Miracle Legion’s initial stirrings were as a two-piece—drummer-turned-singer Mark Mulcahy plus guitarist / keyboardist Ray Neal—on the thriving New Haven, Connecticut scene which boasted numerous clubs as well as a readymade college audience thanks to the presence of several major universities.  The two had already shared quality time in several short-lived combos, additionally working together as local club promoters and picking up a firsthand education in Indie Touring 101 that would prove invaluable to their fledgling combo.

After rounding up a rhythm section and recording the six-song The Backyard, issued on the local Incas label, Mulcahy and Neal were pleasantly surprised to learn Miracle Legion was an immediate critical and college radio fave.  Several pressings of the EP sold out; a sharp-witted manager landed Miracle Legion a licensing deal with Britain’s Making Waves label, which brought them over for a UK tour; they signed (in the States) with the well-connected Venture Booking company; and MTV unexpectedly placed the video for “The Backyard” in regular rotation.

According to Christopher Arnott, a longtime Miracle Legion fan and a staffer at the New Haven Advocate weekly, “In terms of influence, they weren’t the most commercial band, but they were clearly part of a bigger regional-national thing, more so than anyone else in town.  It was the kind of success story that everybody could relate to.  Mark had also been booking the best club in town, the Grotto, and he’d been active in bringing a lot of good bands to New Haven.  Also, when a band like R.E.M. would be in town at the coliseum, he’d book Miracle Legion and Peter Buck would drop in after the show.  So Mark was friends with a lot of bands, either from having toured with them or from bringing them to town.”

As the band commenced recording Surprise Surprise Surprise, a number of labels, including several majors, began showing interest.  Ultimately, Miracle Legion signed with Rough Trade, whose owner, Geoff Travis, had attended a show in New York at CBGBs to see them.

“I went along to CBGBs specifically to see Miracle Legion and loved them,” says Travis.  “I always feel like a fan when I see something special.  The Backyard EP had found its way into the Rough Trade record shop [in London], and I just loved the tone of Mark’s voice, its pleading and moving quality without a hint of being contrived.  That plus Ray’s ‘illogical’ guitar swirls that wrapped the whole thing up in an unusual way— a blustery, lovely wind blowing along the highway, looking back from whence it came.  I’m always on the lookout for soul and originality and never really know where anything will end up.  I just try to concentrate on helping a band do something decent, in terms of the work.  Even though they were so far away from us [in England] and it was hard to spend much time with them, we had some good times and we had fun on the road for awhile.”

After Surprise hit stores in the fall of ’87, a national tour, both as club headliners and as openers for Aztec Camera and Pere Ubu, was undertaken by Miracle Legion.  Audiences were awed as much by the music—equal parts yearning pop and hellbent rock— as by the striking Mulcahy-Neal visual contrast, the former a long-haired, tartan jumpsuit-clad shaman with a piercing stare, the latter a brush-cropped fretboard virtuoso pinwheeling about like a dervish.  As the Advocate’s Arnott recalls of the band’s compelling performances (which included as elaborate a lighting setup as an indie budget would allow), “Mark always did work those theatrical elements out.  Not necessarily very carefully, but he thought of different things to do for each show.  During one he brought on a poet that they had wandering around in the crowd.  There was this performance artist in town and Mark had him passing out poems in the audience at one show.”

Following the abrupt departure of their bassist and drummer, Mulcahy and Neal performed a spring ’88 tour opening for the Sugarcubes.  Enjoying the artistic challenge of working once again as a duo, the two decided to record their next album that way.  Me & Mr. Ray, recorded at Prince’s Paisley Park Studios and released by Rough Trade in ’89, broke significantly from earlier patterns, adopting an acoustic-flavored and less enigmatic, more light-hearted tone.  Mulcahy claims it’s his favorite Miracle Legion album.

source:  Fred Mills, magnetmagazine.com