Project Description
Interview with
Mark Collins
of
The Charlatans
Interviewers: Colin Reid and Laurie Rea
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Ahead of their Australian Tour, Mark Collins (guitar) took the time to chat with Amnplify about their careers this far & what we can expect from the tour. The Charlatans 2018 Australian Tour kicks off on Friday 24th August at The Triffid, Brisbane followed by Saturday 25th at The Metro, Sydney then Sunday 26th at 170 Russell, Melbourne; Tuesday 28th at The Gov, Adelaide and concludes on Wednesday 29th August at Capitol, Perth.
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Hi, is that Tim and Mark?
It’s only Mark I’m afraid, Tim’s about 200 miles away from here!
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You’re talking to two poms in Australia, so it should feel a bit familiar to you. I’m a fellow Mancunian too. We’re really looking forward to the gig in August.
Congratulations. As are we! We really love coming to Australia.
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You’ve been out here quite a few times in the last decade haven’t you?
This’ll be our third full tour in 10 years, we didn’t get out for a long time, and we kind of neglected Australia in the nineties. I blame the slack manager (laughs).
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How do you find the gigs here, do you find the audiences react in a similar way to back home?
Yeah, they’re great, I think the crowds are pretty comparable actually; they all go nuts in the right places and they go quiet in the quiet places. So yeah, it’s fantastic.
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I know lots of ex-pats who grew up with you guys who are really looking forward to the gig, make them feel nostalgic.
(laughing) Well they’ve got till the end of August to get their tickets, if there’s any left…
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I love my music biographies and I read an interesting quote the other day, New Orders Bernard Sumner said “Los Angeles produced The Beach Boys, Dusseldorf produced Kraftwork and Manchester produced Joy Division”… I was wondering what or where produced The Charlatans?
Well, The Charlatans are a bit of a wired amalgamation of Manchester and Midlands, the band actually started in the Midlands with the Hammond organ as its drive. It kind of harks back to soul, and when it gets rocky it goes more deep purple. So it’s sort of like soul and rock, and it then needs a couple of Mancunian lads (laughs). We met our first manager in a record shop in Northwich, so it’s sort of Manc Midland… Mid, Manc sort of thing (laughs). We kind of got attached to the Manchester scene that was happening, though I wouldn’t exactly describe us as a Manchester band.
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Well you’re on my Manchester playlist (laughs).
We can also make it on Midlands playlists too (laughs).
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We’re loving the new EP. For me the vibe of the song ‘Totally Eclipsing’ the lead song off it, made me think that you guys were kind of reminiscing but also saying we’ve been through some hardships together, but we’re like the Musketeers, we’re a special team, and we’re going ahead still… Have got the right meaning of the song?
Thank you. I’ve not actually asked Tim what the exact meaning of the lyrics are, but I think you’ve summed it up. It’s a defining experience. It is “take this”. Its uplifting, and yeah, it is forward thinking.
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You’ve had a string of really good songs recently, Plastic Machinery is right up there for me with some of your classics.
Yeah, it’s a good’n isn’t it. Got to play with Johnny Marr on that one too.
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Yeah, I was going to ask you how that came about?
We’ve known him for a long, long time. He actually played on three of the tracks on the last album.
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Hey, Johnny’s gone clean living, as has Tim, have you given up the booze too Mark?
No, (laughs) Leaves more for me!
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There is a whole anti-rock and roll thing going on at the moment, does Tim have a herbal tea cabinet he keeps back-stage?
He drinks far too much espresso and gets wired out of his mind sometimes so you have to get some sense out of him before he’s had his tenth espresso of the day. Seriously he’s in good form, so yeah, good for him you know?
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Do you follow the football (soccer)?
I do, yeah.
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Do you know anything about the Socceroos?
Are they in their first world cup?
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No. Fourth.
Fourth, right, yeah. And it all kicks off in about 6 and a half hours.
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What are your predictions for the world cup?
I’ve not really thought… I want to watch the first few games first… you always wanna back either the Germans, the Brazilians and Spain. You never know, on paper the Belgians… Whether they can get it together in a tournament…
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Do you have a favourite world cup song and you reckon the band would ever think about writing one? New Order’s World In Motion, that kind of stuff?
Well World In Motion is a classic, and I like… err… err…(laughs) I’ve not really given it much thought to be honest, maybe “World Cup Willie” (laughs).
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Are you Manchester United or City?
