THE CHARLATANS
SONGS FROM THE OTHER SIDE 1990-1997
BEGL 2032CD

The Charlatans are rock. They possess the swaggering confidence of a band who know they are one of the best British acts of the last decade, and deservedly so. Although The Charlatans' story is a well-documented one, what is often overlooked is just how much they accomplished in their time at Beggars: 5 UK Top 10 albums and a slew of hit singles not to mention building a legion of some of the most loyal fans around.

What is really unusual is the quality of their B sides; not for them the slapdash approach of using below-standard recordings. Indeed, Songs From The Other Side' which features 16 of the best compiled by the band, proves how good they were at writing top-notch tunes.

When The Charlatans appeared on the scene back in 1989, they were viewed by many as mere bandwagon-jumpers, hitching a ride with The Stone Roses and Happy Mondays. Yet, ten years later, they were close to notching up their fourth Number One album. In line to be considered the Band Of The Nineties, they had progressed far beyond their Madchester peers.

There were various reasons for this ongoing success. Firstly, their melodic sensibilities meant that they managed to deliver a seemingly endless stream of memorable singles. Moreover, they made strenuous efforts to remain contemporary, embracing dance culture and working with cutting-edge producers.

But there was a further, equally significant reason; the loyalty of the band's diehard fans. Every release was guaranteed a respectable first week sales and gigs were always profitable, giving them valuable breathing space when times were hard between 1992 and 1995. This loyalty was extreme, sure, but not blind. The band had earned it by treating their fans well. Throughout their career they embraced the extra work-load placed upon them by formatting and they went way, WAY out of their way to ensure that every version of every single was worth having.

Where other bands would add two minutes of incongruous percussion to a track and call it a remix, The Charlatans wrote new songs, taking the opportunity to experiment. They became one of the few bands who’s B-sides merited their own album release. Amazingly, Songs From The Other Side could easily have been a 2-CD set.

As it is, we have a 16-track collection of the highest quality kicking off with Imperial 109, a tasteful instrumental (its vinyl run-out groove read "Good, Aren't We?") which gave the band's official fanzine its name and originally backed The Only One I Know, The Charlatans' first Top 10 hit, back in 1990. This is followed by Everything Changed, a staccato, Sixties-tinged workout, also taken from the Only One single, that could easily have appeared as an album track on the band's debut, Some Friendly.

It was not long after this successful start that the halcyon days of The Madchester movement began to fade, eventually leaving The Charlatans struggling to move forward and find a new, deeper sound. The music began to take on a far darker edge, discernible in Happen To Die which was recorded for the Over Rising EP - though the version included here would appear on the later Tremelo Song (sic) single. Keen to avoid the obvious, the band had entered the studio with David M. Allen, co-producer of The Cure's melancholic Disintegration album.

The Me.In Time sessions were also clearly, necessarily experimental and saw the introduction of new guitarist Mark Collins to the band's songwriting process. Out of this renewed creativity came the B-side to Me.In Time, Occupation h. Monster. Years later, the band would all admit that Monster was far better than its A-side, a track Blunt claims is the only Charlatans song he actively dislikes.

The reception of ‘difficult’ second LP, Between 10th And 11th showed that changes needed to be made. Rob Collins suggested the band relax and rediscover the fun of it all, as did Steve Hillage. Formerly of uber-hippies Gong and currently pushing back the musical envelope with System 7, he was employed as producer. Here, the driving, bass-heavy Stir It Up shows the band becoming more laid back - a process they'd continue to great effect over the next three albums. It also reveals a different writing method. By now, vocalist Tim Burgess and Mark Collins had taken to writing with each other, in a traditional guitar/vocals way, while Blunt and drummer Jon Brookes would produce more rhythm-based material. Rob Collins had one foot in each camp.

Stir It Up appeared on the B-side of Jesus Hairdo, as did Feel Flows, featured here as a Van Basten remix. The title an oblique reference to The Beach Boys' Surf's Up, this track is a superb instrumental, both insidious and punishing. Burgess, by introducing the band to the Chemical Brothers, was encouraging the others to enter this new terrain and demanded his vocals were dropped.

Next comes Subterranean, taken from the Easy Life single of March 1994, but originally written for Between 10th And 11th. With its streaming keyboards,pulsing rhythm and Burgess's voice floating above it all, it seems something of a throwback to Feel Flows, but leads nicely into the Tommy-inspired Backroom Window and the Seventies rock of Green Flashing Eyes, both B-sides to the Crashin' In single.

The Hillage-produced third album, Up To Our Hips, had gone Top 10, lifting the group's spirits and their confidence. Hillage convinced them to re-enter the studio immediately so as not to lose the vibe. Crashin' In and its B-sides were the first results of these sessions and the last tracks Hillage would produce for the band. After a series of disagreements, he was let go, The Charlatans continuing to record with engineer Dave Charles.

This change of personnel was triumphantly justified when The Charlatans LP went to Number One, and the single Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over was not only the first Charlies track in five years to be playlisted by daytime Radio One, but also their biggest hit since Then.

No fewer than three of Just When's B-sides are included here: the sorrowful Your Skies Are Mine, the funky, constantly mutating Frinck and the legendary Nine Acre Dust. This began life as Nine Acre Court then it was handed over to the Chemical (formerly Dust) Brothers and turned into the mindblowing warp-out we find here.

Of course, now The Charlatans suffered their most pronounced agony and enjoyed their greatest success. Rob Collins was killed in a terrible car accident outside Monmouth. The band then, having bravely appeared at Oasis's Knebworth show, watched their next LP, Tellin' Stories, return them to Number One.

Songs From The Other Side closes with tracks from each of that album's four singles. First is Two Of Us, easy-going Country Rock with echoes of its A-side, One To Another, their biggest-ever hit. Then comes the sweet, piping Don't Need A Gun, from North Country Boy, and How High's Title Fight, which suggested the literate, Dylan-style rock they'd attempt on their major label debut Us & Us Only.

The album closes with a new beginning, Clean Up Kid being the first track featuring Rob's replacement, Tony Rogers, from the band Jobe. With a gloriously dirty riff from Mark Collins, an accomplished but passionate vocal from Burgess and a searing, sometimes jazzy performance from Rogers, it outshines most of Tellin' Stories. It's a perfectly apt conclusion to an album from a band who continue to go from strength to strength. God bless The Charlatans.

Dominic Wills