Arctic Monkeys
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50 free Arctic Monkeys trivia questions with answers — music quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
Arctic Monkeys went from giving away demo CDs at Sheffield gigs to the fastest-selling debut album in British chart history in about three years, and then kept going: seven albums, seven Brit Awards, five Mercury nominations and a second career-defining moment with AM in 2013. These 50 questions track the whole run. The early years: the first gig, the fan-made MySpace page, the Domino deal, the cover that annoyed NHS Scotland and the bassist who left. The middle: Brianstorm, clown costumes on Jonathan Ross, Old Trafford, Josh Homme in the desert and the single whose stock burned in the London riots. Then AM, the Olympics cover, the piano album inspired by French crime films, the Royal Albert Hall show for War Child, and the album Taylor Swift kept off No. 1. The hard tier asks about Death Ramps, the Bang Bang label, Knee Socks and Jean-Pierre Melville. Every answer is cited to a page we checked, with a short explanation so you learn something either way. Play it solo or print it for an indie pub quiz.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Arctic Monkeys formed in which English city?
Sheffield
Sheffield. When the band came home for two park shows in 2023, the 74,000 fans who turned up were reckoned to have brought the city more than £4 million.
Q 02Alex Turner wrote the soundtrack songs for which 2010 coming-of-age film, directed by his friend Richard Ayoade?
Submarine
Submarine. Turner said he didn't feel qualified to score a film but made an exception for Ayoade, who had directed several of the band's videos.
Q 03Who is Arctic Monkeys' drummer?
Matt Helders
Matt Helders. He never set out to drum: the others already had guitars when the friends formed the band, so he bought a kit because it was "the only thing left".
Q 04Which Arctic Monkeys guitarist was Turner's neighbour?
Jamie Cook
Jamie Cook. He and Alex Turner each got a guitar for Christmas in 2001, and the two presents became a band the following summer, with Turner agreeing to sing only reluctantly.
Q 05Which co-founder left Arctic Monkeys in 2006, shortly after the debut album?
Andy Nicholson
Andy Nicholson. He sat out a North American tour with fatigue, his stand-in stayed for good, and he later called being told he was out "soul destroying".
Q 06Who replaced Arctic Monkeys' original bassist in 2006?
Nick O'Malley
Nick O'Malley. A childhood friend of the band, he was borrowed from the Dodgems for one North American tour and stayed on when the original bassist did not come back.
Q 07What is the title of Arctic Monkeys' debut album?
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not
Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not. Fans had swapped the band's free demo CDs online for two years, so many already knew its songs of pubs and clubs by heart.
Q 08Which Arctic Monkeys debut single went straight to UK No. 1?
I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor
I Bet You Look Good on the Dancefloor. It knocked the Sugababes off number one in October 2005, and within months the pop trio had recorded their own cover of it as a B-side.
Q 09Which Arctic Monkeys single, their second UK No. 1, went by the working title "Scummy"?
When the Sun Goes Down
When the Sun Goes Down. The band called it "Scummy" at first, but the drummer said they realised it wasn't just about one scummy man, and Alex Turner felt the name was unfair on the district around their rehearsal room.
Q 10To which independent label did Arctic Monkeys sign in June 2005?
Domino
Domino. With major labels chasing them, they chose an independent whose owner was a fan of the band and signed only acts he personally liked.
Q 11Accepting the 2006 Mercury Prize, Alex Turner joked that someone should call 999 because which fellow nominee had "been robbed"?
Richard Hawley
Richard Hawley. His album Coles Corner was on the same shortlist, and the friendly dig did no harm: Hawley later co-wrote and sang on one of the band's B-sides.
Q 12Which closing track of Arctic Monkeys' second album did the band call their first proper love song?
505
505. The title is said to be the number of a hotel room its narrator is racing back to, over an organ line that appears to be lifted from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly.
Q 13Arctic Monkeys took the title of their debut album from a line in which British film of 1960?
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning
Q 21Which single, released just ahead of Arctic Monkeys' second album, reached No. 2 in the UK?
Brianstorm
Brianstorm. A stranger called Brian walked into their dressing room in Japan in a T-shirt and tie, and the unnerved band held a brainstorm about him afterwards.
