Interview
Interview
Stage Times: The Charlatans
From The Haçienda to Knebworth, Mark Collins remembers the best, worst, smallest and biggest times The Charlatans took to the stage
“We went back to Rockfield Studios, where we used to record in the early 90s,” The Charlatans’ Mark Collins tells us, discussing his band’s upcoming album, We Are Love – their first release in eight years.
Although we are here primarily to discuss the guitarist’s gig memories, conversation cannot help but turn to the new record. And that’s fine by us. “We had a few goes at it,” Collins explains, mulling over the recording sessions. “We started putting demos down a couple of years ago, but we kept coming back and changing them.”
As they finessed the material, the band noticed something was getting lost. Gradually, and inextricably, they were drawn back to the original demos. “In the end, we preferred them,” he says, matter-of-factly. “The demos are rougher, they’re more exciting, and they’re edgier.” The result is a collection “quite different” to what they’ve released before, he says.
There was another element that took this album out of the ordinary, too. Unaccustomed to long bouts of self-reflection, We Are Love’s protracted gestation – this is the longest gap between Charlatans albums to date – made it hard to avoid. Especially when confronted by Rockfield and the ghosts of their past. “There was a bit of a reflection going back to somewhere that we hadn’t been for nearly 30 years,” Collins confides. “It brought back a lot of good memories and, just like in the old days, we spent far too long enjoying ourselves!”
Emerging during the late 80s baggy era, The Charlatans captured the spirit of the times. Singles ‘The Only One I Know’ and ‘Weirdo’ soundtracked time (mis)spent on sticky dancefloors, as the movement’s dance-dipped shuffle took indie clubs, radio and Top Of The Pops by storm. Once the scene petered out, the group branched beyond its borders, perfecting the catchy, sunshine crunch of what would later be defined as Britpop, before embracing Dylan-inflected country and electro-flecked indie in the late 90s. The 21st century saw them briefly incorporate blue-eyed soul before finding a more contemporary groove on 2015’s critically acclaimed Modern Nature and 2017’s somewhat underrated Different Days LP.
And now they’re back. The lead single, and title track from the album, is quite superb. Smiths-ian guitar licks and propulsive rhythms provide the bedrock for an open-hearted Tim Burgess declaration, stating, ‘This is the place/These are the days/We are love’. The song is fresher than a pile of clean laundry. The message is a tonic for the times as well.
Once our chat turns to his gigging scrapbook, the anecdotes come thick and fast. Stage Times begins with an enquiry about a certain footballer-turned-pundit’s fleeting cameo in 2015. “Gary Neville said he felt more nervous onstage with us than when he was playing the Champions League final in ’99!” Collins remembers with a laugh.
The guest spot arose after Neville asked if they’d play the rooftop of Hotel Football to help him launch his hotel. “We said we’ll do it if you play ‘Just When You’re Thinking Things Over’ with us on guitar,” he recalls mischievously. “I had to meet him and spend a day giving him some pointers. He was definitely out of his comfort zone. Even a week before doing a little run-through with us he was terrified. But Gary didn’t let the side down. He was great on the day.”
We then talk about the bygone era of terrestrial TV when live music would be regularly platformed on shows such as The Word and The White Room. Then onto SM:tv Live and TFI Friday, with Collins’ tongue planted firmly in cheek. “You used to have those Saturday morning shows with Ant & Dec and Cat Deely. I enjoyed them – hanging out with the likes of Dannii Minogue,” he quips.
“I remember being on TFI Friday at the same time as The Bee Gees. They were interviewed and then they opened questions to the floor.” As a fellow Mancunian, Collins’ curiosity was drawn towards The Bee Gees’ knowledge of local boozers. “I asked if they ever went in the Royal Oak in Chorlton [where the Gibb brothers grew up]. They said, no, but their auntie used to serve behind the bar there.” He pauses for a moment to reflect on the Gibb brothers’ catalogue. “They were colossuses,” he concludes affectionately.
No slouches in the songwriting department themselves, The Charlatans’ return is keenly anticipated.
