The Charlatans -‘A Head Full of Ideas’ 31st Anniversary Tour at Invisible Wind Factory, Liverpool 

8th December 2021 

Back on the baggy jeans 90s nostalgia trip – another Charlatans gig, my second in less than a week, so I already know it’s gonna ‘go off’ big time because this band sure know how to give us a good show, and they blew me away at the last one!! Yeah, yeah, I know, I only saw them 3 days ago, but I know how bloody amazing they were, and I cannot wait for more of this celebratory anniversary tour. 

Liverpool tonight… in teeming rain and a raging, bitter cold wind down on the old Dock Road in the old warehouse district tonight the Charlatans play The Invisible Wind Factory.  I LOVE the Invisible Wind Factory, it’s one of the best venues to see live music. Set in one of the former warehouse/ factory buildings, its name a witty reference to its industrial past, formerly manufacturing fans and air vents including the ones used in the nearby tunnels. Quirky and vibrant psychedelic touches stand out against the scaffold and concrete-rich interior. Installations suspended from the ceiling glow luminescent when the performance lights are shone onto them, creating a visual feast, a UFO-like effect, fit for any 90s rave and indie nostalgia seekers!!  At 1200 capacity it’s a pretty intimate gig for a band of this standing and I’m ecstatic to be here!  Big enough to get that real gig crowd feel, but with the up close to the band experience too and it’s already filling up nicely in here!  Tonight we’re stage-side, right at the barrier, towards the middle…great spot! This 31st anniversary tour (the pandemic having postponed it for a year) is to coincide with the ‘best of ‘collection, released this year, entitled ‘a Head full of Ideas’.  Covering 3 decades, it’s a delectable feast for listeners’ ears. Nostalgia-fuelling, the iconic hits this band creates never get tired or old.  Each listen still causes hairs on the back of the neck to stand on end. The collection’s title comes from the lyrics of the 1997 NUM 3 hit ‘One to Another’. “Box up all our records, and a head full of ideas, and a hand full of escape routes, gonna burn you”. It couldn’t be more perfect.

Martin Carr and What Future_Credit: Lee Harman

Support Act – Martin Carr and What Future,Martin Carr – vocals/guitar,Matthew – keys/backing vocals ,Bernie – drums ,Gaz – bass

I must say I’m delighted to be seeing Martin Carr and his band ‘What Future’ again. I was wowed by the performance at the last gig. Having been a member of the Boo Radleys (another iconic 90s band) Martin fully fills the brief of support for tonight’s event. As expected, the guitar-fuelled explosion of indie comes at us in a huge blaze. It’s like the glory days of early alternative sound. Loud, strong beats, tingle-inducing guitar lines very well put together with banging basslines and keys. It’s a toe tapping, very tight performance and it’s got the party underway well and truly. 

Martin Carr and What Future_Credit: Lee Harman

Introducing his band members, there’s an extra special shout out for Gaz the bassist, apparently, this being his first performance of this tour after having being struck down with Covid. Visibly overjoyed at the crowd reaction – let’s just say he’s given one massive and deafening welcome – Gaz, smiling from ear to ear, gives us a little solo, and again the crowd goes wild.  Great band – so much energy.  It seems they love what they do and buzz off their performing as much as we buzz off their playing.  Another brilliant set, alternating between real ‘coming at ya’ blaring tunes to softer, more gentle, and euphoric songs.  Banging set, banging tunes, really brought it again tonight, and I so enjoyed the addition of a “wild hairy bassman” (had to use that).  Thanks, Martin and your amazing band.

The Charlatans_Credit: Lee Harman

The Charlatans – Headline,Tim Burgess – vocals. Martin Blunt – bass ,Mark Collins – guitar .Tony Rogers – keyboards/backing vocals

The Charlatans – ‘A Head Full of Ideas’ 31st Anniversary Tour ….”I can feel it, it feels heavy, but it feels light as well” exclaims Tim Burgess during tonight’s performance…we feel it too… massively!!  

With a huge screen playing footage of the band through the last 3 decades as a backdrop, the Charlatans arrive on stage and begin to play ‘Forever’…it’s just as spine tingling as the previous show!  When frontman, Tim Burgess, joins them after the impressive intro filling the venue with classic Charlatan sounds, the crowd surges forward. As he begins to sing it goes off…it’s bouncing now. It’s so good being in the crowd at any gig, but when it’s a band whose songs you’ve known and loved throughout most of your life it heightens that feeling. Standing centre stage, mobile phone in hand, Tim films the crowd reaction, smiling as he does so.  After thanks and a hello, it’s swiftly onto the next number-“Weirdo”.  As you would imagine, an anthem like this really pours fuel on the musical fire of excitement this crowd has tonight. The beats are funky, dancey, the musical layering and bursting guitar sounds are of their time, classic, yet also timeless. It’s a glorious mixture of trips down memory lane and good solid sounds. 

