The Charlatans
"This is the place, these are the days, we are love", and based on tonight’s performance, nobody can argue with that.
It’s Friday night and the sun is out, so after many months of queuing up to get into the LCR of a cold, wet and windy evening, tonight already has a really good feel-good factor about it.
The Charlatans are once again in our manor, some thirty-five years on from their first release, their debut album Some Friendly.
It’s a full capacity gig, for the first night of a tour that’s promoting their latest album, the excellent, We Are Love and the show kicks off with three songs taken from it.
It’s a great start, and a reminder that as a band they can still knock out a tune or two and at the same time make music that’s still relevant. They’re sounding very original with Tony Rogers Wurlitzer buzzing away in the background and also at the forefront on many of their songs. They have an unmistakably unique sound that’s still very appealing to us long term admirers but also a much younger generation of fans too.
Ex–North Norfolk resident, frontman, Tim Burgess is looking as resplendent as ever, vocally intact and still producing some elasticated dance moves as he continually throw’s some good shapes around the UEA stage, while regularly acknowledging those members of the audience that are enthusiastically going for it out here on the floor and it’s all still done with a genuine warm smile on his face.
Fair play to the band for maintaining their level of consistency over the years along with their creativity and freshness, as even their older material still sounds vibrant and that’s not easy to do when you have been going that long and have played some of these tracks a million times, it’s all very impressive stuff.
New tracks Appetite, Deeper and Deeper and We Are Love are the standouts from the new material, they are I am sure all strong enough to still stand tall on any future set lists in years to come.
Of course it’s the big songs that really get the floor bouncing, One To Another, Weirdo, North Country Boy, Tellin’ Stories, They Only One I Know and Blackened Blue Eyes, they then close proceedings with fans favourite, the epic Sproston Green and Burgess departs with vocal duties over, with a mug of something in hand much to the adulation of the crowd, while the rest of the band play the song out to it’s close.
Job done, it’s been a great start to their fourteen-date tour around the UK.
As the big screen behind them proclaims, "This is the place, these are the days, we are love", and based on tonight’s performance, nobody can argue with that.
