Arctic Monkeys cover star: Still smoking Posted by: Ashley Birch 19th January 2018

Arctic Monkeys cover star 11 years apart

11 years on we recreated THAT Arctic Monkeys album sleeve

Whatever People Say I am, That’s What I’m Notbecame the fastest selling debut album of all time after its release, but 11 years on what has become of its cover-star Chris McClure? VIBE caught up with him for a chat over a pint to find out.

“It’ll never leave me, man,” said Chris. “I’ll get like 30 friend requests from Mexico on Facebook one day and it’s because Arctic’s have done a press release there. It’s mental.”

Chris, now 31, was 19 when the photo was taken and is a long-time friend of the Arctic Monkeys, after they met on the number 74 bus.

In the early days of the band Chris could loosely be described as a guitar tech for the band, while he was still living and studying at university in Manchester.

One day he received a phone call out of the blue from Alex Turner asking him to take a few promo shots for the band.

“The idea was it was going to be a week in this guy’s life, from Friday tea time to Sunday night. Every photo matched up to a song and I think originally it was going to be called, ‘A Weekend With...’

The band felt that these first photos didn’t work for the cover because they were asking Chris to act drunk.

Chris said: “Everything had to be authentic with them. They said you’ve got to go back to Liverpool to get bladdered, basically!

“They gave us wads of hundreds and said don’t come back until you’ve spent it! I remember thinking I’m gonna need an ambulance after this!”

For a while thigs went back to normal, and then the album came out!

The papers were after him, he’d hear people whispering at uni and his mom even had two reporters turn up at her doorstep.

He said: “It was like being dipped in fame for a month. I loved it. There were middle aged women who didn’t know Alex’s face but they knew mine!

“We used to laugh about it, like where do you think the weirdest place my head has been? Has it been in Buckingham Palace? Jacko’s house?”

He partied for three months and had a less than successful semester, but gradually things settled back down.

These days Chris is working for Sheffield city council as a support planner but still has ambitions to be in the spotlight again, after starting his web series 'Steve Bracknell', about a Sunday league football manager going through a mid-life crisis.

More recently he has embarked on a project to create a new podcast, The Owl Sanctuary, about his beloved SWFC. More on that soon.