Wait, Nobody Noticed This Guy on the Arctic Monkeys Album Cover for Years—And His Real Identity Will Blow Your Zodiac Sign Right Out of the Ice!
Added on May 18, 2025 inMusic News Cards
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Isn’t it wild how some images just stick with us—etched into the cultural zeitgeist so deep you practically recognize them in your sleep? Take the Arctic Monkeys’ debut album cover, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not—that stark black-and-white shot of a seemingly ordinary bloke puffing on a cigarette. No matter if you stan the band or not, it’s a cover that rivals the legendary status of Abbey Road and Nevermind. That effortless British charm captured in a single frame somehow propelled this unassuming lad to iconic fame. Now, here’s a cosmic tickler for you: with Mercury retrograde causing us to question all things familiar, who better to wonder about than the face behind the photo? Turns out, the gent’s got a next-level double life as a cheeky Sunday League football manager on TikTok, proving the stars love a good plot twist—just like the man himself. Ready to unravel this strangely celestial tale?
You don’t have to be an Arctic Monkeys fan to immediately recognise the cover of their album, Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not.
The iconic black and white snap of an ordinary-looking bloke puffing on a cigarette has gone down as one of the most iconic album covers ever, and that’s no mean feat when there’s competitors like The Beatles’ Abbey Road and Nirvana’s Nevermind.
The effortlessness and British-ness of the image is what makes the cover so great, and it no doubt propelled the unassuming man to international levels of recognition.
But some are only just discovering who he actually is, and many simply can’t believe it.
Arctic Monkeys’ Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I’m Not holds one of the most iconic album covers ever (Domino Recording Company)
Chris McClure was just 16 years old when he first met the Sheffield lads who made up the Arctic Monkeys: Alex Turner, Matt Helders, Jamie Cook, Andy Nicholson, and Nick O’Malley.
Recalling how he got his face on the album cover to The Guardian in 2016, McClure said: “We’d go to the same gigs, then see each other on the number 77 [bus] – so we became friends.”
When he was a student in Manchester, he got a call from bassist Nicholson saying they wanted pictures of a guy on a night out for the artwork of their debut album.
Chris McClure met the lads from the Arctic Monkeys when he was just 16 (Twitter/@chrismcclure86)
McClure agreed and later met up with a photographer and assistants in a Liverpool bar, to which they allegedly gave him a wad of cash and told him to ‘go out, get drunk and come back after midnight’.
When the student returned after 2am, he recalled: “[It was] just me sat on a stool. They gave me more whisky and I threw up half way through. Everything was blurry.”
But lo and behold, the shot the band wanted was taken, and McClure went on to grace the cover of one of their most successful albums.
“I was pleased but I don’t think I grasped how massive it was going to be,” McClure said of the success, which he was paid £700 for. “It was only on the day the album was released, in January 2006, I thought, ‘S**t, what have I let myself in for?'”
He’s gone on to keep a relatively low profile… well, somewhat (Twitter/@chrismcclure86)
Though McClure went on to keep a relatively low profile, many fans have just come to the realisation of who he moonlights as… and they can’t believe it.
He is, indeed, the man behind a spoof TikTok Sunday League football account.
McClure portrays the fictional Steve Bracknall, an exaggerated version of an amateur football manager in the fake Sunday League team, Royal Oak FC.
His Steve Bracknall account on TikTok boasts over 600,000 followers, and many are in disbelief it’s the same guy from the album cover.
One wrote on Twitter: “Just found out this bloke is that Sunday league TikTok manager Steve Bracknall lol,” while a second added: “I actually can’t believe that it’s @SteveBracknall on the front of one of the greatest albums of all time.”
And another jokingly said: “Everyone only just finding out Steve Bracknall is the bloke on the AM album should be put on fraud watch.”
For those who just aren’t convinced it’s him, McClure took to Twitter himself to confirm the character is, indeed, him, writing: “2024 has been most intense year of my life. Loss of my dad being the most difficult. Bringing a baby up.
“Leaving my job. Having a business that just exploded across the country.
“All the while pretending to be the assistant manager of a Sunday league football club [laughing emoji]. Love you dad.”
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