Q 22Which single did Arctic Monkeys perform on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross in 2007 dressed as clowns?
Fluorescent Adolescent
Fluorescent Adolescent. The costumes copied its video, in which a gang of clowns brawls with rivals, and the lyrics began as a word game Alex Turner played with his girlfriend on holiday.
Q 23In March 2012 Arctic Monkeys toured North American arenas as the support act for which band?
The Black Keys
Saturday Night and Sunday Morning. Alex Turner liked the fit, since the album's songs of pubs and clubs themselves run from a Saturday night to a Sunday morning.
Q 14In 2006 Arctic Monkeys took the fastest-selling debut album record from which TV talent-show group?
Hear'Say
Hear'Say. The Popstars winners' five-year-old UK record fell to a band that had given its early songs away, and first-day sales alone beat the rest of the top 20 combined.
Q 15A senior NHS Scotland doctor criticised the cover of Arctic Monkeys' debut album for appearing to endorse what?
Smoking
Smoking. The sleeve shows a friend of the band with a cigarette, and their label replied that the picture made it plain smoking was "not doing him the world of good".
Q 16What name did fans give Arctic Monkeys' early collection of free demo recordings?
Beneath the Boardwalk
Beneath the Boardwalk. The first fan to pass the untitled CDs around online named the files after the venue where he had been handed his copy, and the label stuck.
Q 17At which hometown venue did Arctic Monkeys play their first gig in June 2003?
The Grapes
The Grapes. They opened for another local band at the pub with a short set that was mostly covers, and Alex Turner later said he kept his eyes shut throughout.
Q 18Which social network, launched in 2003, is credited with helping Arctic Monkeys find their early audience?
MySpace
MySpace. The songs spread because the band handed out free demo CDs at gigs and fans shared the tracks online, so crowds knew every word before a record was out.
Q 19Alex Turner said the arrival of which band changed the music he listened to and the shoes he wore?
The Strokes
The Strokes. "I grew my hair out and borrowed my mum's blazer," he said, and years later he opened the band's sixth album with the line "I just wanted to be one of the Strokes".
Q 20What is the title of Arctic Monkeys' second album?
Favourite Worst Nightmare
Favourite Worst Nightmare. The day it went to number one, all twelve of its tracks also entered the singles Top 200, as fans downloaded the songs one by one.
The Black Keys. Used to topping the charts at home, the band spent fifteen dates as the support act for the Ohio duo while they built an American following.
Q 24Under what pseudonym did Arctic Monkeys release 250 vinyl copies of B-sides in 2007?
Death Ramps
Death Ramps. Their label played along, saying it couldn't reveal who they were, only that they were "a band with A Certain Romance", the title of one of the group's own songs.
Q 25At Glastonbury 2007 Arctic Monkeys covered a song originally sung by whom?
Shirley Bassey
Shirley Bassey. Headlining on the Friday, they played her Bond theme "Diamonds Are Forever" as a salute, two days before Bassey herself sang on the same stage.
Q 26Where did Arctic Monkeys play two sold-out open-air shows in July 2007?
Old Trafford Cricket Ground
Old Trafford Cricket Ground. They ran the two days as their own mini-festival, with Amy Winehouse, Supergrass and the Coral on the bill, and drew comparisons with Oasis at Knebworth.
Q 27What is the name of Alex Turner's side project with Miles Kane?
The Last Shadow Puppets
The Last Shadow Puppets. The pair became friends when Kane's band supported Arctic Monkeys on tour in 2005, and their orchestral debut album went straight to number one.
Q 28What is the title of Arctic Monkeys' third album, released in 2009?
Humbug
Humbug. Made largely with Josh Homme in the Californian desert, it traded their rapid-fire garage rock for a slower, darker sound that later albums kept exploring.
Q 29Josh Homme, who produced most of Arctic Monkeys' third album, fronts which band?
Queens of the Stone Age
Queens of the Stone Age. The favour later ran both ways: Homme sang on the band's album AM, and Alex Turner guested on a Queens of the Stone Age record the same year.
Q 30What was the lead single from Arctic Monkeys' third album?
Crying Lightning
Crying Lightning. Radio 1 aired it first, and its video, directed by Richard Ayoade, has the band playing on a small boat tossed about on a rough sea.