UK Prodigies

The Charlatans’ latest album, “Simpatico,” couldn’t have been named better. The disc is a compilation of incredibly audible rock and with 16 years of experience, there’s no reason why the band wouldn’t know how to compose some amazing tunes. Band of the Day recently met up with The Charlatans’ bassist Martin Blunt and guitarist Mark Collins for that oh-so-lovable…

10 questions with The Charlatans

- by Mattias and Dave-Os -

1. You guys have been together for 16 years and have 9 studio albums. How do you manage to stay together when some bands can’t even stay together for 16 months?
Mark: I think it’s because we love what we do. That’s about it really. We enjoy making records together and we enjoy trying to make each record a little bit different from the last one. And it’s still a pleasure, not a chore. You have your ups and downs, you ride out the rough times and enjoy the good times as much as you can.

2. What do you think is the biggest difference between your first album, “Some Friendly,” and your latest, “Simpatico”?

Mark: About 15 years.
Martin: The way we’ve developed and grown, there are some quite innocent moments on “Some Friendly” but also some quite amazing, sparky vibes around that time. The sound has developed into something that’s still relevant.

3. For eight years you were with your indie label and in ‘98 you signed with universal. How did that affect you in terms of fans, music, and life in general?
Mark: The biggest switch was when we got signed to Universal from Beggars Banquet. It meant that I didn’t need to sleep in a blow-up bed in my friend’s flat anymore. I could afford a blow-up bed in my own. I could afford a car instead of going around in a push-buggy.

Martin: It was good times, those eight years, but we felt we came to the end of that agreement, really. That’s why I think we parted company. But funny enough, the people that signed us to Universal Records had all been asked to leave within six months.
Mark: We didn’t actually sign to Universal; we signed to MCA. Before we could release a record with MCA, a merger happened where Universal Island took over MCA and fired everyone who signed us. [This was because] we met Island records before signing to MCA and told them they were a bunch of wankers. All those wankers who took over called us a bunch of wankers back. We didn’t have the best relationship with them.

4. What’s your take on the 60’s Charlatans from San Francisco? Also is it weird how you’re called “The Charlatans UK” over here?

Martin: That’s the wonderful thing about American law. I think once you’ve got a band’s name, you’re actually the owner of it. It’s just in North America we have to use the “UK”; to the rest of the world, it’s [just] The Charlatans. We’ve never heard of them before until somebody came knocking on our door in 1990 saying, “Well if you give us X amount of dollars, you can have the name for keeps.” But it was quite a lot of money, so we said “Yeah, we’ll put the UK at the end”.

5. Mark, how’s your wrist coming along?
Mark: *laughs* Who told you about that?
Mattias: A little bird told me that you hurt it. How’d that happen?

Mark: Well, you know when you start enjoying yourself a bit too much on tour? Challenges get laid down and sometimes you can’t back down from them. I ended up taking on Tony in a race. I was just streaks ahead of him, so I turned around, offering him some obscene gestures with my hands. I tripped over and landed on my wrist, but it’s alright now. It was absolutely worth it, just to see the look on his face. For a few nights, I had to put some strapping around my wrist to hold it together. But I’m a trooper. I got through it.
Mattias: No guts, no glory right?
Mark: Exactly.

6. Mark, you’re a guitar collector. How many guitars do you have, and what’s your favorite?

Mark: I’m not sure how many I’ve got. Probably between 25-35, and I have several favorites. My latest favorite is an old 50’s telecaster. It’s very nice.
Mattias: Do you name them?
Mark: *laughs* No.
Martin: …1, 2, 3, 4…

7. In the past 16 years, what has been your most memorable moment?
Martin: There’s been quite few actually. Walking into the first “T in the Park” festival in Scotland on a really hot day and just seeing this dust cloud rise because there were that many people grooving. There was a few thousand, and this dust cloud came up. That was pretty memorable and that was when we felt like we’d really arrived somewhere. It was about 1995. We just finished a British tour about three weeks ago and that’s regenerated the group.
Mark: Giving my mother and father a platinum disc for my first #1 record. They’ve always told me I should get a proper job and it just felt like “Your son hasn’t wasted his time. Here you go, put this on your wall. Aren’t you glad I’m not working in a bank?”

8. On your site you have a band diary section where you have regular studio updates. Did you get any feedback from fans that may have changed the outcome of the final product of your record?

Mark: I still haven’t learned how to turn my computer on.

Martin: No, not particularly. Because of this day and age, a couple of people managed to pick up the record about eight weeks before it got released. Then all of a sudden you’ve got these comments [on the site] commenting on certain songs and other people would say “I haven’t got it yet, please don’t spoil it for the rest of us” – it was pretty weird.

Mark: It was funny. We had just finished a gig at Birmingham and a guy had just bought one of these [advanced/leaked] CDs off eBay for nearly $500. He could have just waited a little while for it to come out.

Martin: We’d have sold it to him for $300.

9. If you could be a spider or a bee, what would you be?
Martin: What kind of bee?
Dave-os: Any bee you want.
Martin: I’d probably be a bee then, just for the buzz of it.
Mark: Yeah, I can’t top that.

10. Who would you like to see next on Band of the Day?
Martin: The Beatles.
Mark: Alfa 9. They’re from the middle of England – check them out.

Broken wrists and buzzing bees aside, thanks to Mark and Martin for gracing us with their answers while completing our 10 Questions. More high profile band interviews are coming up really soon, so we’ll catch ya later babes.

Keep in touch,

The BotD Team