Arctic Monkeys named by punk poet.

The Arctic Monkeys arrived at their name because of punk performer John Cooper Clarke.

The band’s frontman, Alex Turner, explained the 62-year-old poet had encouraged them in their nascent days and was one of the first people to show an interest in their name.

He said: “Johnny was the first person I’d ever met who really liked the name. And if he thought it was a good name, then we were definitely going to keep it.

“Before that, we used to tell people and they’d be like, ‘What? Why did you call yourselves that?’

“We interviewed each other a few years ago – his vocabulary and the way he describes things encourage you to get better.”

Manchester-born John, who is often referred to as ‘the bard of Salford’, opened for acts including the Sex Pistols and Joy Division in his early days and has built up a fan base with foul-mouthed odes to his home city.

Praising the poet, Alex said: “He’s got a terrific sense of humour and delivery. I used to pull pints in a bar in town where he’d come in to play. He’d come on stage and do his thing, with his carrier bag full of scraps of paper, really loose and disorganised – I could hear he was totally commanding the crowd.”