Music Profile: A Short History of the Charlatans

Back when they started out nobody would have thought in a million years that the Charlatans would have outlived some of their more talented and acclaimed peers. Singer Tim Burgess, guitarist Jon Baker, keyboard player Rob Collins, Martin Blunt and Jon Brookes began life as a garage-punk band who were inspired by early US psychedelia and became one of the best live experiences on the circuit.

Their sound was all about the groove. A loping mix of neo-looped drum feel and busy, thick guitar. They had developed the sound at Manchester venues which ran parallel with late night clubbing. The DJ stopped with the dance tracks for a break, the band would come on stage and would have to provide the rhythms to stop the dance floor from clearing. By the time the late eighties came around, bands couldn't take it for granted that they were the main attraction anymore. Rave culture was in full flow and the groove was the star. Lucky then that the Charlatans were all about the groove.

Their early sound was based around a big fat Hammond sound. This was filled out with crashing guitars and very loud bass. Tim Burgess' vocals were mostly buried deep in the mix and never seemed to interfere with the essential dance vibe. Remember, the groove was the star, not the singer, and Burgess fitted the bill perfectly. When they played club nights the light show was focussed on the dance floor. This meant it was hard to just stand and watch. The people were there to dance and the environment was set up for dancing, so the Charlatans fitted right in. There music was dance music.

The vibe at these early gigs were never captured on any of the early Charlatans albums. 'Some Friendly' and 'Between 10th And 11th' suffered because the was no lyrical focus on many of the songs. That's not to say that there were some fine songs on both records. 'Spronston Green' is a wall of sound rocker. 'Weirdo' has a fantastic guitar and Hammond organ duel and Burgess sings 'Most of the time you're happy, you're a weirdo'. All very zeitgeist. The baggy scene which the Charlatans were central to slowly changed to shoegazing. Then darker and heavier rock started emerging from the US in the early nineties.

The Charlatans waited until 1994 to record their third album 'Up To Our Hips', The vocals were more defined and central this time round as Burgess sounded like a cross between Liam Gallagher and Bob Dylan. The album was produced by Steve Hillage and the sound was more acoustic and organic with the texture coming from the keyboards. For 1995's 'Tellin' Stories' the Charlatans produced themselves and this is where the band really found their sound and voice. This, however, sadly coincides with the sad and tragic death of Rob Collins, their keyboard player, in a car crash as he was travelling to a recording session.

The band decided to carry on. Collins had recorded most of his keyboard parts for the album and, meaningless compared to someone's death as it may be, the songs emerged with greater emotional depth. "North Country Boy', 'One To Another', 'How High' and 'How Can You Leave Us' are all great pop-rock tracks and put the Charlatans center stage for UK radio play. By this time their peers, The Stone Roses and The Happy Mondays, had vanished and although the Charlatans would never reach their exhaulted artistic highs they certainly produced an album which would mark them out as a very good band, something which not many bands can claim. They took classic rock, added their groove and filtered it through their rave and indie experiences and emerged with a sound which led the band to some commercial success in America, something which many Britpop bands failed to achieve,

The band continue to record and release pretty good albums. They have become a little funkier, a little more lighter and soulful. Burgess moved to LA and seemed to embrace west coast positivity and it shows in the music. For a band that started out as also-rans, with a singer who can hardly carry a tune, the Charlatans have done pretty well for themselves.