If, as expected, The Charlatans album, Us and Us Only, goes to the number one slot this weekend, it will make them the only British rock band to have scored four Top 10 albums this decade. A happy ending of sorts for a band who, alongside the hit records and the sell-out tours, can also add drugs, bad haircuts, armed robbery, embezzlement, prison and death to their CV.
They've also seen off many a musical movement in their time: initially they were lumped in with the Manchester "baggy scene", and surfed that wave for a while with their trademark Hammond organ sound and club-friendly beats, a sort of indie Booker T and The MG's sound. Signed to one of the few real indies left, Beggars Banquet, they became one of that label's biggest sellers and were widely expected to take over from The Roses and The Mondays as the latest and greatest sound from Britain's north-east.
Like so many of their ilk they found themselves washed away by the booming Seattle sound, their album of this time, Between 10th and 11th, reflecting this confusion. Rather ahead of the bunch, and they're often unacknowledged for this, they then brought in an "Americana" (as we now prefer to call it) vibe to their sound, courtesy of a new rootsy and even country-ish direction. Before they could get the resultant album out, though, their keyboard player Rob Collins was jailed for, bizarrely enough, armed robbery (of an off-licence, though, to be fair).
The next album, Up To Our Hips, sold well enough - but really it was only a stepping stone towards the mighty Tellin' Stories album. Tragedy struck during the recording of the album when Collins, having been released from prison, was killed in a car crash. Drafting in Primal Screamer Martin Duffy to help them complete the record, they issued a defiant press statement about how they would continue despite Collins' death.
Tellin' Stories put them back on top of the pile - but more misfortune was to come when they found out that their accountant (now jailed) had embezzled almost £1 million of the band's money. In the middle of all this, they were trying to effect the leap from Beggar's Banquet to a major label, Universal, and attempting to bring out another album. To complicate matters even futher, lead singer and main songwriter, Tim Burgess announced he was going to live in Los Angeles.
Bands fold for far less reasons, but The Charlatans have kept going and it's a good thing, too, judging by the first track on the new album, Forever. A sort of Screamadelica dub-laden affair with echoes of their old sparring partners, Stone Roses, also in the mix, it's a song that meanders from boogie-woogie to spaced-out country rock in a couple of chord changes. "It's The Charlatans plus what we've been soaking up over the last four or five years," says Tim Burgess of the new sound. "In my case, I've been doing a lot of DJ'ing, listening to a lot of hip-hop as well as people like Sly and The Family Stone, Jim Keltner and Dennis Wilson bootlegs.
"The whole thing took about two years to make, and we did struggle with every song; we struggled with the phrasing of the songs, and really had to wrestle them down. There's no real sense of it being about all that has happened to us over the years. It's more about what's inspired us. I think it's our most complete work to date," he says. Without doubt.
Us And Us Only is on the Universal label.
There hasn't been a buzz about a Dublin rock band for a long time, but that has all changed with the arrival of Bilbo. Originally from Bray, the band are basically a vehicle for the precociously talented Fionn Regan, who comes from a classical music background but has long since veered offside into rock'n'roll. Naming his main influences as Jimi Hendrix and The Beta Band (can't be bad), Regan will be showcasing his abilities, under the name of Bilbo, at a special showcase gig next Wednesday at the new Isaac Butt venue (Store Street), doors 8 p.m., admission £3. There's already a lot of interest in him: maybe you should go along to see for yourselves.
Brian Boyd can be reached at bboyd@irishtimes.ie
