The Chills prove they are hot again

Martin Phillips wasn’t sure he wanted to come back. It’s 15 years since his band, the Chills, toured Europe. He worried whether anyone still cared — if the 40-hour flight from his home in Dunedin, New Zealand, was worth the inconvenience and expense.

He needn’t have fretted. Since touching down in London last week, the Chills have been welcomed enthusiastically.

“The response is extraordinary. What’s particularly striking is that we have five or six new tracks in the set and people are really warming to them. After the shows they come up and say, ‘Wow those are amazing Chills songs’. It’s good to know: I didn’t want it to be just me and a pick-up band playing the ‘hits’.”