Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not is the debut album by Sheffield band Arctic Monkeys, released on 23 January2006. The band recorded the album at Chapel Studios, Lincolnshire, in September 2005 before embarking on their first world tour. The album became the fastest selling debut album in the UK since records began, selling over 360,000 copies in its first week and has since gone triple platinum in the UK.
The original release date was scheduled as 30 January2006, but was brought forward to 23 January2006 due to "high demand". Although the same was done with Franz Ferdinand, there remains continued speculation that the move was an attempt to counter the effects of the album's leak onto online file-sharing sites [1]. Although many of the tracks featured on the album were freely available to download in early 2005 from uploaded demo CDs given out by the band, the re-recorded album versions had also been leaked onto the internet by December 2005.
On the first day of its release, the album became the fastest selling debut rock album in British history, selling just under 120,000 copies. This figure meant more copies were sold in 24 hours than the former record holder - Oasis'Definitely Maybe, sold in a week. By the end of the week, the album had sold 363,735 copies - more than the rest of the Top 20 combined.
Its release in the United States on 21 February 2006 saw it become the second fastest selling debut indie album in history, turning over around 34,000 copies in its first week and achieving #24 in the album charts. The album also went to #1 in Australia.
Name
The week before its release, the source behind the album's name was revealed as a reference to northern actor Albert Finney and the 1960s film Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. The band are reportedly fans of old British '60s movies, and lead singer Alex Turner revealed to UK-tabloidThe Sun that the album is what the film is about. "Songs including "The View from the Afternoon", "Dancing Shoes", "Still Take You Home" and "From the Ritz to the Rubble" all cover that bit of the weekend and feature the same character."[2]
Cover sleeve
The image on the cover of the album is a photo of Chris McClure - a friend of the band - taken in the early hours of the morning after the band had given him, his cousin and his best mate, "seventy quid to spend on a night out" [3]. The image caused some controversy when the head of Scotland's NHS criticised the cover for "reinforcing the idea that smoking is OK" [4]. The band's product manager denied the accusation, and in fact suggested the opposite - "You can see from the image smoking is not doing him the world of good". In March 2006, McClure announced that he would be giving up smoking, due to lack of funds [5]. Billboard advertisements for the album used a similar image to the cover picture, but without the cigarette.
