Born out of the boom of baggy, Madchester guitar bands, The Charlatans swaggered into the heart of Brit-pop and are still shaking their shaggy mops to the jangling strut of their classic indie hits today.
On the coat-tails of the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays, their 1990 debut album 'Some Friendly' chimed with the times, shooting straight to number one in the UK and producing the swampy, pysche-pop, indie classic 'The Only One I Know'. Led by the ghostly strains of Tim Burgess, chiming 1960s guitars and loose dance grooves, the band beefed up as the musical climate changed, returning with the chart-topping albums 'The Charlatans' and 'Tellin' Stories' in '95 and '97. Despite the death of keyboardist Rob Collins in a car crash in 1996, the band's steady success continued with the albums 'Us and Us Only' and 'Wonderland' and they released their tenth studio album in 2008 cementing their reputation as one of Britain's finest indie bands.
'Who We Touch' followed two years later with a deluxe edition of 'Us and Us Only' released shortly after. During a concert in Philadelphia, drummer Jon Brookes collapsed and it was discovered he had a brain tumour. Just three years later, in 2013, Brookes passed away at the age of 44. The band played a memorial concert for their drummer and set up The Jon Brookes Fund as a tribute. They returned to the studio and released 'Modern Nature' in 2015 with 'Different Days' following in 2017.
