‘We’re like The A-Team’: The Charlatans’ Tim Burgess on marking an unusual 31-year milestone
When The Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess was spending time looking through the band’s back catalogue for ideas to mark their 30th anniversary, a gem was unearthed in the unlikely setting of his mum’s CD collection.
Sandwiched somewhere between Queen’s A Kind Of Magic and Abba’s Arrival, Burgess found a long-forgotten Charlatans demo, created around the time of seventh album Wonderland in 2001, which had sat gathering dust for the best part of two decades. The CD contained some rough mixes of some familiar songs and then a track Burgess didn’t recognise.
“I thought, okay, well, it’s going to be an instrumental, but that’s still a great find,” he tells Sky News. And then he heard his own vocals kick in. “I started singing [on the demo] and I thought, I don’t even remember doing this. It’s kind of like, so long ago and probably at a period where we were quite frantic and frazzled as well,”
It’s been 31 years since The Charlatans released debut album Some Friendly in 1990
The song is C’mon C’mon, a once lost track that has been included in a special vinyl album boxset, the band’s “archival restoration project”, which has been released to mark 30 years since debut album, Some Friendly. Or rather, 31 years now, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic delaying the celebrations. As well as the greatest hits, it includes live performances, unheard demos, remixes from the likes of The Chemical Brothers, Norman Cook and Sleaford Mods, and previously unseen photographs. There will also be a tour, with the band visiting 18 cities across the UK and Ireland in November and December.
“Many people over the last year or so, they’ve celebrated [special occasions] over Zoom,” says Burgess. “So we had a Charlatans 30th anniversary party on Zoom. [We’re] super excited about doing the shows coming up in November and December, on the 31st anniversary. It’s very Charlatans to do something a little bit odd, you know. The 31st kind of has a better ring to it with our band.”
C’mon C’mon was one of a few “‘why did we not release this as a single?’ moments”, Burgess says the band had as they sifted through the archives. “It was quite a find but had been there, you know, since probably 2001. When you’re making an album, say you put 10 songs out, you normally write at least 16 and then some songs, you know, might sound a little bit like something else and you have to decide on the spot which is your favourite, or in some cases we haven’t finished off a track in time for an album, but yet made it one of the best B-sides that we’ve ever done. But in this case with C’mon C’mon, we just, no one… I don’t remember it at all.”
The boxset, titled A Head Full Of Ideas, is a career-spanning collection that sums up The Charlatans’ journey from young indie hopefuls to a veteran band that has released 13 top 40 albums, three of them chart-toppers, still going strong after more than 30 years. But The Charlatans could so easily have become yet another of rock’s casualties, with the band facing near bankruptcy in the early days and indulging in the typical drink and drugs excesses of rock ‘n’ roll life. They have also lived through tragedy; keyboard player Rob Collins was killed in a car crash in 1996, drummer Jon Brookes died of a brain tumour in 2013. Both were founding members, who brought Burgess into the band.
“We always have memories,” says the singer. Looking back over 30 years has brought them to the fore. “Tracks from Modern Nature [the band’s 12th album, released in 2015], which fill up the kind of latter half of the greatest hits element of the boxset release… you know, John died just before making that but we always felt that he was a big part of that record. That even though he’d died, he was still, I don’t know, talking to us from another realm. And with Rob, we talk about him every day, still, you know.”
Burgess remembers his first rehearsal after joining the band in 1989. “They had three songs that were instrumentals and I just thought they were the best sounding things I’d ever heard,” he says. “I just wanted to be involved straight away. And, you know, within six months we were playing our first shows. The music scene in the UK was just amazing [at that time], probably the best it’s ever been.”
Playing at Glastonbury in 2015, one of several appearances at the famous festival. Pic: Jim Ross/Invision/AP
The singer was living for the moment. “I was kind of in it just thinking it was the right thing to be doing at that time,” he says. “Obviously I was a massive music fan and it was what I really wanted to be doing. But I had no clue [how long it would last]. I didn’t really think it would last for longer than a year, maybe. Maybe we could do one album. And I had no real idea what to do after that… But it just felt so great. We’d all been in bands before and we just all knew that we had a chemistry, something that was unexplained and something that we all believed in.”
While only Burgess and bassist Martin Blunt remain from the original Some Friendly line-up, the Charlatans sound – signature Hammond organ combined with the Northern Soul and house-influenced rhythms – is still instantly recognisable. They are older but “certainly not any wiser”, Burgess jokes. “Well, I’ve grown up a little bit.”
