MoreWeight Records is about great music from the north of England. The label was founded in 2001 by Greg Macoy, Sam Walkerdine, Nick Duckett and Nick Henderson, originally of Liverpool based band, Milk.
The label came about after self-releasing our debut EP, and distributing it to stores around the north-west. We quickly realised that we didn't need to go down the usual route of chasing an elusive record deal - most labels said we were too eclectic for them to market us properly. We didn't agree.
In 1999 we set up a website to promote ourselves, and a few other bands from our scene. We felt we had something to offer the scene, and the bands that made up that scene, so we started putting on nights, and were able to do some bigger shows outside of our normal reach.
Between 1999 and 2001 we released a few more Milk CDs and built up a great reputation for the band, and our fledgling internet label. In June 2001 Milk had the chance to tour the UK with New Jersey based Fire Season. Meeting Jody Suozzo (see countyrise.net), and putting together a two week tour proved to us that we could really achieve something worthwhile. The day after that tour finished the four of us met up for lunch to discuss the future, the lease had ended on our shared house in Manchester and we needed to figure out what to do next. We felt we could do something with the label, but we needed to step it up. MoreWeight Records was born that afternoon.
We rented a space in an old printing factory and with the financial help of Mr Dennis Donnelly we set up The Hottie recording studio, so instead of paying for studio time as we had done in the past we now had a means of recording our artists, and could help fund the label.
Over the next few years we recorded and released as much as we could, we put on several MWR nights along with tours in the UK and the US. In 2004 we started to run a monthly night in Manchester as a reaction to the terrible experiences we'd had with promoters over the years. The From Soup To Nuts nights ran over 18 months and were a massive success for us; promoting some great bands, producing some of the greatest posters Manchester has ever seen, and helping to finance the recently released first ever MWR Compilation CD.
Whilst 2005 saw the end for Milk as a band, and also The Short-Cuts, as people's lives change and grow, we are again at pivotal point in the history of MWR. So now, 5 years since we started MWR, we have moved out of Manchester and, for the time-being, can once again be found in the revamped Liverpool scene.
MWR is dead, long live MWR!