Kula Shaker: Crispian Mills is still ‘Kula’ than all the rest

It was the end of the long summer of 1996, and the country was still struggling to come to terms with the divorces of Charles and Diana and Take That. The Spice Girls were expounding girl power, the Fugees were coming, ready or not, and Peter Andre was waxing lyrical about his Mysterious Girl.

Then something happened which, momentarily at least, changed everything. A group of middle class white boys with Home Counties accents came along singing in Sanskrit, playing traditional Indian instruments and referencing Hindu mythology.

They called themselves Kula Shaker in honour of a ninth-century Indian emperor – and we fell head over heels in love with them.

The antidote to the laddish Britpop scene, the ‘raga-rock’ band, fronted by Crispian Mills – son of actress Hayley Mills and director Roy Boulting, and grandson of prolific thespian Sir John Mills – channelled a mix of hippy ideals and heartfelt spiritualism through a medium of 60s psychedelia, indie-pop and traditional music from the Subcontinent.

Their album K, featuring singles Govinda, Hey Dude, Grateful When You’re Dead, and Tattva, levitated to the top of the charts. It went double platinum, selling 850,000 copies in the UK and 250,000 in the States. It propelled the band on a roller coaster career which fizzed out three years later – before the band reformed in 2004.

This year is the album’s 20th anniversary, and to celebrate they are taking it on tour.

“It doesn’t feel like 20 years ago,” says Crispian. “It has taken us all by surprise. We’ve been making new music, with two new albums in the past couple of years, but the 20th anniversary is a very special occasion.”

Crispian, 43, who sings and plays guitars, Alonza Bevan (bass, piano and tabla), Paul Winterhart (drums) and Harry Broadbent (who replaced Jay Darlington on keys) celebrate with a show at the O2 Academy Oxford.

“It’s the first time we’ve done this, though the album was designed to be listened to in one go. And people have been asking us to do it,” he says. “Primal Scream did it with Screamadelica and we loved Carol King doing Tapestry. I’d always wanted to see that.”

“And we’ll have a ceremonial break in the middle, where we turn the vinyl over and put the needle back on.”

Isn’t it all a case of 90s nostalgia though? “Nostalgia is perfectly acceptable during an anniversary,” he says. “We are looking back to a time and place in popular culture, but there’s also a sense of where we are now and where we are going.”

So does K, released when he was 23, stand the test of time? “Amazingly yes,” he says. “It doesn’t sound particularly dated. And that moment at the beginning of adulthood is a timeless space to be in. It’s a moment of possibilities. There is lots of despair and uncertainty and confusion, but you are still young and full of potential. And when you go back and sing those songs you remember that time and how you felt.”

“We are immensely proud of it,” he goes on. “ It was a bit of our childhood and coming of age.

“We were still kids in so many ways, and it was incredibly heartening and inspiring to hear that people were really turned on by it.

“It was an imaginative moment for pop music. Pop music can be vanilla, contrived and artless but it can also be different and reflect a moment of coming of age, burgeoning identity and the rush of infinite possibilities – and that album reflects that.

“It’s something that people have grown up with, and have a relationship with, and you feel your band is part of that.”

The band, who released their fifth studio album K 2.0 earlier this year, have always had a deep link with their fans.

“There’s a strong relationship between the band and the audience,” he says.

“We affirm each other in the sense of belonging to a wider family greater than yourself. And it affirms that there’s something good that comes out of it all.”

The band’s split in 1999 followed massive media exposure, with less enlightened commentators misunderstanding Crispian’s fascination with Hindu symbols. Comments he made about the swastika, an auspicious symbol sacred to Hindus and Buddhists dating back 11,000 years, were misconstrued by elements in the national and music press.

The band’s return was roundly welcomed. Clearly they should never really have gone away.

So what is father-of-two Crispian most proud of? “Well, I’m more proud of my kids,” he says. “But this album was a bit like a first baby and had a similar feel.”

The whole sound was reminiscent of the 60s and 70s – with shades of The Beatles, later George Harrison and Pink Floyd. So does Crisipian, who acquired his enduring love of Indian spirituality and culture on a backpacking trip around the country, see himself as a bit of a hippy?

“It depends how you define hippy,” he says. “I think the term has broadened out over the decades. I never wore sandals but I did burn a lot of incense!

“I made a very special connection with India and my life changed, but the more I appreciate Indian culture, the more I appreciate the global family. I didn’t see it as something separate.”

He admits it wasn’t all easy though. “It was a lot of fun before the album came out, and especially the year building up to it,” he says. “But then the pressure set in. I thought I’d be able to handle it. I was cocksure and thought it wouldn’t be a big deal. But it was a massive shock and I absolutely wasn’t ready for it – and when you’re that young it’s traumatic.

“It was like living a dream floating above yourself – a nightmare. Remember the old saying: be careful what you wish for.

“Pop music is all about innocence, but it started to weigh me down. We had to remain professional though.”

And would the younger Crispian have been surprised that he was still here, doing this two decades on? “The surprise is that time moves in mysterious ways,” he says. “There was a subtle pressure, not from my family but from myself – but then my family are all artists and self-employed and insecure about not knowing how long the job will be. But I’ve always had the benefit of their experience and at least they couldn’t tell me to go and get a proper job!”

Kula Shaker perform K all the way through at the O2 Academy Oxford, Cowley Road, Oxford, tonight.

For tickets go to ticketweb.co.uk