This Is The Place...These Are The Days...We Are Love

What better way to complete my 2025 gig list than with The Charlatans at The Forum in Bath on Monday 8th December?

The Charlatans formed in 1988, released their first album in 1990 (this year's We Are Love being their fourteenth) and have played thousands of gigs in the past three and a half decades. Yet, this was the first time I have seen The Charlatans.

Better late than never and with the opportunity to see the band in the intimate setting of The Forum, a beautiful old school theatre in the heart of Bath. There was a palpable sense of excitement as I approached the building, even more so once I got inside.

 

There was a palpable sense of excitement as I approached the building, even more so once I got inside. It was a mostly seated show, stalls and balcony, with a relatively small section at the for standing tickets. Thankfully, I'd managed to get the latter and got right into the cente, a few metres from the main stage. As we waited for the main event to begin, a series of phrases appeared on the backdrop screen.

Tim Burgess had announced just prior to the start of the We Are Love tour that the support for The Charlatans would be... The Charlatans. Yep, one band, two sets, and the promise of some deep cuts as well as a fair chunk of the current album. 

And boy, did they deliver! Twenty four songs, including encores, over the best part of two hours, with barely a ten minute break between the first and second sets. 

We Are Love was well represented, with eight out of the eleven songs performed, Kingdom Of Ours opening both the album and the first set, the title track the second set and Now Everything the three-song encore. 

My knowledge of The Charlatans back catalogue is patchy at best. To my shame, they are one of those bands who have always been there and in that respect, I've kind of taken for granted that they always will be and have been pretty slack in checking out their albums, despite what is indisputably a run of great singles.

So, it was very much a case that there were plenty of songs that I was unfamiliar with, but with the knowledge that a big hit was almost certainly coming next. Kingdom Of Ours was followed by a thrilling version of Weirdo; Let The Good Times Be Never Ending from 2015's Modern Nature into Blackened Blue Eyes and Then.

And there are so many classics: North Country Boy...Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over...One To Another...even if they didn't get to play someone's favourite song, say, How High, Love Is The Key or Me. In Time, I can't see how anyone could find fault with the song choices for this show.

The band were really on it and enhanced on several songs by additional percussion from Loz Colbert of Ride (to the left of the photo of Tim playing guitar near the top of this post). Apparently, Loz had joined them ad-hoc on an earlier date and they'd all had such a good time that he tagged along for the rest of the tour!

  

Which kind of summed up what an evening in the company of The Charlatans was all about. Tim is a heartwarming frontperson, embracing the audience (metaphorically not literally) and welcoming everyone in. 

I'd expected to be packed at the front like a tinned sardine, but the opposite in fact: I was so lost in the moment that it was easy to forget that I was in a room with The Charlatans and about 1,500 other people, such was Tim's connection with everyone.

He blew kisses to the balcony, he took photos, he played guitar on a few songs, he sang wonderfully and he looked like he was enjoying the night every bit as much as we were.

The second set closed with The Only One I Know and Get On It, The Charlatans left the stage, returning to the stage for a third and final time for an encore. Now Everything got a huge response, as did all of the songs from We Are Love, before things ramped up even further for Tremelo Song and Sproston Green, the closing song of debut Some Friendly and a final wig-out to wind up what had been a life-affirming evening and an absolutely fantastic way to experience The Charlatans live in concert for the first time.

We Are Love is on my Christmas list and I hope Santa decides that I've been a very good boy this year. As for The Charlatans, on the strength of this show, they have been exceptionally good.

Set 1

1) Kingdom Of Ours

2) Weirdo

3) For The Girls

4) North Country Boy

5) Many A Day A Heartache

6) Oh! Vanity

7) Let The Good Times Be Never Ending

8) Blackened Blue Eyes

9) Then

Set 2

10) We Are Love

11) Tellin' Stories

12) Out On Our Own

13) Deeper And Deeper

14) Just When You're Thinkin' Things Over

15) Toothache

16) Here Comes A Soul Saver

17) Appetite

18) In The Tall Grass

19) One To Another

20) The Only One I Know

21) Get On It

Encore

22) Now Everything

23) Tremelo Song

24) Sproston Green 

Oh, and for the first time this week, all of the photos used today were taken by me on the night...!