Arctic Monkeys — Boardwalk and Boardroom, Sheffield

The Arctic Monkeys — Alex Turner, Jamie Cook, Andy Nicholson, and Matt Helders — formed at Stocksbridge High School on the northern outskirts of Sheffield and built their early following through an approach that was revolutionary in its simplicity: they pressed their demo recordings onto CDs and gave them away free at shows, particularly at the Boardwalk on Little Matlock Lane in Hillsborough and the Boardroom in Sheffield city centre. The CDs spread virally through the city and then across the country long before the band had a record deal, making them one of the first acts whose grassroots following pre-dated and drove their commercial success rather than following it.

The debut album "Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not" (2006) became the fastest-selling debut album in UK chart history at the time, selling 360,000 copies in its first week. The album's portraits of Sheffield nightlife — the queue at the takeaway, the girls in heels, the lads trying their luck — were written with a lyrical precision and social observation that recalled the kitchen-sink realism of the Jarvis Cocker-era Pulp or the working-class reportage of The Streets. Alex Turner was 19 when the album was recorded.

Sheffield's claim on the Arctic Monkeys is strong and the city has recognised their significance. The Boardwalk venue closed, but the streets and venues of north Sheffield that Turner wrote about remain largely intact. The band's subsequent albums took them progressively further from their Sheffield origins — through Los Angeles aesthetics, Josh Homme collaborations, and the cosmic Americana of "Tranquility Base Hotel + Casino" — but the city remains their foundation.