The Charlatans (British band)

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The Charlatans (known in the US as The Charlatans UK) are an English rock band.

They were originally formed in Birmingham by bassist Martin Blunt, who recruited fellow West Midlanders; Rob Collins (keyboards), Jon Brookes (drums), John Baker (also known as Day) (guitar) plus vocalist Baz Ketley almost immediatly replaced by Tim Burgess.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Early days / "The Only One I Know" (1990-91)

Former Electric Crayons singer Tim Burgess (from Northwich) replaced Ketley before the release of The Charlatans debut single "Indian Rope" in 1990 on the band's own Dead Dead Good Records label. It proved an indie hit and the group soon found a major label, Beggars Banquet off-shoot Situation Two, in time for the release of "The Only One I Know" which reached the Top 10 in the UK singles chart.

A further single, "Then", and debut album Some Friendly, were released later that year to great commercial and critical acclaim.

Around this time The Charlatans were forced to add UK to their name for an American tour due to competing claims by a 1960s rock band also known as The Charlatans.

[edit] Line-up change / Lack of success (1991-94)

Baker left the band after 1991's "Over Rising" single to be replaced by Mark Collins (no relation to Rob), who made his debut on another non-album single, "Me. In Time".

The band brought in maverick producer Flood for their poorly-received second album Between 10th And 11th (named after the address of the New York Marque, site of the group's first U.S. gig) which failed to hit the top twenty in the UK. The follow-up album, Up To Our Hips, was hailed as a return to form, and reached number 8 in the UK albums chart.

[edit] Mid-nineties resurgence / Death of Rob Collins (1995-97)

In 1995 the band's fourth self-titled album saw them become major UK stars again, topping the UK albums chart and spawning the top 20 single "Just When You're Thinking Things Over".

But, keyboard player Rob Collins was tragically killed in a car crash during the recording of fifth album Tellin' Stories on July 22, 1996, just as things seemed to be going well for the band. After much soul-searching The Charlatans decided to continue and Primal Scream and former Felt keyboardist Martin Duffy was drafted in for The Charlatans high-profile support slot with Oasis at their Knebworth gigs in summer 1996 until a permanent replacement for Collins could be found.

Tellin' Stories was released in 1997 featuring contributions from both Rob Collins and Duffy; and in the singles "One to Another", "North Country Boy" and "How High" the group had their biggest UK hits to date.

[edit] New record label / New keyboard player (1998-2004)

After releasing the career-spanning compilation Melting Pot the band's contract with Beggars Banquet was up, and they signed for Universal Records with Burgess stating that, although he and the band had enjoyed their time on the independent record label they had made next to no money in the eight years since their first release. Relations with 'Beggars' remained strong however, and the band helped put together the DVD Just Lookin' 1990 - 1997 showcasing all their promo videos and a selection of live recordings from that era and b-sides collection Songs From The Other Side, both of which were released in 2002.

Us And Us Only saw the start of a new era for The Charlatans. Their first release for Universal saw new keyboard player Tony Rogers make his Charlatan's album debut (he had previously toured in support of Tellin' Stories and contributed to b-sides "Keep It to Yourself" and "Clean Up Kid" from the "How High" single) and the band took on a slightly country sound, heavily influenced by Burgess's love of Bob Dylan. The soul influenced Wonderland followed in 2001 before the more traditionally 'Charlatans' sounding Up At The Lake was released in 2004.

[edit] The Sanctuary years (2005-present)

The band released their ninth full-length album on April 10, 2006, their first for new label Sanctuary Records. Titled Simpatico, the reggae and dub tinged album featured tracks like the fan favourite "NYC (There's No Need to Stop)", first single "Blackened Blue Eyes", and was produced by Jim Lowe.[1] The single charted relatively well at number 28. The album charted quite well, in the top 10 in its first week, considering that it got no airplay and very little publicity. Soon after it dropped out of the charts. Their follow-up to Simpatico is the career-spanning singles compilation entitled Forever: The Singles which was released on CD and DVD on November 13, 2006. It was preceded by the re-recorded (remixed by Youth) song "You're So Pretty We're So Pretty" which appeared originally on their 2001 album Wonderland. The band seem in a good place now, happy with their level of success and keen to record their next album in 2007, as they told stv in this interview in November 2006.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio albums

Some Friendly
(1990) - #1 UK, #73 US
Between 10th And 11th
(1992) - #21 UK
Up To Our Hips
(1994) - #8 UK
The Charlatans
(1995) - #1 UK
Tellin' Stories
(1997) - #1 UK
Us and Us Only
(1999) - #2 UK
Wonderland
(2001) - #2 UK
Up at the Lake
(2004) - #7 UK
Simpatico
(2006) - #10 UK

[edit] Lives and compilations

Melting Pot
(1998) - #4 UK
Songs From The Other Side
(2002) - #55 UK
Live It Like You Love It
(2002) - #40 UK
Forever: The Singles
(2006) - #TBD UK

[edit] Singles

  1. "Indian Rope" (?? January 1990 - #89 UK; re-released ?? August 1991) - #57 UK
  2. "The Only One I Know" (14 May 1990) - #9 UK
  3. "Then" (10 September 1990) - #12 UK
  4. "Over Rising" (25 February 1991) - #15 UK
  5. "Me. In Time" (4 November 1991) - #28 UK
  6. "Weirdo" (24 February 1992) - #19 UK
  7. "Tremelo Song" (6 July 1992) - #44 UK
  8. "Can't Get Out of Bed" (24 January 1994) - #24 UK
  9. "I Never Want an Easy Life If Me and He Were Ever to Get There" (7 March 1994) - #38 UK
  10. "Jesus Hairdo" (20 June 1994) - #48 UK
  11. "Crashin' In" (28 December 1994) - #31 UK
  12. "Just Lookin'"/"Bullet Comes" (8 May 1995) - #32 UK
  13. "Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over" (7 August 1995) - #12 UK
  14. "One to Another" (26 August 1996) - #3 UK
  15. "North Country Boy" (24 March 1997) - #4 UK
  16. "How High" (9 June 1997) - #6 UK
  17. "Tellin' Stories" (20 October 1997) - #16 UK
  18. "Forever" (4 October 1999) - #12 UK
  19. "My Beautiful Friend" (6 December 1999) - #31 UK
  20. "Impossible" (15 May 2000) - #15 UK
  21. "Love Is the Key" (27 August 2001) - #16 UK
  22. "A Man Needs to Be Told" (19 November 2001) - #31 UK
  23. "Up at the Lake" (10 May 2004) - #23 UK
  24. "Try Again Today" (26 July 2004) - #24 UK
  25. "Loving You Is Easy" (20 December 2004) - Radio Single Only
  26. "Blackened Blue Eyes" (3 April 2006) - #28 UK
  27. "NYC (There's No Need to Stop)" (3 July 2006) - #53 UK
  28. "You're So Pretty We're So Pretty" - 2006 Youth Remix (6 November 2006) - #56 UK
DVDs
  1. Just Lookin' 1990 - 1997 (20 May 2002)
  2. Live at Last (11 April 2005)

[edit] References

  • Willis, D. The Charlatans : the authorised history, Virgin Books, 1999. ISBN 0-7535-0194-5

[edit] External links

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