On 1st March Micko And The Mellotronics are to release their new single, Holloway Road. The third track to be lifted from their new album Le Vice Anglais, Holloway Road pays homage to Joe Meek and was described as a “a skew-whiff London anthem” by Mojo in their review of the album.
“I moved back to Holloway about five years ago and became seriously interested in delving into Joe Meek’s history,” says frontman and songwriter Micko Westmoreland. “I became fascinated by his creative processes and revolutionary techniques. Meek is widely regarded as the first experimental producer with a trademark sound. I wasn’t interested in exploiting the tragedy of his life, spinning out of control and his demise. I wanted to celebrate his heyday, his obsessive quest for working with the audio using what were considered bizarre and eccentric techniques at the time.”
“He was a ‘tweaked’ individual who was treated unfairly, which in turn led to his increasingly irrational behaviour. But he was a true legend and I was very inspired by his maverick spirit and wanted to pay homage to that in this song.”
Continuing their unique art-punk singer-songwriter style, the new Mellotronics album features Budge Magraw (Cesarians/Gretschen Hofner) and Horace Panter (The Specials) on bass, Paul Cuddeford (Holy Holy/Boomtown Rats) on lead guitar, Terry Edwards (PJ Harvey) on brass, actor/comedian Kevin Eldon (Fist of Fun, Brass Eye, It’s Kevin), guitarist Leo Abrahams (Brian Eno/Florence & The Machine) and Mike Paradinas (µ-ziq, Kid Spatula).
Micko And The Mellotronics match their infectious sound with lyrics that are erudite and entertaining, laced with innumerable references to pop culture, philosophy, history and more. Formed in 2017 with the intention of turning Micko Westmoreland’s songwriting skills into a dynamic live prospect, they released their debut album 1/2 Dove 1/2 Pigeon in 2020
Since then they’ve been busy cutting their teeth with a series of shows around the capital and beyond, making return visits to the 100 Club in Oxford Street and earning multiple requests for support slots from acts as established as Evan Dando (Lemonheads), David Devant & His Spirit Wife, Blue Orchids, Sheep on Drugs, The Television Personalities and The Monochrome Set. Bringing a new dimension of sharp and economic post-punk/new wave attitude to the diverse Westmoreland songbook, they’ve been already been favourably compared to The Jam, Pil, Wire, XTC and Pulp as well as the mean, lean but undeniably powerful sound of Idles or Shame.
An actor and musician, front-man and songwriter Micko was signed to Trent Reznor’s Nothing Records in the early noughties and is already well known for his releases as ambient dance solo artiste The Bowling Green as well as for art-pop guitar albums under his own moniker. Micko also played a major role in the fictionalised glam rock movie Velvet Goldmine alongside Ewan MacGregor and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers. He is also a member of charity-fundraising covers group The Spammed with Rat Scabies, Horace Panter and the late, great Neil Innes.
The new incarnation of The Mellotronics sees Micko’s rabble-rousing vocals and spiky, agitational guitar work augmented perfectly by the crack rhythm section of Budge Magraw and Jan Noble (Cesarians) with Paul Cuddeford on lead guitar.
Micko and The Mellotronics will support The Woodentops on Thursday 29th February at Nells, Kensington, London:
Veglam 
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