Help from my friends
Weller, Marr & New Order’s Stephen Morris collaborate on latest album Different Days
The Charlatans have consistently reached new heights in a career, that’s seen them survive bankruptcy and deaths of key members. Frontman Tim Burgess is a battlehardened veteran of the rock ’n’ roll wars yet radiates infectious and upbeat innocence on terrific new album Different Days.
“In troubled times, it sometimes helps to think positively,” reflects Tim, 49.
Rising early with his four-year-old son helped. “We got to see the sun coming up and he’d be asking me about my favourite dinosaurs. It’s a pretty upbeat feeling, unless you dwell on what happened to those dinosaurs.”
Different Days is The Charlatans’ second album since the death of drummer Jon Brookes, from brain cancer, in 2013.
A star-studded cast of friends including Paul Weller, Johnny Marr and New Order drum legend Stephen Morris helped create the album’s mood of blissed out majesty.
“Stephen Morris is a total one-off,” Tim smiles. “I absolutely worshipped New Order and still do.
“His drumming has influenced every generation and will do, regardless of what happens with music. It’s like they based the best drum machines on him.
“I’ve interviewed him on stage a couple of times and he’s so funny too.
“To end up working with him has been mindblowing – he delivers exactly what a song needs every time.”
Fate played a part in making Morris Jon Brookes’ de facto replacement. “I called him up just as their boiler had broken. He checked if our heating worked and came straight over,” Tim recalls.
“There was a delay in getting theirs repaired so the next time he brought Gillian [wife and New Order keyboard player] with him.
“The broken boiler meant we got half of New Order on our record.”
Alongside collaborations with the “amazingly generous” Weller and Marr – “like a gunslinger who rides into town, does his thing and rides off into the sunset” – Different Days includes spoken word contributions from Lambchop’s Kurt Wagner and bestselling Rebus author Ian Rankin.
‘We insist on moving forwards,” nods Tim. “I think the songs reflect that. Standing still is not an option.”