The Waltones are back... 33 years later!

MARK Collins may just have finished on tour with The Charlatans at the moment - but he’s also reuniting his previous band for a special one-off Manchester date.

The Waltones were regulars on the Manchester live circuit in the 1980s and even played with The Stone Roses before The Charlatans - but split more than 30 years ago.

Collins and bass player Manny Lee decided to reform for a ‘33 and a third year anniversary’ date at Manchester’s Deaf Institute tonight after a night out in Manchester.

“We were in Chorlton having a beer or two and when we looked back at when we last did stuff, we couldn’t believe how long ago it was,” he said.

“We made a couple of records, we played The Boardwalk and The Internationzal lots of times, we even got a Peel session. That was the pinnacle. And even though we stopped playing together, we never stopped being mates. So we thought we’d do it as a one off. We just need to remember the songs.”

Collins said the band split because one of the members moved to America to study. “Then the call came from The Charlatans, and I knew that I really wanted to do that. Everyone understood and then just did their own stuff. We were always just playing for the hell of it. It was always just great fun.”

The Charlatans roll in to Manchester Apollo on Saturday December 2 but Collins isn’t too worried about his current band feeling pushed out. “I think Tim (Burgess) is more excited about it than anyone!” he said.