The Charlatans frontman Tim Burgess on his Liverpool music idols and helping the city's homeless

It’s more than 30 years since The Charlatans’ psychedelic sound put them front and centre of the 90s Madchester music scene.

But 22 top 40 singles later, The Charlatans singer, Tim Burgess still remembers some words of reassurance from back in the early days, when audiences narrowly made it into triple figures.

“Most of our gigs then were around Liverpool, we played places like the Lomax, St Helens, Widnes, and loads in Manchester.

“We started out small, but it always felt big because big when you first start out is 100 people.

“I was working at ICI in Runcorn and in January 1990 I told my boss I was leaving, and he said ‘well, at the end of the tour your job’s still open if you want to come back.’ And I believe that my job’s still open …”

The three decades since have been phenomenally successful in terms of musical output and fan loyalty, although it’s been more a feat of endurance than an easy ride. Their original keyboard player was killed in a car crash in 1996, and their drummer died in 2013 after an on-stage seizure was later diagnosed as a brain tumour.

Charlatans

Frontman Tim has had his own much-publicised addictions but he’s still here, still pursuing the music dream he’s had since he was a teenager.

“I did a séance when I was 15 and, because I wanted to be a guitar player in a band, I said, ‘will I ever be a great guitarist?’ and she said ‘no’,” he laughs.

“So then I said, ‘But I’m going to be doing gigs, so how many gigs am I going to play?’ and it spelled out 3,000-and-odd so I knew I was going to do more than a handful.”

Salford-born and growing up in Northwich, Tim spent a lot of his youth in Liverpool and the band will soon set off on a UK tour that brings them back here in early December,

“I was a big Echo & The Bunnymen fan,” he says. “One of my greatest Liverpool moments was going to Probe and hearing someone talk about getting a Velvet Underground T-shirt for their kid and I turned around and it was Will Sergeant. I was very happy about that.

“I think it’s always a good time for music in Liverpool, always, but that time was really sensational.”

After such a long career, there’s no sign of Tim tiring of performing live. The biggest challenge is deciding which hits to leave out of the set list and which personal favourites to include.

“We couldn’t put them all in but I’m not a massive fan of doing the same thing all the time so it’s great to be able to have a lot of stuff. So Oh from Modern Nature to me is brilliant and should be in every time but it can’t be because fortunately Come Home Baby and Let The Good Times and Talking in Tones are all from that album and they should be in as well.

“We have to try and choose something from most albums and the biggest problem is Tellin’ Stories because that had big hits on there so we have to always put those in. But these are great problems to have. I’m actually showing off really!”

Being on stage feels different now to when the band started out, not for better or worse.

“In the beginning it was so exciting, I was 22 or 23, there were no barriers, people were always on the stage, always singing with me, hugging me, pulling me into the audience, it was just a massive youth culture. Now there are barriers and security but it’s just a different kind of thing to have a choir of people singing songs that I’ve written, and for each song I have a memory while I’m singing it.”

The Charlatans have a big devoted fan base in Liverpool but that’s not Tim’s only connection.

Last December he came and did a stint as a barista for the day at Paper Cup Coffee in Queen Square which supports homeless people in the city.

He spotted the project on Twitter and offered to help out. “And I’m a man of my word,” he adds.

“I was spending a lot of time on Twitter, I knew they’d had it a bit rough so I thought I’d go and do a shift. Why not? I was very eager to learn how to make a perfect cup of coffee and the lad who was teaching me that day was just brilliant and the welcome was amazing.

“It’s a big thing they’re doing so I’m very supportive of it. Some people like to just troll people on Twitter, I like to find out who’s struggling and go and give them a helping hand.”