Monday 20/12/04 The Charlatans, Thirteen Senses @ Salford University Maxwell Hall, Salford

Its not your worst nightmare, but the thought of the perpetual humdrum of Keane-style power balladry coupled with a deserted drinking hand makes prospects yet bleaker. They're a skeletal version of an earlier Doves, they’re Coldplay without the beautiful urgency, they’re probably stadium bound, but quite frankly they’re crap. New single ‘Turn The Glass’ will undoubtedly be a monster hit; it shows an uncharacteristic ability for the Thirteen Senses to define a tune with a few hooks. If more ‘Turn The Glass’ songs arrive, maybe things will change but for the time being file them under Coldplay’s rear end.

 

Onto headliners The Charlatans who see Salford as home turf (Tim Burgess being a former resident), and even have various Charlatans/Salford T-shirts for sale at the slapstick amount of £18, bastards. But this is the point where things start to look-up, this is the last night of their latest tour, and no amount of "thievery" is gonna spoil Burgess’ clan as ‘Forever’ is launched. In those heady Hammond days the Charlatans could do no wrong, now they struggle against pop parp, and their own stadium rock slanting, ‘Forever’ was one of the last surviving grasps on their own sound, and its still one of the best. Built on a Hammond crux and the meatiest Blunt bass line, its swirling nausea not only ticks every available box, but stamps and slashes all over the sheet, and tonight’s no exception.

 

Much of The Charlatans live perception rides on how comfortable their front man is, and when Burgess’s reclined camp swagger breaks through this early, you know its gonna be a special night. Their back catalogue is more expansive than father crimbo’s jolly sack and the 20 songs selected for tonight’s romp are all top-notch singles from 7 albums. A reworked and “re-discovered from the 1912’s” (says Burgess) version of ‘My Beautiful Friend’ is set to a breakbeat back-breaking drum performance, finding a new position as live Behemoth, considering it’s set alongside dirty indie tub thumpers ‘How-High’ and ‘One To Another’ the competition is far from lacklustre.

 

The piano twinkling of ‘A Man Needs To Be Told’ and the gushing ‘Impossible’ shows the Charlatans at their most heartfelt and passionate, a veneer of masked moisture covers the Salford assembly, made smarter through Tim’s near perfect pitch – which is almost unheard of, Manchester doesn’t produce singers – it produces rock stars.

 

Songs off current album ‘Up At The Lake’ (only four are aired) clatter against the hardened shells of former glories and are hardly worth a letter. None are more hardened or perfect than set closer ‘Sprongston Green’, no live Charlies' show is complete without this joyous finale. Harmonica in hand Burgess leads their swan song hurtling and slamming heads, all crescendos and inseparable belly-up energy tumbling towards a "whooping" refrain.