Tuesday 30/05/06 Milburn @ ULU, London

London ULU is a typical university music venue: small, simple, intimate and sells shit beer. That aside, support band Scully rock the place pretty well; with their aggressive and shouty South London indie-rock. They seem natural and tight, but are not who the crowd want to see. In between bands, the crowd are treated to the skanky rhythms of The Clash and, to came onstage to, The Specials’ upbeat ska-anthem Guns of Navarone. Ska is definitely a big influence on Milburn as they dip into skanky beats throughout the gig, and Joe pays homage to the late Desmond Decker in-between songs. 

Sporting a white Puma polo, which would later be replaced by a Rooney 9 England shirt thrown to him from the crowd, lead singer and bassist Joe Carnall revs the crowd up, “show us what you’re made of London come on.” Joe is very confident for a lad not yet even 20.  The audience’s cheers of delight are soon swallowed by the huge sound of the Sheffield band, as they storm straight into crowd favourite, ‘Send In The Boys’. Joe then mocked the Kooks with his wry Yorkshire sarcasm; assumingly it was about the Brighton band’s macho credentials in comparison to the North Sheffielders.

New Single ‘Cheshire Cat Smile’ receives a frenzied response from the crowd, not because it is about to be released, but because it is now a classic Milburn anthem; the crowd proceeds to sing it word-for-word, and chants of “Sheffield, Sheffield, Sheffield…,” now commonplace at such gigs, soon followed.  After a few new songs, Milburn go into a rollercoaster of fan favourites; ‘Lipstick Lickin’, 'Brewster’ and 'Showroom' all feature to the delight of the London gigs hardcore followers.

Milburn leave the stage after their tongue-in-cheek performance of ‘Roll Out The Barrel’, and thousands of sweaty students descended into the night, bemused by the chosen exit music of Johnny Mercer’s ‘Moon River’. Milburn played a strong and confident gig and despite not playing an encore, we’re sure everybody felt like they got far more than their money’s worth.