As well as The Charlatans – and releasing a solo album – Burgess has been spending a lot of time on Twitter over the past 18 months. Tim’s Twitter Listening Parties, something he had previously done with Charlatans albums, became something of a social media phenomenon during the first lockdown in March 2020.
The idea was for fans to play an album, all starting at the same time, with the artist or significant people behind said album offering commentary and answering questions on Twitter. Such was the response that soon listening parties were being organised for Blur, Oasis and New Order albums, and eventually megastars such as Paul McCartney and Kylie Minogue.
By the end of the month, Burgess will have organised listening party number 1,000 – with Blondie’s Debbie Harry and Chris Stein looking back at the 1978 album Parallel Lines. At a time when people across the world were isolated from friends and family, it was a force for good in a little corner of the internet. “Together, apart,” as Burgess put it.
“It became a kind of sharing community between lots of people who really needed something during lockdown,” he says. “I had no idea how big it would be but I think it’s just an amazing thing that people can all listen to an album together with a major player in the making of those records.”
Burgess cites receiving a simple thumbs up emoji from McCartney in response to his invite to take part as one of his highlights. “But there are just so many… Iron Maiden – amazing! Spandau Ballet – amazing! All of the New Orders ones, the Kylie one… all of them.” And if Kate Bush or Peter Gabriel would like to do one, he adds, “that would be amazing”.
And when it comes to Charlatans highlights? After more than 30 years, there have been many of those, too. Most recently, the band playing a storming set at the last Glastonbury festival in 2019, after being brought in at the 11th hour, is up there.
“We were stepping in for Snow Patrol at the last minute,” says Burgess. “We only knew we were playing like a day before and I think we smashed it. I think that is very telling of the band I’m in, really.” He laughs. “We’re like The A-Team.”
The Charlatans’ boxset A Head Full Of Ideas is out now and the band’s UK and Ireland tour starts in Belfast on 22 November
Grammy-award winning singer Roberta Flack has died at the age of 88, her publicist has announced.
The American singer was best known for her hit songs Killing Me Softly With His Song and The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face.
Flack pictured in 1972. Pic: Photoreporters/Shutterstock
One of the top recording artists of the 1970s, she died on Monday surrounded by her family, her publicist Elaine Schock said in a statement.
In 2022, Flack announced she was suffering from motor neurone disease (MND), and could no longer sing.
Rising to fame in her early 30s, Flack became an overnight success after Clint Eastwood chose her song, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, as the soundtrack for the explicit love scenes of his 1971 movie Play Misty For Me.
The track topped the US charts in 1972, and Flack was rewarded with a Grammy.
The following year she took the coveted Record of the Year prize at the Grammys for a second time with Killing Me Softly, becoming the first artist ever to do so.
Discovered in the late 1960s by jazz musician Les McCann, Flack was a classically trained pianist, receiving a full scholarship to study at Howard University at just 15.
McCann later wrote of Flack: “Her voice touched, tapped, trapped, and kicked every emotion I’ve ever known.”
Flack with her Grammy for Killing Me Softly in 1974. Pic: AP
A shining light in the social and civil rights movement of the time, Flack was friends with both Reverend Jesse Jackson and Angela Davis whom Flack visited in prison when Davis faced charges – for which she was acquitted – for murder and kidnapping.
Flack also sang at the funeral of Jackie Robinson, Major League Baseball’s first black player.
Living on the same floor of the famous Dakota apartment building as John Lennon and Yoko Ono, Flack also became friends with the Beatle, later releasing an album of Beatles covers.
Flack in 1976. Pic: Robert Legon/Shutterstock
Born Roberta Cleopatra Flack, to musician parents in Black Mountain, North Carolina, in 1937, she was raised in Arlington, Virginia.
She was married to jazz musician Stephen Novosel between 1966 and 1972.
Flack’s other hits from the 1970s included Feel Like Makin’ Love and two duets with her close friend and former Howard University classmate Donny Hathaway, Where Is the Love and The Closer I Get to You.
Sadly, their partnership ended in tragedy, after he fell to his death from his hotel room in Manhattan in 1979, after suffering a breakdown while they were recording an album of duets together.
Stevie Wonder and Flack perform a duet in 1985. Pic: AP
While Flack never matched her first run of success, she had a follow-up hit in the 1980s with the Peabo Bryson duet Tonight, I Celebrate My Love and in the 1990s with the Maxi Priest duet Set The Night To Music.
