkable that both bands born out of Sheffield have managed to climb to the pinnacle of British music. Even more astonishingly, Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oli Sykes was in the same school year – at Stockbridge High School – as all four members of the Arctic Monkeys. “I saw him at a festival two years ago, which was weird,” Sykes told Australian radio station Triple J. “He recognised me and was really excited. I couldn’t even believe he remembered who I were at all so was quite stoked on that.”
He added: “I went to school and college with him, and at that point, Arctic Monkeys were just kicking off. At that point, I (was) full on death-metal so I wasn’t interested whatsoever…he came up to me to give him one of their demos, and I threw it in the bin.”
Although he initially showed no interest in Arctic Monkeys, he now considers them one of his favourite bands. In conversation with Metal Hammer, Sykes named Favourite Worst Nightmare as one of his all-time favourites. “I wasn’t a big fan at the start,” he explained. “I went to school with them, and then I saw them on our local news, saying that they’d sold out Brixton Academy! I was a bit jealous, actually, (laughs)! I’m not really an indie fan, but they’re one of my favourite bands now.”
They both took different routes to get where they are today as two of the world’s biggest rock bands, but spookily, both Bring Me The Horizon, and Arctic Monkeys began their journey to Reading & Leeds at Stocksbridge High.
