The Charlatans Interview with Tim Burgess

THE CHARLATANS

by Craig Ablitt

When I suggested that The Charlatans deserved a cover story to celebrate the release of their singles album Forever it was met in the office with a couple of furrowed brows and comments of "maybe ten years ago." I got my way in the end. The Charlatans embody everything that is great about British guitar bands and Tim Burgess for me is one of the best five frontmen of all time. My first memory of hearing them was in Barracuda's up the High Street when I was too young to get into clubs, but we made it in thanks to fake I.D and ridiculous bum fluff. 'The Only One I Know' still sounds fucking great when I go out to this day. Anyway.........

When The Charlatans scored their first top ten hit with ‘The Only One I Know’ in 1990, shell suits were in fashion, Manchester was the musical centre of the universe and England had a football team to be proud of. How times have changed! However, The Charlatans are very much still with us (although their haircuts have improved since then) and after sixteen years of success have decided to release a singles compilation entitled Forever to celebrate the fact.

Lead singer Tim Burgess is in reflective mood and is upbeat about the release from the moment he picks up the telephone. “I was listening to the album last night and I think I’ve surprised myself on how amazing it sounded,” he states confidently. “I had the headphones on and I was listening to ‘Indian Rope’, thinking how fresh it still sounds to this day. We’ve had twenty-three hit singles and even had the luxury of kicking five of them off the final tracklisting. I guess it’s nice to have the choice,” he laughs.

As soon as any band releases a greatest hits or singles compilation, the usual rumour mill starts as to whether this is the end, especially with the band finishing off their recording commitments with Universal. “People don’t need to start worrying,” Burgess assures. “I think the good thing about releasing something like this is that it puts a mark on the past and allows you to continue into the future. We’ve got at least another ten or fifteen years in us yet and just want to keep giving people the music because we still want to make our perfect record,” he quips.

So after almost twenty years of continual success, where do the band go to try and find fresh inspiration to better the last record? “We don’t really think about how we are going to better the last album, we record depending on the current situation and climate around us,” Burgess explains. “On the last record I was taking way too many drugs and drinking quite heavily and I think that really came through because it was a very sombre and paranoid record. The next record will be interesting, free from the shackles of drug abuse,” he promises.

As with many bands coming out of the Greater Manchester scene in the late 1980’s, the culture of acid house and ecstasy was rife in the music that was being made at that time. According to Burgess the usage of drugs has been of some benefit musically to The Charlatans over the years. “I think drugs have helped music in some ways, you know, smoking grass, using LSD or E, I think they have provided us with some of our defining moments,” he says candidly.

Talking of defining moments, The Charlatans have had many along the way as well as some tragedy, notably losing keyboardist Rob Collins in a car accident in 1996 before releasing the hugely successful number one album Tellin’ Stories. “I think it goes without saying, that was one of the lowest points of my life,” he sighs. “Without trying to get caught up in the drama of that, we considered the band’s future, of course we did. Without wanting to trivialize the whole thing, it’s like being a kid and falling off your bike and if you don’t get back on you never will.” A real turning point for the band came when Oasis invited them to take part in their Knebworth mega-gigs, the same week of Collins’ funeral. “I think if we didn’t get in front of those 200,000 people at Knebworth that weekend, just one week after Rob’s funeral we would have never of started up again I reckon.”

Luckily for us all they did go on and the period that followed is The Charlatans most prolific according to Burgess. “’One To Another’ went in at number three, Tellin’ Stories crashed in at number one, ‘North Country Boy’ was a big hit, we really became a force again,” he beams. “I also think the Wonderland album was a pretty defining Charlatans moment. We made that in a cocaine frenzy in the jungle of Los Angeles, those were great times and I’m looking forward to a lot more.”

Starting this month, the band will take the singles album out on the road, although for Burgess some of the songs became tedious for the band to perform. “We got really tired of playing ‘The Only One I Know’ and stopped doing that for a while. We sounded like a band from the suburbs doing a bad cover version,” he laughs. “There were a few that got like that, but I think when you stop playing a song live, it gives it time to breathe and reinvigorate itself.”

With the whole interview turning into an out and out retrospective of The Charlatans career, we end by asking Burgess if he had any regrets along the way. “Right now as I speak to you I can’t think of any, which must be a good thing. There may be a few, but if they were worth mentioning I would have,” he chortles. “All In all, I am quite proud of The Charlatans story really. There’s been a few casualties, there’s been a few hits and the odd miss, but I think they just call that life really.”