This is the story of the milltown brothers meteoric rise and 'much ignored' demise. It's the story of a good band that got very lucky and then got very unlucky. More broadly it demonstrates the role luck plays in all our lives, every thought, breath and movement impacting on the way our futures unfold, however much we like to think we're in control. The firstperformance by any of the milltown brothers took place in the early summer of1975 in the garage of the Nelson family home in Colne, Lancashire to theaudience of Mum and Dad, and a neighbour. The band, charmingly named Cold Meatcomprised elder brother and band Svengali Mark Nelson on lead guitar andvocals. Simon Nelson and neighbour Andy Marsden on drums. And Sarah and MatthewNelson on air guitar. It was a 12-bar blues jam according to Mark. It's notclear what it was to Sarah or Matthew. This isn't a story about sex, drugs and rock nroll. It's much more interesting than that. The milltown brothers from Burnley in the north west ofEngland were discovered by Steve Lamacq playing their fifth gig at the Bull& Gate in London in May 1988. Signed to A&M in 1990 for a GBP100,000advance, they had a publishing deal with EMI and their debut album Slinkywas awarded 5 stars in Q magazine - one of just three Q magazine gaveduring 1991. Not only did Jesus (William Gellert, known as Jesus, who,from the 1960s to the early 2000s, went to gigs all over London, dancing in acompletely unhinged way and often naked) dance at least twice with the milltownbrothers, Oasis supported them less than a year before the release of DefinitelyMaybe. Two years earlier, when they shared the bill with Nirvana and othersin Boston, the day before Nirvana released the paradigm changing Nevermindin September 1991, the promoter described their performance as the eventhighlight. Relentlessly touring the UK, Europe, America and Japan they were onthe cusp of global success... only to gloriously snatch utter anonymity from thejaws of immortality.
