Face Of Cheam

The Charlatans are one of the few bands playing these days that started at the beginning of the nineties and are still going strong. They have never been particularly big but have never fallen into the small club scene and reguarly play venues the size of Brixton's Academy. It was a sell out crowd and a Friday night so there was a good atmosphere. Having seen them a few tomes before, you don;t really know what to get. If they do a retrospective hits set then they are very very good, sometimes they concentrate on new stuff (which wrongly includes vocallist Tim Burgess sing a falsetto style). Fortuantely this set leaned strongly towards the former mainly because they are promoting their singles album Forever. The distinct Hammond keyboard was strong in the opening number 'Forever' which was followed by a newish number and I was getting prepared for the worst. Fortuanatley from here on in it was mainly a retrospective starting with 'Cant Get Out Of Bed' 'Weirdo' and 'Telling Stories' this was classic Charlatans. Alas a few new songs followed although the title track of 'Up At The Lake' did sound rather fresh. We did hear a bloke behind some up 'great song but shit album'. Very true which is the problem with their last few albums only having a couple of good numbers on. 'The Only One I Know' was played after the classic 'One To Another' which is where the set no doubt peaked. After a singalong to 'Just When You Were Thinking Things Over' we got a couple more newish songs before the set finished with 'How High'. An encore inevitably followed with Tim Burgess asking how they were going to fill the thirty minutes they had left. The encore was for the hardcore fans with Indian Rope following the fantastic 'Then', two early songs from The Charlatans career. Then sounded fantastic with the hypnotizing keys and breathy vocals that made Tim Burgess being compared to Ian Brown early in his career. After the best track they have done since 1997 'Impossible' they launched into a ten minute version of 'Sproston Green' to end the set, which they have been doing since they started. A good mix of nostalgia and new stuff makes both the fans and the band probably happy and although the new stuff isn't as strong as it should be, besides a few obscure early tracks there was nothing you'd want them to do they didn't.

Set - Forever - Blackened Blue Eyes - Cant Get Out Of Bed - Telling Stories - Weirdo - My Beautiful Friend - Love Is The Key - Up At The Lake - A Man Needs To Be Told - One To Another - The Only One I Know - Try Again Today - North Country Boy - Just When You Were Thinking Things Over - You're So Pretty, We're So Pretty (2006 version) - How High //// New York City - Indian Rope - Then - Impossible - Sproston Green