The Milk And Honey Band is an English rock band centred around the talents of singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Robert White (ex-Ring, Levitation and Zag And The Coloured Beads).
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The music of The Milk And Honey Band is a mixture of pastoral English psychedelic rock, accessible acoustic pop songwriting and space rock, with plentiful use of acoustic guitars and banked vocal harmonies plus extended melodic lead guitar and atmospheric production. XTC's Andy Partridge (the owner of their current record label) has described them as "a bit like The Moody Blues but with more energy and better songs. Or at times like a blissful Who.”.[1] Various reviewers have made comparisons to Crowded House, David Gray, Elliot Smith, Ron Sexsmith, The Beatles, The Beach Boys, XTC, Teenage Fanclub, The La's and Nick Drake.
Robert White had begun his musical career in the south London free festival scene of the 1980s, within which he had played various instruments (mostly bass and keyboards) and sang back-up vocals for assorted bands in the psychedelic/experimental genre, most notably Zag And The Coloured Beads, Ring and "jazz punk" band Peru (with fellow Zag member Paul Howard). Another member of Zag And The Coloured Beads was guitarist/bass player Michael "Mik" Tubb – both he and Ring guitarist Christian "Bic" Hayes would work with White on future projects. This scene also featured bands such as the Purple People Eaters, The Dave Howard Singers and Cardiacs, many of whom interacted and sometimes shared members.
By 1990, this group of bands had spawned Levitation, which formed when White and Hayes teamed up with ex-House Of Love guitarist Terry Bickers, bass player Joe Allen, violinist Johnny T and drummer David Francolini. White performed mostly as the band’s keyboard player, third guitarist and harmony singer, and wrote a high proportion of the band’s material within its collective format.
Levitation recorded three albums and several EPs, and gained a lot of press attention. Severe tensions within the band, however, ensured that it was a relatively short-lived unit. Several line-up changes rocked the band (the most dramatic being the departure of mercurial frontman Bickers in 1993, to be briefly replaced by Steve Ludwin) and Levitation had split up by the end of 1994.
The Milk And Honey Band began life as a Robert White solo project. It was recorded in between commitments with Levitation, and in part as an antidote to the frustrations of life in that band. For the initial recordings, White sang lead vocals and played all instruments (drums, guitars, keyboards, bass, mandolin and percussion) and also handled engineering and production.
These tracks made up the project’s first album Round The Sun, which was released on Rough Trade Records in 1994. This album was more notably lo-fi than subsequent recordings, and featured musical elements that would be phased out of later Milk And Honey Band material. Several tracks had light classical or light-instrumental elements (emphasizing a nostalgic tone similar to that sometimes used in progressive rock) or a heavier dark-psychedelia approach.
Following the collapse of Levitation, White relocated to Brighton and pursued a steady career in commercial music production, while simultaneously building up a stock of Milk And Honey Band songs for future release. During this period, two more collaborators were brought into the band. These were Richard Yale (bass, acoustic guitar, keyboards and backing vocals) and White’s former Zag And The Coloured Beads bandmate Michael Tubb (electric and acoustic guitars, keyboards and backing vocals).
Regarding the band’s working arrangements, White has commented "I do write the majority of the tunes, but without Richard and Michaels' help this group...well, it wouldn't be a group for starters. They keep me sane and generally massage my ego just enough to keep me buoyed without adding too much to the 'ego mountain that is Robert'. It's a bit like the old it's-my-ball-and-I-say-when-you-can-play-with-it syndrome, but as I happen to be the one lucky enough to have a studio at home then most of the recording/rehearsing activities of The Milk & Honey Band happen here." [2]
The next sign of Milk And Honey Band activity was in 2001 with the release of the Boy From The Moon album on the small Manchester independent label Uglyman Records. A much more polished effort than its predecessor, the record was atmospheric and detailed with a more spacious production sound.
The Milk And Honey Band signed a distribution deal with Andy Partridge’s Ape Records in 2004 and released a third album The Secret Life Of The Milk And Honey Band. This was in many ways a continuation of the work on the previous album. It contained four reissued songs from Boy From The Moon – the title track, "Sold My Star", "Satellite" and "Junior" (the last of which was retitled "Message")
The band later released two download-only albums via Ape. These were compilations of both previously released and unreleased material. *Crumbs!* Volume One included more Boy From The Moon tracks ("Touched The Sun", "Wonderful", "Can’t Sleep", and an a cappella version of "Sold My Star") as did *Crumbs!* Volume Two ("500 Miles", "You’re The One", "Saved Again" and an acoustic version of "San Francisco").
The Milk And Honey Band played their first low-key acoustic concerts in Brighton in 2004. The band later added two extra members for live concerts - Dan Burke on keyboards, guitar and backing vocals and Christian Parsons (Polak, Astrid Williamson) on drums.
In March 2009, the band released their fourth full album, Dog Eared Moonlight, on Ape Records. At around the same time, Burke and Parsons were confirmed as full members of the band.
In November 2010, Ape Records released a download-only album "In Colour", comprising twelve tracks recorded at the same time as "Dog Eared Moonlight." Three hundred physical copies of the album were also produced and made available.
In December 2010, a Robert White cover version of the Sea Nymphs song "Lily White's Party" (recorded in collaboration with Andy Partridge) appeared on Leader Of The Starry Skies: A Tribute To Tim Smith, Songbook 1, a fundraising compilation album to benefit the hospitalised Cardiacs/Sea Nymphs leader Tim Smith.