The Early Beginnings

• The line-up of the band looked better and stronger than ever.  Nothing could have gone wrong now. The line-up was as follows:-

Tim Burgess- Vocals

Jon Baker- Guitar

Martin Blunt- Bass

Rob Collins- Keyboards

Jon Brookes- Drums

• It was now the time for them to start working together as a band even though at first there were some difficulties with Baker finding it difficult to play certain songs and Tim struggling a bit with staying strong since Ketleys feelings had been involved in this.
• Tim claimed that Indian Rope, The Only One I Know and Sproston Green were all written in the same weekend while Brookes was away with his friends in Ibiza. This weekend had been crucial as those songs remain an imprint for most of the bands fans, considering that Indian Rope was the first ever single to be released and that got them going, The Only One I Know being the song that most people remember for its dancey grooves and Sproston Green is the song that gets the crowd going and is still the last song to be played at gigs. To this day on, these tracks still remind the crowd of the powerfulness and credibility that the band itself has and we can see clearly that they have all music in their blood that will keep their stamina high.
• The band was reflecting all the things that were happening around them and put it out through their music. But thankfully they have the charisma that pulls them on in the end of the day. One should not forget the way they looked back then which might seem amusing these days. Tim had that strange bowl-like hair do and massive flares, Brookes had long hair back then but looked cool, Blunt and Baker had this whole smart-looking style (The good old Mod days must have done Martin some good heh) and Collins was just himself, out there and looking dangerous.
• The Charlies emerged in the music scene both in the wrong and right times. Manchester was exploding with budding bands and since our favs are from Northwich that would have given them trouble. Critics were looking for an opportunity to strike back but to their advantage they have outcome them all. So with that in mind they had to move on quick but cautiously making the right decisions and making the gigs ones worthwhile. Northwich was bombarded with posters of the bands upcoming gigs and they wanted to be sure that they would know what they were dealing with.
• There was £3000 available at that time for them for recording, pressing, printing and distribution. Chris Nagle was willing to help out the band and offer them his services. The album had to be done on a cheap basis.
• The Manchester Evening News attacked their demo tape that contained Indian Rope, White Shirt and You can talk to me and accused them of stealing the bassline of White Shirt from the infamous Stone Roses song She bangs the drums.
• So it was time to release their first single Indian Rope but it had to be difficult. The Press was attacking them so they came up with their own record label Dead Dead Good records, something they can call theirs.
• At this time, the Charlatans were finally coming through and people adored them and this all happened thankfully because of the tour and the gigs.
• And now was the time for glory, Indian Rope shot to the Number 13 position in the Independent Charts and climbed up to Number 1.
• Unfortunately, the band was accused for being an imitation of the Stone Roses, with Tim being constantly ridiculed to have copied and imitated Ian Brown.