The Charlatans

The Garage, London N5

4/5

INDIE stalwarts The Charlatans return to London to play a rare small-venue gig at The Garage and, realising that this intimate setting will be a special occasion, their fans make it a sell-out. They’re not disappointed. 

In August 2013 the band tragically lost drummer Jon Brookes to brain cancer and, having lost original keyboard player Rob Collins in 1996, you’d have forgiven the band for calling it a day. Yet with the spirit of the dear departed Brookes in mind, they’ve returned with new material and it shows that they’ve definitely rediscovered their groove.

The new single Talking in Tones witnesses the band in more thoughtful mood. An introspective number, it allows Tim Burgess’s vocals to slowly build around Mark Collins’s dark riffs to create something understated and breathtaking. 

Standing out a country mile from the upcoming album Modern Nature is So Oh. Burgess has always been an enigmatic front man with a vast array of vocal styles and on this he slides in and out of his soulful Curtis Mayfield mode and his more traditional Bob Dylan-cum-Bernard Sumner
delivery. 

Combine this with the dreamy New Order-esque guitars and you have yet another pop gem to add to The Charlatans’ extensive repertoire.

Along with the new material there are favourites from their entire back caczzzzatalogue, with Weirdo and Jesus Hairdo giving an ecstatic audience a chance to bust out their baggy-era dance moves while North Country Boy and One to Another spark a fist-punching singsong. 

Listening to their hits back to back the realisation dawns of just how many music scenes they’ve been key players of. 

On that basis alone, it would be foolish to expect anything less than a quality new album in January. 

With the new songs performed here, which already sound barely out of place, that’s got to be a sure thing.

Mike Adams