In the mid-90s, she received a wave of new attention after the Fugees covered Killing Me Softly. She would go on to perform with the hip-hop band on stage.
A five-time Grammy winner, Flack received a lifetime achievement Grammy in 2020.
Contemporary stars to praise her include Beyoncé, John Legend and Ariana Grande.
Flack in 2010. Pic: Reuters/John Sommers
Working as a high-school teacher in her 20s, while gigging in clubs during the evenings, Flack proved a canny educator, telling the Tampa Bay Times in 2012: “I was teaching at Banneker Junior High in Washington, DC It was part of the city where kids weren’t that privileged, but they were privileged enough to have music education.
“I really wanted them to read music. First, I’d get their attention. [I’d sing]: ‘Stop, in the name of love.’ Then I could teach them!”
Entertainment
Timothee Chalamet and Demi Moore among winners at SAG Awards – a major Oscars predictor
The winners of this year’s Screen Actors Guild Awards (SAG) have been revealed – a major predictor of the Oscars, with just a week to go.
Demi Moore continued her run of success to be named best actress for her performance in body horror The Substance, while Timothee Chalamet picked up the award for best actor for his portrayal of Bob Dylan in A Complete Unknown.
Demi Moore adds yet another tropy to her collection for her performance in The Substance. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
While not a complete shock, before this Adrien Brody had probably just nudged it as favourite for an Oscar win for his performance in post-war epic The Brutalist.
Now, the race is closer than it has been in years – and both Chalamet, 29, and Moore, 62, could be on course for their first Academy Awards.
Following a BAFTA win earlier this month, papal thriller Conclave was honoured with the top film prize, for best ensemble.
Starring Ralph Fiennes, Isabella Rossellini and Stanley Tucci, the film follows the drama of the selection process for a new pope.
Conclave stars (L-R) Sergio Castellitto, John Lithgow, Isabella Rossellini and Ralph Fiennes with the ensemble cast award. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
During the ceremony, Rossellini said the film’s cast wanted to send their best wishes to Pope Francis, who is being treated in hospital for pneumonia and bronchitis, and wish him “a quick recovery”.
Elsewhere, the supporting categories were true to 2025 awards season form – Kieran Culkin and Zoe Saldana continued their runs of success with wins for performances in A Real Pain and Emilia Perez respectively.
‘I want to be one of the greats’
Chalamet attended with his mum, Nicole Flender. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
The awards are voted for by members of the SAG-AFTRA union and are held as a celebration of actors honoured by their peers.
For the best male actor announcement, Chalamet looked visibly surprised as his name was called.
After being accompanied by girlfriend Kylie Jenner to the BAFTAs last week, this time round he was celebrating with his mum, Nicole Flender.
“The truth is, this was five-and-a-half years of my life. I poured everything I had into playing this incomparable artist, Mr. Bob Dylan, a true American hero,” he said on stage. “It was the honour of a lifetime playing him.”
Making no secret of his ambitions, he added: “The truth is I’m really in pursuit of greatness. I know people don’t usually talk like that, but I want to be one of the greats.”
Moore said joining SAG-AFTRA as a teenager in 1978 gave her meaning as “a kid on my own who had no blueprint for life”.
Jane Fonda was honoured with a lifetime achievement award. Pic: AP/Chris Pizzello
Actress and activist Jane Fonda, 87, provided the ceremony’s most passionate political moment as she was honoured with a lifetime achievement prize.
“We are in our documentary moment,” she said. “This is it. And it’s not a rehearsal.”
The word “woke”, she added, “just means you give a damn” about others.
The TV winners
Shogun stars (L-R) Tommy Bastow, Shinnosuke Abe, Moeka Hoshi, Hiroyuki Sanada, Anna Sawai, Tadanobu Asano and Hiroto Kanai. Pic: Jordan Strauss/Invision/AP
The SAG Awards also include TV categories, with Japanese historical drama Shogun picking up the gong for best ensemble and its stars, Hiroyuki Sanada and Anna Sawai, named best actor and actress.
Only Murders In The Building took home the prize for best comedy ensemble, with star Martin Short named best actor in a comedy series.
Jean Smart, who had previously called for cancelling the awards shows due to the wildfires that hit LA in January, was named best actress in a comedy, for her role in Hacks. She did not attend, but gave a recorded introduction.
In the limited series category, British star Jessica Gunning was named best actress for Baby Reindeer, while Irish star Colin Farrell was named best actor for The Penguin.
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