I was flicking through one of my old Face magazines the other night when I stumbled upon an article entitled The Scally Army - an A-Z of the new bands. It was quite funny reading about all these bands which were going to take the world by storm - the next Happy Mondays or Stone Roses. Well they didn't, in fact many of the new bands were never to be heard of again.

Bands like Asia Fields, Altobelli beards, Bridewell Taxis... Remember any of them? Nope. That's the problem with "scenes" one minute there are a ton of "great" bands thrust at you from all directions, the next minute they're all shite and no one wants to admit ever liking them.

Back to my Face magazine, and the law of averages had to come into play sooner or later . There under the letter 'c' was a blurb about The Charlatans.

"...this lot boast Stone Roses' vocals and Inspirals' organ. Bound to be massive, the Haircut 100 of the new wave. Their debut, "Indian Robe", came disguised as dance but definitely rocked. They have added advantage of having Mick Jagger's son with a bowl haircut on vocals. They've always worn flares, we're told, so how come in April they had duffle-coats, shit army jacket and white lee jeans? Their current single, "The only one I know", is well good and a step in the right direction."

That was back in June 1990 and a "new" model, Kate Moss, found herself on the cover of that Face. By October of the same year Tim Burgess, The Charlatans photogenic frontman, graced the cover of The Face. Big things were happening for The Charlatans. They'd just released their debut album - Some Friendly - to critical acclaim. The album also did well commercially, entering the UK charts at number one. Not bad for a bunch of Northerners who arrived on the "scene" out of nowhere.

So what went wrong...

Well baggy died... That alone killed 90% of the "Manchester" bands. The Charlatans also had their share of heartache and tragedy. Their guitarist (Jon Baker) left, their keyboardist (Rob Collins) was jailed and their bassist (Martin Blunt) was hospitalised for depression.

Unlike many of their contempories though The Charlatans are still around, and five years after the release of Some Friendly they've graced us with their fourth album - the self titled The Charlatans. In fact the new album is one of the highlights of the year, and that's no easy feat when you consider the list of fab albums released during 1995 - oasis, blur, pulp etc etc. It seems fitting that in the midst of this Britpop explosion The Charlatans release what is possibly their greatest album.

The Charlatans resurgence comes as no suprise to the almost prophetic Tim Burgess.

"It depends on how long you wanna last.  You have to find your feet, reach
your best material.  We hope to reach our peak in about five years' time.
There are only certain times where we feel we've got something to say."

Tim Burgess, Melody Maker, June 1990

The trick with out living a "scene" is in producing an album which is just too good to be ignored by the music press. The new album fulfills this requirement with 12 great pop songs. The album opens with the wierd gospel track, "Nine Acre Court", which is almost totally devoid of vocals, but for a few "nah na nah's". Experimental in the context of the rest of the album it serves its purpose of establishing the funky vibe which flows throughout the album.

The Charlatans follow the lead of Primal Screams, borrowing heavily from the Stones. The stand out track, "Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over" has the Stones Exile album written all over it. This is not a bad thing.

As with another Northener, Sean Ryder, the words are sung in such a euphoric, ecstatic manner that even the most meaningless are given some meaning. Don't get me wrong, The Charlatans do have a message. The track "Just Lookin'" is a protest song - shock horror. Its all about people getting up and having a say. "We're all political people. The Charlatans make political music because there's a desire to bring people together and give them hope from music." As a protest song "Just Lookin'" fails dismaly - its just too happy. As an ain't-life-grand pop tune, in the tradition of "Can't get outa bed", "Just Lookin'" gets a 10 out of 10.

In fact the theme running through the entire album is of a band having a great time. Tim Burgess may want to sing serious political songs but he's not going to let anything get him down. "I'm the happiest bloke on earth, I am. I've got a great band, a brilliant girlfrined, the best mates and I'm living in London, the best city. It's great, I just... I just love being in pop, man."

Happy Happy, Joy Joy.

Alex Allegos