[2] After graduating from university, Mills worked for the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys, writing reports on abortion law reformation and processing abortion statistics; however, the experience left him wanting "to do something completely different".
Beggars Banquet soon became a six-shop chain in London, arriving shortly before punk broke through; "It turned what we did upside down.
[5] Having served on the BPI (British Phonographic Industry) Council, the governing body of the record industry, from 1987 to 2000, he quit to become the progenitor of the Association of Independent Music in the UK, and similar bodies in Europe (Impala)[7] and the US (A2IM), and the Worldwide Independent Network.
In addition, he was called by the US Senate to Washington in 2012 to be a witness in the hearing on the proposed purchase of EMI Records by Universal Music.
[13] In June 2013, Mills was described in a BBC Radio 4 portrait as looking "remarkably unremarkable" but being "like a wise old fisherman watching minnows waiting to catch a really big fish".