The Milk have real Essex appeal

BOREDOM is a curious motivation. But for one bunch of Essex lads at least, the experience of growing up in a town which they joyfully describe as crushingly dull has been the spur to great things.

The Milk are wholly uncharitable to their hometown of Wickford, a respectable little place out in deepest Essex and just a stick of rock’s throw from the tacky glitz of Southend. But they admit that without that spur to leave and go somewhere more exciting, they wouldn’t be where they are today – as one of the most hotly-tipped new bands in Britain.

“There was not much going on and nothing else to do,” says Luke Ayling, who, along with younger brother Mitch, and friends Rick Nunn and Dan Le Gresley, are kicking up a storm with mighty hip-hop and punk flavoured indie rock laced with the kind of soul more at home on the swampy estuary of the Mississippi than the Thames.

Like so many great bands, it all started in the school playground – a bunch of football-mad kids united by a love of Britpop.

“We were the weird kids at school as we were big Oasis fans while all the other kids were into garage or drum and bass,” he recalls.“There were no gigs down our way, but we would go to clubs and listen to the bands we loved and that’s what inspired us to pick up instruments and give it a go.”

They found it hard-going. “The music teacher was a right battle axe who hated music and wouldn’t let us play our instruments,” he laughs. “It was just recorder hour. She wouldn’t even let us switch the keyboards on.

“We only started the band because none of us got signed up at the Southend United youth trials. After all, it’s every young man’s aspiration to be a professional football player. Even now, we aren’t too bad; we played The Twang in a bands charity six-a-side at Leyton Orient in May and beat them two-nil.”

Their first faltering steps were short lived, with the band giving way after school to the world of work. But when a soul night opened at Southend’s Pink Toothbrush nightclub, the lads were signed up as DJs.

“We were big soul fans,” says Luke. “It all came from our parents. My old man was into the Mod thing so that northern soul stuff was what we grew up listening to.

“We had boxes of records which our parents had when they were kids. I loved the backbeat and the fact the lyrics were quite sad while the songs were more upbeat.”

Immersing themselves in the sounds they loved they knew what they had to do: get the band together. Giving up their jobs, they moved back in with their parents and, says Luke – “really went for it”.

“The Milk was just a stop-gap name,” he says. “We didn’t put a lot of thought into it. It was completely random and we only decided to use it until we thought of something better.”

With them all back at home again, the prospect of leaving Wickford grew more distant than ever. Locking themselves away in a garden shed they hammered out a body of work.

Their debut, Tales from the Thames Delta, which took just a month to complete, is a portrait of Essex life – complete with the sounds of a Pirate radio DJ, the cacophony of seafront amusements and a train leaving Southend station.

“We wanted to make an album that was of its time and place,” says Luke.

“We have made a record that means something to us but also gives the sound of Essex, though the message relates to anyone who grew up in a town where they just wanted to go and see something else.”

Despite success, which has seen them packing out venues everywhere and whipping up festival crowds, The Milk have, if anything, become even more firmly rooted in the land they have tried so hard to escape.

“I have a love/hate relationship with it.

“I wouldn’t want to bring up my own kids there, but feel you have to stick to your roots.

“Like they say, the grass is always greener, but we are still here – and we’re over the moon.”

• The Milk play the O2 Academy Oxford tomorrow. Tickets are £11.25 including booking fee from ticketweb.co.uk.
• Album Tales from the Thames Delta is out now.