Alongside me were trusty companions Cyl and Ed the Knife, not all was well and good though. Having had jets of puke fly out my mouth and nose, due to the shit Carlsberg ( must have been) on sale, then taking an age for the band to come on, this had better be worth the wait I said to myself, complete with spicy rancid breath.
But indeed it was. There was a good atmosphere in here tonight, a good mix of crowd too. People were celebrating St. George’s day, and were in full George Cross regalia, party bowler hats included. I didn’t think we celebrated it in this Country? Don’t tell Gordon Brown, he’ll tax the arse off of us for it.
Having been around since 2002, with a few releases up their sleeves, Milburn are fast, furious of pace and know how to put on a show. Having come from the hottest City around, Sheffield, there have been the inevitable comparisons with the Artic Monkeys. But they're largely irrelevant: or a start Joe Carnall the lead singer, has a deeper voice than Alex Turner, not so George Formby, and his excellent climaxing quarks and wheezes are similar to that of The Zutons very own Dave McCabe.
So we have a well crafted voice, with a fluid and deeper sound than that of the Artic Monkeys. These are a band in their very own right, thank you very much, sailing through the deadly ocean that is the music business, dealing with sharks on the way, mostly telling them to “fuck off”.
A sound is created that you can't help but sway to at first, then get to the chorus you can't help go into a demonic jig. Also Carnall as a front man is very entertaining and has a great sense of humour, which is refreshing to hear, not another band with an uber cool front man who finds it so hard and un-cool to have any sort of audible interaction with the crowd. Cracking jokes and making funnies is the way forward like. The make-up of this quarter is such a simple uncomplicated one, fierce guitars, hard marching-fashion drums to match the enthusiasm and energy,it simply makes for class listening.
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‘Well Well Well’ is the title track off their new album, a real gem of a jump-about and go mental tune. It had people of all ages moshing and crowd surfing, not your usual 16 emo-alike.
One track sounded like the intro for UB40’s ‘Red Red Wine’. I was worried then, I needn’t have been though,for Milburn could have farted down the mic for 10 minutes and it would been better than UB40’s greatest hits. Besides, the tune then kicked into to a wonderful mish-mash of indie punk funk. Another great tune played was ‘What You Could Have Won’, in a killer spoken story style, with a clanging guitar speeding up until the chorus of mayhem.
It was great to see people enjoying the music for what it is, not for the scene or because the NME told them to like it. It shows there is enough room for 2 similar(ish) bands from the same town. Next time they're in town, definitely have a squint.
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