Alex Turner

16 years ago today, last night's Electric Picnic headliners Arctic Monkeys won the Mercury Prize for their classic debut album, Whatever People Say I Am, ...

We like to work on the rhythms as much as I work on lyrics cos it’s so important. And when the opportunity to do a band came along I thought, ‘Fantastic, I’d be right up for making stuff.’” I mean, I really like The Smiths, but I got into them a good year after the band had started, probably. “If we have to just do summat on the spot we’re fuckin’ rubbish. The subjects were just from when we were going out a lot.” “I used to be into hip-hop at school, Roots Manuva and a few other things, this guy called Braintax. The good news is the forthcoming debut, rejoicing in the characteristically contrary title of Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not, is just as much of a blast as the single. “I was on the bar one night at this place I used to work in, The Fall were playing and John Cooper Clarke were supporting them, I thought he was fantastic. So we haven’t bypassed that stage as much as people think, it’s just it leapt up so quickly at the end of last year, people assume we came out of nowhere. The thing about that is, there’s no point in a band from Sheffield pretending they’re from New York or wherever. “Yeah, there’s a bit of a sneer sometimes, but it’s celebrating it as well. It’s more difficult nowadays, but yeah, it’s not always a sneering sort of thing.”