The Charlatans front man Tim Burgess on self publishing, big decisions and being rescued by Ice T.
The Charlatans performing at Ben and Jerry’s festival photo by Jimmy James
We interview The Charlatans lead singer, superstar DJ and style icon Tim Burgess. Who showed SUBvert around his UK studio and talked about how they rose from tragedy to become an international success. Also how self publishing their music has resulted in some of their most satisfying creative work.
The Charlatans have had three number one albums plus three, top ten singles. Tim’s added his vocals to songs by bands such as The Chemical Brothers, Mark Ronson and Peter Hook’s band Freebass. Tim is also friends with The Rolling Stones, and supported the band as a solo artist.
The Charlatans performing at Ben and Jerry’s festival photo by Jimmy James
Life changing decisions
Interview by Angel Greenham
The Charlatans have been going for nearly two decades, that’s a long time in the music industry, have there been any major decisions that have contributed towards your success?
The biggest decision we’ve ever had to make was after Rob Collins [our former keyboard player] died. A friend of ours Jeff Barrett who runs Heavenly Records was doing our press and I telephoned him to say we couldn’t perform with Oasis at Knebworth, as it was two days after Rob’s funeral. Jeff said “No, you’ve got to do it” and I said “How, we don’t have enough people?”, and he told me flat out “You’ve got to do it, or that’s it, the bands finished”.
It was excellent advice and Bobby Gillespie (lead singer with Primal Scream) offered us Martin Duffy (their keyboard player) for the night and he ended up joining the band for 6 months. It was amazing, but also crazy because, on the one hand, we had lost our best mate and he was a really important part of the band, however, Duffy coming in and helping us through the next 6 months was a real blessing.
The Charlatans performing at Ben & Jerry’s Festival photo by Jimmy James
It was very compassionate of Bobby to help you out. You guys made another big decision at the beginning of your career to publish your first single yourselves, why did you decide to go down that route?
It was early on and we’d done a demo tape and we tried to get a deal but no one was really coming forward, so we put it out ourselves. Our Manager’s sister put up the money to get the single out. We were suppose to sell a thousand copies but we ended up selling fifteen thousand, so she got her money back and we got to buy a van.
This was all part of the Manchester scene and a lot of people started showing an interest in us because we had a DIY record out, so the majors were interested as well as a few independent labels. But we chose a record label called Beggars Banquet because they seemed like the people who could actually do it for us. We wanted to be able to sell records all over the world, they could do that, but they were still small enough to actually let us do things the way we wanted to do them, so it was a wise choice really.
Tim performing in Manchester, photo by Nicky McGowan
So you signed with Beggars Banquet because you could do things your way. What were the benefits of working with a record label?
For me it was amazing because we used a guy called Chris Nagle who was the engineer for all the Joy Division records and the first New Order album and a lot of Factory Records stuff. He was Martin Hannett’s right hand guy and Martin was a legendary producer in Manchester. It was a beautiful experience, we went to Strawberry Studios in Stockport to record “Indian Rope”. That’s the studios where Joy Division recorded their debut album “Unknown Pleasures” and it’s famously owned by 10CC so it was a great experience.
Tim performing in Manchester, photo by Nickie McGowan
Chris Nagle was obviously very talented and had worked with some outstanding bands, what was it like working with him?
He would come down to check us out in our rehearsal and stuff like that, generally he was a really great guy with a lot more experience than we had, so we were really happy, he gave us a good sound, it sounded like a first record at the time we were doing it, but I didn’t think we could ever top it, I thought it was the best record I’d ever heard.
Tim performing in Manchester, photo by Nickie McGowan
It sounds like a very positive experience. A lot of people struggle publishing their work in the early stages of their career. Do you ever have any doubts when you’re putting out new material?
I think I’ve got good taste, I can get this weird feeling right inside and it comes from my stomach and it tells me its good. I follow it through the best way I can. I think I’m probably doing that even better these days, it doesn’t have to be a perfect recording, or a brilliant vocal take, it’s all about the vibe and the emotion you get from it. That’s when I don’t care what anyone says because I’ve put my heart and soul into it, I feel proud of it.
“Indian Rope” was a big hit along with a lot of other tracks you released through Beggars Banquet so why did you change labels?
Well, we were actually on Beggars Banquet for quite a long time, that was probably the most successful period, we had three number one albums and we did 6 with them in total. But at the time we felt like a change of scene, its like a relationship with somebody for six years, you think “oh my god do I need something new” and you start to assess the situation and see where to go next.
SUBvert magazine photoshoot at The Charlatans recording studio, photo by Nickie McGowan
So Universal were interested and the first record we did with them was really good, it was a massive hit, then it went downhill from there. The second album with them was “Wonderland” and in my opinion, its not the best record we’ve ever done. Universal were freaked out because we were doing it all ourselves, our own way, in LA, with a producer that we wanted and they didn’t have a say.
So they gave up on us, but they didn’t want to let us go either. It was frustrating being on a label that wouldn’t let us go to anybody else but didn’t want to do anything with us themselves. So we just made a crap record, even though we thought we were being smart, the public thought we’d lost it.
Click here for Part 2 Of This Interview where Tim tells us the story about Ice-T stepping in to save them from a crazy attack. He also gives us his opinion on new technology and how they’ve used it to add extra value for their fans. Plus the true benefit of having complete control of all their decisions.
