The Milltown Brothers - Simon Nelson - The God Cast Interview
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 6 ก.พ. 2025
- Coming From The Mill
From Colne in Lancashire, the Milltown Brothers first burst onto the indie scene in 1989 with the ‘Coming From The Mill EP’ getting single of the week in NME.
Second indie single ‘Which Way Should I Jump’ started a bidding war between the majors.
Signing to A&M worldwide in 1990, WWSIJ was re-recorded & broke into the UK charts at Number 38. America liked it & put it to Number 10 in the US Rock Chart.
The album - Slinky - was a revelation and pushed the boundaries for their peers. Defying the critics who had incorrectly labelled them as baggy the MBs delivered an absolute classic album of catchy, punchy songs, perfectly paced & well-balanced.
The album received a maximum 5 Stars in Q Magazine
Disaster struck with the release of their next single ‘Here I Stand’. Playing 3 times a day in independant record shops up & down the country for weeks before the release, the appearances helped the single achieve a predicted entry into the Top 20. The UK Record Industry however, due to the volume of sales from the shops played in, decided to ‘weight’ the single, fearing chart-rigging. The single missed entry into the charts (along with a planned TOTP performance) & peaked at Number 41.
A&M bottled it & despite new material being ready for release that year - they put the band ‘on the shelf’ for 2 years and eventually picked the songs for their 2nd studio album - ‘Valve’.
The album fared less well than Slinky, receiving average reviews. With a generally disappointing choice of songs, time has since shown that a dynamite second album could have been released, had the band been allowed to go their own way. After years of contractual exile, a tour which received no advertising & singles released which the band did not even want on an album - the band walked from A&M.
It took 10 years for the band to work together again & in March 2004, they released their third studio album - Rubberband. Critically acclaimed & probably their finest release, Rubberband came out on their own label and was made available via the website at www.milltownbro.... Playing to their strengths, it once more demonstrated their head for melody, band dynamic & Matt Nelsons strongest set of songs yet heard. Described in Record Collector as ‘a faultless third album’, it is one of few truly great UK band albums to be released since 2000.
Top man Simon...I saw you at the Boardwalk and Paul Ryder from the Happy Mondays must have heard our accents because he asked us if we were with the band to which we replied no we have come to see them and he said "same here, I've heard great things about these guys" He bought us all a red stripe which was really nice of him...fond memories of following the MB's back in the day...Great interview by the way...bottom line is...people love and really miss the band. It's a testament to the music old and new👏🏻
19:50 yes I saw them live in '93 at the elephant(?) in Taunton and prob only 100 people there. - it was however my first ever gig, so kind of a special memory!
Great interview and looking forward to the next Lancaster gig. I thought you may have mentioned ‘Here I stand ‘ being used on the Tv programme ‘All Quiet On The Preston Front ‘ I sat next to Alister McGowan at a function and he loved chatting about East Lancs
great interview. Thanks for sharing. Awesome band. Saw them at Reading Festival and they were a highlight back in er....1991 I think ?
Yes they played the mean fiddler stage on the Saturday at Reading 91'...they also did Reading 92' on the Friday with PJ Harvey, P.I.L. The Charlatans, to name a few
I think the venue you was trying to remember was the Astoria