乐队最初在谢菲尔德的Yellow Arch录音室进行排练，并于2003年6月13日在当地的the grapes酒吧进行了首场演出，在试演了几场秀后，他们开始录制歌曲，制作了包含17首歌的样本CD并在每场演出时赠送给观众，这样的形式使他们的作品很快的在歌迷中传播，样本CD的派发者为了让CD更好识别给CD取名为《Boardwalk》，随后这个名字在歌迷群中被广泛接受。 许多猴迷都误以为这张CD是他们最早期的专辑，当然北极猴自己也不介意“ 既然我们是以宣传作品为目的来免费派发这张样本CD,我们当然不在乎这些，反而这取得了更好地宣传效果。” 在接受一家杂志的采访时，北极猴也承认，在宣传上帮了大忙的My space北极猴页面是他们的热心歌迷弄得，他们自己起初根本不知道。

Beneath the Boardwalk was the name given to an unofficial collection of recorded tracks by Sheffield band Arctic Monkeys. Its name is a reference to a club the band often played at, "The Boardwalk". The collection is sometimes incorrectly called Beneath the Broadwalk.
Beneath the Boardwalk was available for download for free from local amateur photographer Mark "The Sheriff" Bull's webpage.
The collection consists of a large amount of demo tracks that had previously been released. The collection introduced a large number of people to the band, before the release of their first album, Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not and aided in making it the fastest-selling debut album in UK history.
The collection is no longer available from the original webpage, and must be obtained either from other websites or peer-to-peer file sharing networks. Due to the unofficial release of the album, several versions (each with different track listings) have circulated among fans.