Mid-North Western Alt.Country Boys
Tim Burgess with special guests Lambchop, 23rd June, Barbican.
The Charlatans were once billed as the world’s longest surviving rock band. This may have been tied up in record company rhetoric and the tragic circumstances that surrounded the making of Tellin’ Stories but there were other reasons for their longevity.
Feeding into the band was a pudding bowl of musical influences. Although their haircuts and swagger cashed in on Madchester, they were essentially outside the city. As Burgess’ autobiography affectionately details (new updated edition out July 4th) they stirred in elements of The Byrds and The Meters from the very beginning. Additional remixes by the fledgling Chemical Brothers created a unique blend.
As the band rose, and Burgess broadened his lyrical palate, bits of Dylan and Gutherie crept into Tellin’ Stories. Then as Burgess expanded his vocal scale there was even a touch of Curtis Mayfield mixed with mid-western slide guitars and occasional gospel choirs joining the congregation on Us And Us Only.
Burgess’ involvement with Lambchop followed after he went to see them at a gig in Manchester then helped lead singer Kurt Wagner load his van. Burgess asked him whether he’d like to work with them to which Wagner replied, “you write the music, I’ll write the lyrics”.
Tonight, Wagner tells us that when he first met Tim he wasn’t quite sure who he was. He’s also distracted by Tim’s hair when he comes on to duet during Lambchop's set quipping “what happened? when I met him he looked normal you know quite preppy, is it because he’s gone vegetarian?” Wagner’s easy humour is a contrast to his gentle yet lyrically dense tales that have a soporific effect on a warm Sunday evening.
To be fair, Tim’s pudding bowl haircut bears a striking resemblance to his early years, cut when he was writing the chart-topping Weirdo and perhaps the new straw coloured thatch is a nod toward his alt.country roots?
When Lambchop is replaced by Burgess’ band after the interval, the influence is clear and the lush sound, similarly interchangeable. Wagner stood by his word and worked with Burgess on his most recent solo album Oh No I Love You, Tim still reverts to a trademark pimp shuffle when he delivers Wagner’s lyrics and the songs have a bit more bounce to them than a standard Lambchop tale but it’s an authentic take rather than a pale Northern imitation. Or what Tim calls “Mid North-Western”.
Obviously the biggest ripples of recognition are with the key-changed Charlatans songs. Starting with The Only One I Know then bringing on a string quartet for White and the already country hued A Man Needs To Be Told is taken to new heights. Wagner partners up for Weirdo and it’s at this point that you release that he is as much an outsider to country as Burgess. As Burgess’ set increases, so do the number of Lambchop members until finally there's a full ensemble performance of the closest Wagner ever had to a cross over bouncy chart hit, Up With People.
As the recent remix album of Oh No I Love You highlighted, it’s also refreshing to see an artist who won’t settle into a trend and solely chug out the back catalogue. Unlike rock dinosaurs headlining Glastonbury this weekend, Tim Burgess refuses to be stuck in a musical rut or, indeed, framed by a (Jesus) hairdo.
Creating A Culture Calendar for Inside The M60
I’ve recently started working with Inside The M60. In addition to being on hand to help with little Wordpress tweaks, I’ve been trying to carve out a little niche for myself.
Obviously, I come from “down the M6” so my local knowledge isn’t great, but I do know my culture. The site editors Louise Bolotin and Nigel Barlow understood the advantages of having a listings section and so let me loose.
Inspired by the work of Wicci which runs through Wordpress, I looked into suitable calendars. I’d previously encouraged Nigel and Louise to get their events into Google Calendar, so it made sense to at least base it there.
After a few false starts I found Google Calendar Events developed by Ross Hanney. I’m really impressed with the strength of the widget particularly its flexibility and the attentive nature of Ross. It makes such a difference if there is decent support for a plugin.
Setting the plugin up was a bit fiddly. What I wanted to do was make the calendar link out to tickets or, where possible, to link back to previews or reviews on Inside The M60. This way the calendar aids site navigation. There’s a bit of a jiggle which you have to make to the PHP to make it read HTML in Google Calendar details but Ross intends to introduce this as a dashboard setting.
Once I’d got the plugin running on the back end of my site I approached Philip John to get it installed on Journal Local, where Inside The M60 is based. Philip had some reservations about to cross-site scripting attacks again I consulted Ross and we introduced a bit of code to stop this.
Inside The M60 are really happy with the Calendar, it has increased traffic to the site and has added another dimension. It’s also helped me get a cultural handle on Manchester and makes me feel excited about basing myself here.
I would like to encourage more of a standard way of contributing and I’m considering following the example of Wicci and allowing promoters and people to add listings themselves. I’m also thinking about taking feeds from other site. But at the moment I feel we’ve got more quality control by doing it ourselves.
One of the MA Magazine groups from City University are doing a magazine for the East End of London and they wanted to bring in a map. I naturally recommended Google Calendar Events. This week they’re going live with it so keep an eye on Eastbound Magazine’s website.
The Smiths Music Map
My brother and I grew up with The Smiths, so when he came to visit me I decided to show him Morrissey's haunts. I gathered together details from Cemetry Gates and noted venues featured on
Manchester Music Tour.
View The Smiths Music Map in a larger map
I cycled around a few sites on Saturday and I've added a few multimedia bits to those pinpoints. I'm also going to add a cycle route based on Cycle Streets and my own experience of cycling the route. This is open map so if you have more to add then feel free.