I’m United. I’m letting City have their moment. I’m waiting for everyone to adopt electric cars, and then City will be gone when all their oil money comes out. Buy electric cars kids!
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Are there any Australian singers, bands, anyone you’d like to do a collaboration with? We can give you some examples, Kylie Minogue… Olivia Newton John, AC/DC, Nick Cave…
Nick Cave, that’d be an interesting one. We’ll skip Kylie, but Nick Cave, not a bad shout. He’s got a place in England hasn’t he?
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Yeah, down in Brighton. Hey thinking about other artists do you got any guilty pleasures, any secret sounds in you library your fans might be surprised to hear about?
Something most people wouldn’t know is that I love country music, yeah.
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Tim’s into Northern Soul isn’t he? Do you like the Northern Soul as well Mark?
I do yeah. I got a pedal steel. I reckon in about another 50 years I might be able to get a tune out of it (laughs).
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There’s a big Northern Soul scene in Adelaide. Maybe you could do a DJ set while you’re here?
I’ll tell Tim. Quite often after a show, because he’s not getting on the booze, rather than watch us he likes to get out and do a set somewhere.
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Anything you really miss when you’re on tour, typically British things?
No, we go on tour to get away from that! I like observing other cultures.
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When you’re touring, do the places you visit ever work their way into songs down the track? Or do Tim’s lyrics ever reflect your tours?
Err yeah, there are places that pop up. Tim lived in America for a while, for about 10 years, so there are some American influences in his lyrics, and some Japanese too.
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When he (Tim) was in LA, was that hard for the two of you writing songs together, with him being on the other side of the world?
No it was great, I got a lot of air miles out of it! Seriously, I actually enjoyed it. I was going out to LA about 3 or 4 times a year. First few times I didn’t really like the city, but then I got to know some people, and yeah, began enjoying going out to America.
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Are there any other new bands from the UK you would recommend to Australian audiences?
Err… No (laughs). There are a bunch of new bands, but they’re all on the cusp at the moment. There’s some on Tim’s record label Ogenesis, you could check some out on that. A lot of the bands who have opened up for us, Tim has signed up on the Ogenesis label, so you can go to the website and listen to the new up and coming kids. But it’s hard for kids these days coz record companies don’t give you any money anymore. So you’ve got to juggle your job with trying to make music. It’s tough going for kids these days.
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Do you know of any Aussie bands that are emerging?
I have yeah. And we were looking for a band to open up for us, we’re keeping an eye on Aussie bands. … I’ve just remembered the name of the band we wanted to ask to support us, The Chats. Tim really likes them. They’re pretty out there. So we might see if they’re available to come and make some noise on a couple of Aussie shows.
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Hey Mark, when you tour, are you one of these bands who play the same 15 songs all around the world or do you mix it up? You’ve got a big back catalogue.
We mix it up. We just did 4 shows back to back in the UK where we did totally different sets every night. We’ve probably got about 60 songs in our heads at the moment that we could drop into, so we will mix it up. People will get to hear their old favourites and we’ll throw in some new ones as well.
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Plans for future albums? Will it be a couple of years before we hear a new one?
We’re in live mode at the moment. We’ve got a few festivals in Europe, then Japan, then New Zealand and Australia, then we’re off to America, and we’re pretty busy till the end of the year. So around the end of the year we’ll probably get itchy fingers and want to get around to doing some new stuff again. So at the moment we’re not thinking about a new record.
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The EP was released very close to the album (Different Days). Are these (EP) songs that you didn’t finish that you thought could have been on the album? Or are they brand new songs?
They were new songs, we wanted to record them and release them. We didn’t have an album, we just felt like being spontaneous. We wanted to record them, and when you’ve recorded them you want to release them. So we thought lets go old school and bring out an EP.
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I think it’s a really good gift for fans, I didn’t even know about it until the single came out.
We didn’t know it was coming out until a few weeks ago. I’m really pleased with the reaction it’s had, and yeah, it sounds great.
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It really does! Thanks Mark, it’s been really nice talking to you. Really appreciate your time.
Thanks guys. I look forward to catching up with you in August.
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The Charlatans
Australian Tour Dates
August 2018:
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Friday 24th BRISBANE: The Triffid
Saturday 25th SYDNEY: The Metro
Sunday 26th MELBOURNE: 170 Russell
Tuesday 28th ADELAIDE: The Gov
Wednesday 29th PERTH: Capitol
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