The Charlatans_Credit: Lee Harman

The Charlatans are a total force of musicality coming straight at us. It’s energy filled, excitement fuelled, the guitar distortion, that 60s vibe courtesy of the Hammond organ and those ‘ravey’ house style beats on loops. In a career spanning 31 years, some epic songs have been produced, which we all know and love. It’s a really individual and easily identifiable sound of their own. Rich textured and anthemic tunes, real sing along choruses.  Crowd pleasers are obvious… like ‘How high’ and ‘Then’.  It’s difficult to do justice in words to the feeling and the atmosphere of being here tonight and to how good, live, this band – the Charlatans – actually are.  It’s wild, bouncing, you can feel the heat of 1200 pogoing fans, all singing along and loving this few hours…the Charlatans really are on fire tonight. I mean really on fire.  Every band member is giving so much to this, and when the cheers and screams reach the peak they smile appreciatively.  Tim Burgess as a frontman is great to watch. The nonstop dancing he’s made into an art form exclusive to him – that peroxide blonde hair, the retro jeans, and jumper – he’s just fascinating to watch: totally captivating. He glows.  Grinning hugely for the majority of tonight he has got to be the happiest frontman in music. surely?  He interacts with fans, comes across as friendly and genuine, waving, acknowledging, and gesturing to closer audience members. My good friend Suzanne (HUGE Charlatans fan) and myself even had him serenade some of ‘You’re so pretty, we’re so pretty to us – crouching right opposite, singing it directly at us and dancing and smiling….what a guy!!  

These guys give such a euphoric and feel good vibe and it’s so well performed, bringing those ‘feel’ levels up and up with each song. At one point Tim actually says he can feel it…”I can feel it, it feels heavy, but it feels light as well.” That perfectly describes tonight’s vibe! This band have whipped up such frenzy in here tonight: endorphin-producing, the sounds resonating and the highs being absorbed by everyone. Tonight is one explosive night of musical reminiscence. The weather outside is grim but in here it’s sunshine filled. Tim’s vocals are the sunshine, melodic and free sounding, but with melancholy undertones. Songs like ‘Sleepy little sunshine boy’ and ‘North country Boy’ are such uplifting songs: honey filled sounds, the lightness, and brightness of the vocals is heart-warming.  

All too soon it’s over, the band give their thanks, bow and exits the stage. Next is one hell of an encore, with a story – take one legendary frontman of one of the biggest UK bands, an enthusiastic superfan with a mission, and one very decent member of the venue security staff. After rapturous applause the band leave the stage.  A few minutes pass of chanting and screaming. After wresting through over a thousand people to get to the front, a guy squeezes right next to me, clutching a book. He’s waving wildly at the security guy on the other side of the barrier and is asking does anyone know are they coming back on stage. My photographer always photographs setlists from on stage and sends them to me so I always have the info, so I know they will indeed be doing an encore of 3 songs which also I’d seen them do at the previous Manchester date.  The security guard has by now come over and has promised to ask if Tim will sign the fan’s book (Tim’s Memoirs) but puts it on a monitor right opposite us on the stage. Moments later the band take their places back on stage and as Tim makes his way over to the mic he notices the book. As he goes back to check it out, we catch his attention and he smiles over at us.  We ask will he sign it, “Of course,” he says. Asking the fan’s name, he signs it, leans right over to us and hands it back then continues on with the encore…which goes through the roof…ending on the highest of highs with ‘Sproston Green.’

The Charlatans_Credit:Lee Harman

I can honestly say this is possibly my all time favourite gig. It truly has been something else. What a genuine guy Tim Burgess is. The trouble he goes to for fans is commendable. The small act of signing his book has made a fan’s night It’s given him a memory to treasure.  Tim actually wrote “to Mike, this is ace,” and signed it. To superfan, Mike McCourbrey – treasure the book, but more so treasure the memory; to a great guy – John Riley, the security guard on the barrier – for doing something so nice for somebody and to Tim (smiling legend) Burgess, for being the coolest and for giving such a memory to a true fan…cos ‘that was ace’.  And to the Charlatans as a whole…you fucking rock!!!!

Setlist: Forever. Weirdo, Can’t Get out of bed, You’re So Pretty We’re So Pretty, Sleepy little Sunshine Boy, Just when you’re Thinking It’s Over, One to Another,  Different Days, Ian Rankin Spoken Word, Plastic Machinery, Easy Life, A Man Needs, impossible, The Only One, North Country Boy, How High, Blackened Blue Eye, Trouble Understanding, Sproston Green.

Words: Janet Harding  Images: Lee Harman

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