Churn Milk Joan

The history of Churn Milk Joan is basically Colin and I recording first in Mytholmroyd and later in Hebden Bridge. Of long car journeys listening to T-Rex, Alice Cooper, Ziggy Stardust, Snoop Dog, King Crimson, Can and Led Zeppelin. Of pubs, towpaths, herding sheep, hills more hills and ruined churches. Of a standing stone in some very bleak moorland.

A typical recording session would last the weekend, involving sometimes pubs, long walks, fish n chips, a little hash, Oblique Strategies and a takeaway curry. Cups of tea out of the same two mingin’ tea cups so I finally bought some new cups, Mr. Happy and Mr. Grumpy. 

We’d make a study of certain records. For Your Pleasure, Another Green World, one weekend with a Captain Beefheart box set…  Amon Duul II. Once I brought a pile of jazz CD’s. 

Sometimes we’d set about filming, never with a clear idea but we always had a laugh. More than anything else we had a laugh and produced some decent music. Then one day I could no longer climb the stairs which ruled out going to Colin’s house any longer. Luckily we had finished “I’m Nearly Sixty Miles High”.

We’ve made 10 albums in 8 years, a handful of videos and one full length film. There might be a chance to put together another set of music but we’ve lost our working method.