Did Arctic Monkeys nearly form an unlikely supergroup with Girls Aloud?
As it stands, Arctic Monkeys are one of the UK’s biggest bands and have been riding an incredible wave of success since their debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, was released in 2006. With a major stadium tour recently announced for 2023, the band can’t seem to get much higher.
However, their triumph hasn’t simply appeared out of nowhere. Arctic Monkeys have always been a British favourite, and they even made their impressive Glastonbury debut in 2007 as headliners.
Whether they were playing fancy dress to receive their Brit Awards or collaborating with Dizzee Rascal, it was impossible not to know about Arctic Monkeys in the 2000s. However, in 2007, frontman Alex Turner revealed they would be participating in another unlikely collaboration. He stated that the band had booked studio time with one of the 2000s biggest pop groups, Girls Aloud.
In 2007, backstage at The NME Awards, he said: “Sarah [Harding] and [Matt] Helders are going to do a collaboration. We’ve booked studio time. It’s going to be a bit electronic. They’d have good single covers. He’d have a white shirt on and a pencil tie. Probably not a pencil tie…they could have a good look.”
Harding claimed that “the big tip is we’re going to collaborate…I love these boys. They’ve got a strong future ahead of them.”
Turner continued: “Matt Helders and Sarah in Rockford Studios, that’s how it’s going to work. Down in Wales for two weeks,” before Helders added, “I’ve got a backing track ready for us. It won’t take two weeks, two days.” The drummer also joked: “It’s a shame it’s March because Sarah Harding was the February girl on my calendar.”
Although the Sheffield lads sound like they were joking about actually collaborating, that wasn’t the first time they had expressed admiration for the group. In 2006, two years after the release of Girls Aloud’s hit single ‘Love Machine’, the indie-rockers covered the track on BBC Radio 1’s Live Lounge. It was an unexpected cover for a band known for playing punk-infused guitars whilst singing about dingy nightclubs, youth subcultures, and prostitutes, yet it worked well.
Although an odd concept, a collaboration between Girls Aloud and Arctic Monkeys could’ve worked well. You only have to look at tracks such as ‘No Good Advice’ by the pop group, which features a guitar solo that wouldn’t sound out of place on Arctic Monkeys’ debut, to know that a duet between the two bands would be a match made in 2000s indie pop heaven.
