One of my favourite bands that I've posted on this blog are City Miles. I was lucky enough to stumble across them early on. If I remember rightly I think when I put Skinhead Till The End on Youtube it was their first song to be posted on there. I used it for the short piece I wrote about the song (https://justsomepunksongs.blogspot.com/2017/04/city-miles-skinhead-till-end.html), it was short because no one knew anything about them. Pretty much all that seemed apparent at that time was that they were 3 genre veterans who wore balaclavas and back when I wrote the article they'd only got 13 likes on Facebook. Someone from the band noticed the blog update and messaged me, I didn't know who it was as they were keen to keep their identities secret though I now assume it was frontman and songwriter Marc 'Mates' Maitland. Mates had previously been in a number of other bands; he played drums in Blocko, The No Marks and Weeks but wanted his new project to stand on it's own two feet. I received a few messages from the mystery contact and even got a Top 10 selected jointly by the band : https://justsomepunksongs.blogspot.com/2017/05/top-10-songs-chosen-by-city-miles.html
Tragically Mates passed away shortly before the release of their debut album. The album is titled Social Upheaval and it's wonderful.
The band are an oi band but their songs are very catchy singalongs that whilst showing an obvious love for the genre also hint that the members have previously painted on a broader canvas. Whilst they sing about typical oi staples such as boots & braces, football hooligans, criminals, riots etc there's a twinkle in their eye and a sense of glee. You get a feeling if you were to meet these balaclava clad skinheads down a dark alley, rather than beat you up they'd greet you like a long lost friend and take you for a pint.
The album is out on Rebellion and you can find it here : https://www.rebellionshop.com/
This song is about the loudest voice in the pub. The guy who can't take his drink. It's called Empty Vessels...
Good tune, defo more new skool edge to this one,but still plenty of grunt and can hear its heartfelt, not some "Oi by the numbers" deal. Skinhead til the end is a fucking banger of a tune. Shame what happened with the singer, but his music and the bands music will live on
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