A Meaningless Distraction from the Absolute Non End
Welcome to the Death By Milkfloat website
Death By Milkfloat were Jonny Dawe (bass), Steve Kelly (drums) and me, Phil Dolby on guitar and vocals. We were a spiky 3 piece indie-punk-funk band from Hull, North East England, who were in existence between 1986 and 1993.
We were part of a thriving late 80's Hull music scene that was mostly centred around the New Adelphi Club; Paul Jacksons famous "looks like a terraced house, because it is a terraced house" music venue, where we played our first and last gigs and several in between.
We just about managed to avoid the dreaded 'local band' tag by playing further afield quite regularly. Gigs in London, Edinburgh and Newcastle were often shared with like-minded sonic noise merchants such as the Dog Faced Hermans and Wolfhounds, and in 1992 we played a short UK tour with Mike Watt's Firehose.
Whilst never reaching the heady heights of pop music superstardom, we did put out a few records, recorded a couple of well received John Peel Sessions, and had a fair amount of (mostly) complimentry coverage in the music press.
Our sound was a noisy mixture of alternative influences; Gang of Four, Beefheart, Minutemen and Sonic Youth were common references. Our approach was often bolshy and confrontational - love us, hate us, but never ignore us - and it's true to say that our art school background meant that we did dally with the avant-garde from time to time; and weren't averse to the odd 10 minute feedback soundscape!
Our earliest songs were whimsical in nature, always short and to the point, and with lots of stop-start sections, time changes and false endings. As we developed over seven years, though, the songs became longer, denser and definitely began to groove a little more.
The Milkfloat ethos was always to "keep it tight", and on our day we were a pretty good live band. The handful of singles and e.p's we put out never really captured that live sound as we wanted, although there is the odd gem in there - a couple of which I'm immensely proud of and which probably sound better today than they did all those years ago.
Somewhat inevitably I suppose, our urge not to compromise proved to be our undoing, and after seven years of giving it our best shot we retired gracefully and went our seperate ways: Jonny to have a hit single with Collapsed Lung (you know the one), and Steve to Australia.
And I ended up with a box full of press clippings, old photo's and demo tapes, which - in digital format - is pretty much what you see here. I'm glad I've found somewhere to dump it at long last!
Enjoy the site.
Phil Dolby August 2004
Adelphi Club is 20
News has reached us via the bush telegraph that the aforementioned Adelphi Club is celebrating it's 20th birthday this October. Rumours abound of a book and CD that charts the history of the club, and the many bands that have played there.
Check out my own recollections of the Adelphi here, and I'll keep you posted if there is any Death By Milkfloat involvement in the project.
In the mean-time check out the Adelphi website for up to date information on what's planned.
MP3 Upload Coming Soon
If you're intrigued by Death By Milkfloat and fancy grabbing a couple of those MP3 type thingies then dive straight in here and help yourself. I'm hoping to put some more tracks up here in the near future, along with a bit of video and (maybe) a clips player. So keep calling back from time to time to see what's new!
