About

Death By Milkfloat were Phil Dolby (guitar & vocals), Jonny Dawe (bass & backing vocals), and Steve Kelly (drums). They were a spiky 3-piece indie-punk-funk band from Hull, North East England, who were in existence between 1986 and 1993. 

DBM were part of a thriving late 80's Hull music scene centred around the New Adelphi Club; Paul Jackson's famous "looks like a terraced house, because it is a terraced house" music venue, where they played their first and last gigs, and many in between. 

They just about managed to avoid the dreaded 'local band' tag by playing further afield regularly; early gigs in London, Edinburgh and Newcastle were often shared with like-minded sonic noise merchants such as the Dog Faced Hermans and Wolfhounds. Trips to the continent followed, alongside John Robb's Membranes, The Ex and Dandelion Adventure, then in 1992 a support slot in the UK, touring with Mike Watt's fIREHOSE.

Whilst never reaching the heady heights of pop music superstardom, Milkfloat 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. 

Death By Milkfloat's sound was a noisy mixture of alternative influences; Gang of Four, Beefheart, Minutemen and Sonic Youth were common references. Their approach was often bolshy and confrontational - love them, or hate them, but never ignore them - and their art school background meant that they did dally with the avant-garde from time to time; and weren't averse to the odd 10 minute Can-inspired feedback soundscape! 

Milkfloat's 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 they developed over seven years, the songs became longer, denser and definitely began to groove a little more. 

The handful of singles and e.p's they put out never really captured their live sound as they wanted, but there is the odd gem in there - notably the single Rule & Thumb, and their final six-track EP Guilt Edged Steel - produced by That Petrol Emotion's Steve Mack. 

The DBM ethos was always to "keep it tight", and on their day they were an exceptional live proposition. Revelling in noise and feedback, gapless transitions between songs, bass-player and guitarist often physically bouncing off each other while the drums kept a relentless asymetric barage. It wasn't disco, but you could still dance to it!

Somewhat inevitably, their urge not to compromise proved to be Milkfloat's undoing, and after seven years of giving it their best shot they retired gracefully and went their seperate ways: Jonny to have a hit single with Collapsed Lung (you know the one), Steve to Australia, and Phil to Switzerland.

After their final gig at the Adelphi Club in 1991 (supported by chart favourites Kingmaker), Milkfloat literally "hung up their guitars", said a fond farewell to De Grey Street, and gathered up a couple of boxes of band-realted ephemera, rehearsal cassettes and studio tapes, which Phil boxed away and stored in his parents' attic. Where they would reside for the next three and a half decades.

Until mid 2024...

When, after a Mike Watt gig in London, Jonny had an idea...what would Milkfloat sound like in the third decade of the twenty-first century?

The thing, of course, was that in the intervening years much had changed. The CD had been invented - and all but gone out of fashion - streaming audio and YouTube algorithms had become the norm, while at the same time all the kids were buying vinyl again! So within this entirely new landscape, Death By Milkfloat wondered if there wasn't a little corner of the Internet where thier archive could reside, for anyone who was interested.

Which brings us up to date.

After resurecting those hidden away studio tapes, old press clippings and dusty vinyl records, Death By Milkfloat embarked on putting a full stop at the end of their brief career, with a full digital retrospective of their discography and a fully re-worked edition of their only - but previously unreleased - studio album Processed, available in physical as well as digital format and streaming, alongside a vinyl release of their two celebrated John Peel Sessions from 1987/88.

Visit Death By Milkfloat's bandcamp page to discover more about Hull's most esoteric art-school, post-punk noise merchants!