Baz Mills of Massive Wagons: ‘We’re like a slick machine’

What’s better than big wagons? Massive Wagons! Since forming in the Lancaster area in 2009, rock band Massive Wagons’ popularity has snowballed, with the group having supported the likes of The Darkness, Thunder, and Lynyrd Skynyrd on tour.

“Things have been going well,” agrees the band’s very friendly lead singer Barry ‘Baz’ Mills, speaking to the Cambridge Independent from his home near Morecambe.

“It’s true what they say, the ball starts to roll and it gets faster and faster...

“It’s mainly since we signed with [independent record label] Earache really back in 2016, a lot of doors opened and the opportunities came our way and we took them all with both hands, and the last few years have been really good.

“We’ve been putting out albums we’ve been increasingly happier with every time and the foundation’s going, we’re touring a lot and we’re like a slick machine at the moment.

“Something’s bound to go wrong before long but for now it’s all good!”

The quintet – singer Baz, guitarists Adam Thistlethwaite and Stevie Holl, bass player Adam “Bowz” Bouskill, and drummer Alex Thistlethwaite – will be rolling through England and Wales in May, with support from alternative metallers, InMe, and German rockers, Airstrike.

Their UK dates, which follow a string of gigs in mainland Europe, kick off in Cambridge on 15 May.

They then head back over to Europe in June, supporting American singer and Alter Bridge and Slash featuring Myles Kennedy frontman, Myles Kennedy.

The Wagons are fresh from living it up on the USA’s Monsters of Rock cruise, and celebrating a number one in the UK rock album charts – as well as an impressive number four placing in the official UK top 40 album charts – for their latest long-playing release, Earth to Grace, which came out in November last year.

Baz reflects on opening for The Darkness and Lynyrd Skynyrd (other acts they’ve supported include The Wildhearts and Ugly Kid Joe): “They were all really great…

“The Wildhearts tour was probably my favourite, it were a real blast. We made friends with them on that tour and we’ve been friends with them since – they’re really great guys, all of them.”

He adds: “We keep ourselves to ourselves on the road – we don’t speak until we’re spoken to, we think that’s the best way.

“You turn up as a support band, you do the job, you do it well, you get off the stage, keep out of their way, and when they want to speak to you, then they speak to you – we don’t impose ourselves on anyone.”

Baz reveals that when they toured with The Darkness in 2021, “that was the last time we were all really drinking on the road”.

He elaborates: “We were really celebrating on that tour; it was a real cool thing to come along and every night we were having beers, as you think you would.

“And on our days off we were down the pub and getting drunk. I don’t drink anymore, and that tour is one of the reasons…

“Some of the gigs were horrific – they were good shows but playing with a hangover and what not… so after that we really decided to screw the nut.

“We take being on the road really seriously because there’s a lot at stake and you’ve got to be good – people come and see you, pay a lot of money, and they want a good night.”

Despite fronting a very successful hard rock collective, Baz was actually a bit of a ‘late bloomer’ when it came to music.

He didn’t pick up an instrument until the age of 23, and didn’t try his hand at singing until two years after that. He also started out in an indie band.

“I used to be in the RAF,” he explains, “and I came out and I’d always wanted to learn to play an instrument, so I picked up the bass guitar.

“My dad was a bass player, he showed me a few things, I started playing bass guitar. And I then wanted other people to play with – so I put an ad up in the Co-op looking for like-minded musicians and found a few lads…

“When I was in my teens, I was into the 90s indie stuff and all that – I loved all that stuff – so we decided to play a lot of that.

“It was easy to learn, easy to sing, and Adam then joined the band a few years later. Then we broke up and I stuck with Adam.

“I’ve always loved rock music, right from when I was a kid, I was only playing indie music to get my foot in the door with playing live, you see.

“So me and Adam formed this friendship and I found out he loved his rock music, I love rock music, and we went to watch [explosive Aussie rock quartet] Airbourne.

“There was a massive group of us – about eight or nine of us – and it really blew our heads off and we were like, ‘This is what we should be doing’.

“So they really opened up our minds to starting a proper rock band.”

Massive Wagons will be appearing at the Cambridge Junction (J1) on Thursday, 15 May. Tickets, priced £26.50, are available from junction.co.uk. For more on the band, go to massivewagons.com.