When Sheffield group Milburn reformed after eight years away, they weren’t sure if anyone would be keen to see them again.

In less than 24 hours, they found themselves being asked to put on more shows after nearly the whole tour sold out.

“It was really strange, to be honest,” says their singer Joe Carnall.

“We knew that if we did gigs in Sheffield people would be into it as we’re from there, but it’s always the unknown when you go further afield. We did OK in Glasgow before but eight years is a long time to disappear for – then Glasgow sold out the first morning and we were taken aback.

“I expected a pattern where you lose fans, but while at the Sheffield shows there were the old guard from the first time out there, we saw kids at it too, who must have been eight or nine when we were first out.

“On a minuscule scale it’s like the Stone Roses comeback, where there were a lot of people who never saw them the first time and were therefore hungry to see them when they came back.”

Milburn were a band who earned more praise after they broke up than during their initial time together. They released two albums of rowdy indie rock, Well Well Well and These Are The Facts, and enjoyed a couple of minor hits with Send In The Boys and Cheshire Cat Smile.

Along with the likes of Little Man Tate and the Long Blondes they were hailed as frontrunners in the Sheffield scene of the time that was being championed by the music press, before the Arctic Monkeys soon surpassed them all. Yet with the likes of the Monkeys referencing Milburn, Joe found himself being asked more and more if he would consider a comeback.

Were there any old wounds that needed to heal before they could play together again?

“We’ve all played football since we were five years old, and the idea of falling out because the band broke up was not really an option,” he explains.

“So we stayed close – I’m godfather to the guitarist’s daughter, and that shows the level of connection we’ve got besides the music. So we were always all on speaking terms and had talked about it a few times before, but there were other musical projects that overshadowed it.

“This time though, it felt right and everyone else was at a natural impasse with their other things. We also realised that if we kept ignoring the requests then maybe people would stop asking us and we’d never know what it was like.”

They’ll now be in Glasgow three times before the end of the year, firstly at Oran Mor next Wednesday, then headlining the multi-band and venue jamboree that is the Tenement Trail on October 8, before supporting the Courteeners in November at the SSE Hydro.

It would surely be tempting for the group to play it safe and run through old favourites, but already fresh material is underway, with new single Midnight Control’s psychedelic pop recently unveiled.

“The early Milburn stuff was quite one dimensional, but this is a little more about where we are now,” says Joe.

“It’s not quite as literal, maybe a bit more poetic and hopefully people get into it. When we had the first conversation about writing a new song, none of us had any ideas about what it should be like. The only thing we knew was that we didn’t want to try and be 19-year-kids again.

“It’s not very appetizing when you see older guys with wives and daughters trying to act like that – at the same time we are doing it for the fans, so it was a fine line to walk between still sounding like us but also being the sound of 30-year-olds, not teenagers.”

And the singer’s hoping that both new and old songs go down a treat when they visit Glasgow next week.

“There seems to be a resonance with the band and Glasgow. I guess it’s because I feel far more in common with someone from Glasgow than with someone from, say, Bristol.

“Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds and Newcastle all feel very similar culturally. There was a gig at the QMU I still remember because it felt like a defining moment for the band, because we realised we’d driven hours away from home and yet people were still going nuts for our songs.”

Milburn, Oran Mor, Wednesday, sold out, 7pm