Collins says the new single encapsulates the mood of the record: “The overall feeling [of We Are Love] is euphoric. There’s upbeat stuff and there’s melancholic stuff. It goes from darkness to complete joy, and even though there are breakups in the lyrics, the overriding feeling is of positive vibes.” For now, though, we turn to the past. Read on for stories about Collins catching The Smiths in ’83, dark days supporting Oasis at Knebworth, and getting lost coming offstage in Italy while trying to escape a hooligan mob…
The gig that made me want to make music
In 1983, I saw The Smiths at The Haçienda the week that ‘This Charming Man’ was released. I’d just bought the single. They were late onstage because they were doing Top Of The Pops in London. They were supposed to be going on at 21:00, but I don’t think Top Of The Pops in those days finished till about 19:30. They turned up at about midnight and the place just went nuts. I was 18 and it was the first proper gig I’d been to. I’d started learning guitar when I was 13/14 but watching Johnny play that night… I thought, well, I might pinch a bit of that!
That would have been the same day as The Smiths’ iconic Top Of The Pops performance where Morrissey waved around gladioli?
It would have been, yeah, and the amount of gladioli that turned up to the Haçienda that night, well, the place was abloom with it!
The weirdest
I remember playing a gig in Rome when Rob Collins, our beloved [late] keyboard player, was still with us. Roma had just won a big game and there were a few football fans in the crowd. Towards the end of the gig, the atmosphere got a bit edgy. An attempt was made to storm our dressing room, and when we finished our last song, Rob and I couldn’t find our way off the stage. There was just too much smoke and strobe [lighting].
We thought we were heading to the dressing room door, but we actually ended up behind a curtain that was against a normal wall with no door behind it. We stayed there for about 10 minutes with our feet sticking out the bottom of the curtain trying to avoid these Italian hoolies until security could come and grab us. Our tour manager still laughs about it to this day. It was pretty weird. An ‘interesting moment’ in my gigging history.
The first
Well, I was a bit late to the party as I didn’t join The Charlatans until ’91. My first gig with the band was at King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow. And it was chaos. People were spilling onto the stage and all over the monitors. Things were breaking and feedback was everywhere. It was quite something to witness. It kind of reminded me of The Smiths at the Haçienda, because people were spilling onto the stage then, with me being one of them. It was glorious. I suppose that’s when I first fell in love with the Glasgow crowd.
The worst
There’s no such thing! I don’t actually remember. I’d be nitpicking if I said something about a bad gig. You have gigs where it doesn’t all go perfectly, but you’d probably have to ask the people who were at the shows. As far as I’m concerned, I’m great every night! [Laughs]
The biggest
The biggest gigs that we’ve done ourselves are arenas. We’ve played the main stage at Glastonbury and with Oasis at Knebworth.
When Cast spoke to us for Stage Times, John Power said his memories of those Oasis Knebworth shows as being a sea of people and the day passing by in a bit of a blur…
It was very much the same for us. I mean, Rob [Collins] had just passed away. We blew all our fee in hiring a helicopter so we could get in and out as quickly as possible. We’d agreed to do the show, so we were going to do it, but we just couldn’t enjoy the day.
After Rob passed away, we talked about calling it a day. I think we might have done if we hadn’t done that gig. It was Martin Duffy [Primal Scream keyboardist who covered for Collins at Knebworth] who passed away himself not so long ago, who got us through it. From Knebworth onwards, we could refocus as a group and move on.
So, you had conversations about ending The Charlatans before that Knebworth show?
Yes. I suppose [playing Knebworth] was quite a cathartic experience. We had to do the gig for ourselves as much as anything. After we did it, we decided that we were going to keep going.
The smallest
In 2015, we played to about 150 people at the Indra Club in Hamburg. It’s the venue where The Beatles did their early gigs. There’s a [Beatles] plaque on the wall as you’re walking in. It’s nice to have been on the same stage as the Fabs.
The best
This is a tough one, but last year we did co-headline show [at Scarborough Open Air Theatre] with Johnny Marr. He asked if I’d join him to play ‘How Soon is Now’. Even though I’ve listened to that song all my life, I didn’t actually know how to play it. I said, “No problem, Johnny, I can ruin this for you!” But seriously, that was a buzz for me. Having seen The Smiths play live and then being invited to play a Smiths’ track onstage with the man himself… my legs turned to jelly a little bit. But it was great. I was buzzing.
Another one was in 2000 during the Us and Us Only tour when we played the John Anson Ford Amphitheatre in LA. I’ve got fond memories of that show. It was similar to Castlefield in 2015, with fantastic weather and a really good atmosphere. [Producer] Danny Saber came to the gig, and we collared him to work on our next album. We’d only gone out to LA to play a gig but ended up staying to make our album, Wonderland.
The Charlatans 14th album, We Are Love, will be released on 31st October via BMG. Preorder here.
Photo by Andrew Benge/Redferns via Getty Images
