The Charlatans (UK band)

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The Charlatans
The Charlatans playing at the Eolica festival July 2007, Tenerife.
The Charlatans playing at the Eolica festival July 2007, Tenerife.
Background information
Origin Black Country/Northwich, England
Genre(s) Alternative rock, Madchester, Britpop
Years active 1989–present
Label(s) Dead Dead Good Records (Own Label)
Beggars Banquet
Universal
Sanctuary
BMG Japan (JP)
Members
Tim Burgess
Mark Collins
Martin Blunt
Tony Rogers
Jon Brookes
Former members
John Baker
Baz Ketley
Rob Collins (deceased)

The Charlatans (known in the United States as The Charlatans UK) are an English alternative rock band.

Contents

[edit] History

[edit] Early years (1990-1993)

The band were originally formed in the West Midlands 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, who was almost immediately replaced by Tim Burgess.

Although the name The Charlatans was used when original members of the band were located in the West Midlands, many sources state that they formed in Northwich, Cheshire. [1] This is because the band relocated to the home town of new lead singer Tim Burgess (who lived in Northwich) before the release of The Charlatans' debut single "Indian Rope" in 1990 on the band's own Dead Dead Good Records label. This means that, based on the definition of the hometown used by Guinness World Records, the band formed in Northwich and consequently Northwich is recorded as their home town in "Guinness World Records: British Hit Singles and Albums."

The debut single, "Indian Rop" 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, followed by the single "The Only One I Know" which led to great commercial and critical acclaim and is still regarded as an indie classic. 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.

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 producer Flood for their 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. However, a double weekend of gigs ('Daytripper') in Blackpool and Brighton with Ride kept them in the public eye [1].

[edit] Mid-nineties resurgence/death of Rob Collins (1994-1997)

The follow-up album, Up To Our Hips (1994) reached number 8 in the UK albums chart.

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

But, just as things seemed to be going well for the band, keyboard player Rob Collins was killed in a car crash during the recording of fifth album Tellin' Stories on July 22, 1996. 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 to 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 (2005-2007)

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.[2] 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. In an interview for their Simpatico album, the band mentioned lack of shower facilities and bad bus drivers as the worst aspects of touring. "[Bus drivers] get so bloody moody. They don't want you on the bus, yet you're paying them a fortune to drive you. They'd rather drive around the whole of the country with nobody in the back." [2]

The band played a number of high-profile supporting gigs during the summer of 2007, including for The Who and The Rolling Stones, at venues including Wembley Stadium and Twickenham Stadium in London, as well as the Bingley Music Live event, Nass festival 2007, and at Delamere Forest in Cheshire. A recording of Live At Delamere Forest was released as a download only via the official website in five parts for a very limited time only.

[edit] You Cross My Path (2008)

In an October 2007 issue of the NME, the band contributed the song Blank Heart, Blank Mind to the magazine's free 'Love Music, Hate Racism' compilation CD. Later the same month, the new single You Cross My Path was released as a free download exclusively through the XFM website. On the 3rd March, 2008, The Charlatans teamed up with Xfm again to become the first UK band to release an album completely free to download via a radio station. This was preceded a week earlier by the second single from the album, Oh! Vanity. The album, titled You Cross My Path, is The Charlatans tenth studio album and is due for a physical CD/LP release on 19 May 2008 on the Cooking Vinyl label to coincide with a full UK tour.

[edit] Discography

[edit] Studio Albums

  1. Some Friendly (1990) - #1 UK, #73 US
  2. Between 10th and 11th (1992) - #21 UK
  3. Up to Our Hips (1994) - #8 UK
  4. The Charlatans (1995) - #1 UK
  5. Tellin' Stories (1997) - #1 UK
  6. Us and Us Only (1999) - #2 UK
  7. Wonderland (2001) - #2 UK
  8. Up at the Lake (2004) - #13 UK
  9. Simpatico (2006) - #10 UK
  10. You Cross My Path (2008) - #39 UK, #2 Indie

[edit] Compilations

[edit] Live Albums

[edit] Singles

non-album single
from Some Friendly
non-album singles
from Between 10th and 11th
from Up to Our Hips
from The Charlatans
from Tellin' Stories
from Us and Us Only
from Wonderland
from Up at the Lake
from Simpatico
from Forever: The Singles
from You Cross My Path

[edit] DVDs

[edit] References

  1. ^ http://www.helphiregroupjobs.co.uk/our_locations/northwich/working_and_living_in_northwich/
  2. ^ Interview at UKULA (pg. 11 of the .pdf).
  • Willis, D. The Charlatans : the authorised history, Virgin Books, 1999. ISBN 0-7535-0194-5
  • Link. Official Charlatans website. Retrieved on 12 December, 2005.

[edit] External links

v • d • e
The Charlatans
Tim Burgess  • Mark Collins  • Martin Blunt  • Tony Rogers  • Jon Brookes  •
Studio Albums
Some Friendly (1990) • Between 10th and 11th (1992) • Up to Our Hips (1994) • The Charlatans (1995) • Tellin' Stories (1997) • Us and Us Only (1999) • Wonderland (2001) • Up at the Lake (2004) • Simpatico (2006) • You Cross My Path (2008) •
Compilations
Melting Pot (1998)  • Songs from the Other Side (2002)  • Forever: The Singles (2006)  • Collection (2007)  •
Live Albums
Singles
Indian Rope  • The Only One I Know  • Then  • Over Rising  • Me. In Time  • Weirdo  • Tremelo Song  • Can’t Get Out of Bed  • I Never Want an Easy Life If Me and He Were Ever to Get There  • Jesus Hairdo  • Crashing In  • Just Lookin/Bullet Comes  • Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over  • One to Another  • North Country Boy  • How High  • Tellin’ Stories  • Forever  • My Beautiful Friend  • Impossible  • Love is the Key  • A Man Needs to Be Told  • Up at the Lake  • Try Again Today  • Loving You Is Easy  • Blackened Blue Eyes  • NYC (There's No Need to Stop)  • You're So Pretty - We're So Pretty  • You Cross My Path  • Oh! Vanity  •
DVDs