The Charlatans and Boyzlife

The band was started by bassist Martin Blunt, who roped in fellow Midlanders, Rob Collins and Jon Brookes, as well as front man Tim Burgess, who was from Northwich. As the band recorded demos and became known on the underground scene, they were often attributed to being a part of the late 80s “Madchester” scene, mainly due to Burgess’ Mancunian roots, but in actual fact, they were recording their music in Birmingham.

However the band moved to Chester in 1990 as they released their debut single “Indian Rope”. After gaining a buzz on the indie circuit, the band were snapped up by major label Situation Two, who released their first top ten single, “The One I Only Know”. Their debut album “Some Friendly” quickly followed, debuting at number one in the UK Charts, as they established themselves as a major force in the early Britpop days.

Their second album “Between 10th and 11th” was released in 1992, and saw The Charlatans taste international success, as their single “Weirdo” charted at Number 1 in the US alternative charts. The band continued their chart topping ways in 1995, when their eponymous debuted at number one in the UK album charts.

During the writing and recording of their next album, 1997’s “Tellin’ Stories”, founding member Rob Collins was killed in a car crash, making it the last release to feature his work. It was the band's most commercially successful album, featuring three top ten singles.

Since 2000, the band have released a further handful of albums, on Universal Records, Sancturary Records and Cooking Vinyl. All of the Charlatans albums have successfully charted in the UK Top 40. The band has also played a variety of high profile gigs such as opening for the Rolling Stones and The Who.

In 2013, the band announced that drummer Jon Brookes had lost his battle with brain cancer. The band played a tribute show for Brookes, and other bands such as Beady Eye and Manic Street Preachers joined them. Money made from the night went towards The Brain Tumour Charity, who have set up a fund in Brookes' name.

The group’s initial stages started to take form at the dawn of the 90s in Bailiff Bridge, Brighouse, England. The early formation of Embrace consisted of brothers Danny and Richard McNamara (lead vocalist and guitarist respectively) as well as a tentative bassist. The trio started to write and record material, usually with the assistance of a drum machine.

However this would soon change with the addition of drummer Mike Heaton. By this point the group were regularly composing and laying down tracks, acquiring enough material to land several gigs around town. During this time the group did not have a stable name so they ended up going through an assortment of titles such as Christianne F, Shimmer, Merchandise, Curious Orange etc...

The group eventually settled on Embrace. They recognized that there was already an American hardcore punk band with this name so before assuming the title they contacted frontman Ian MacKaye for permission. MacKaye warned the group that it might cause confusion, but overall was accepting of the proposition.

Embrace gradually stepped up the quality of their recordings transitioning from a cassette recorder to a 16 track recoding studio. Though their sound became more refined their early material was still lo-fi and was released exclusively on cassette tapes.

The group started to pick up popularity around Leeds, with one of their tapes managing to make it into a local fanzine. The group even caught the eye of the renowned publication Melody Maker; however, they did not receive positive reviews. This particular write up caused the band to re-evaluate their sound and in a sense instigated them to build a more rich and complex style.

In 1995 Embrace welcomed it’s newest member, bassist Steve Firth and in 1997 they issued their single “All You Good Good People” through Fierce Panda Records. 1997 also saw the release of the two EPs “Fireworks” and “One Big Family”. A Year later they issued their debut album “The Good Will Out”, which leapt to No.1 on the UK Albums chart. Their two follow up albums 2000’s “Drawn from Memory” and 2001s “If You’ve Never Been” also faired well on the charts both making it into the top 10. The group also embarked on several critically acclaimed tours. The tour for their debut album found them playing alongside Coldplay.

In 2002 Embrace was dropped by Hut Records and signed to Independiente Records. Their 4th studio album “Out of Nothing” was released in 2004 and reached No. 1 on the UK Charts. It featured four singles, including the hit “Gravity”, which was co-written by Coldplay’s Chris Martin. The compilation album “Dry Kids: B-Sides 1997-2005” followed and in 2006 Embrace released their 5th studio album “This New Day”, which proved to be their 3rd album to top the UK charts.

The band went on a three year hiatus starting in 2007; however in 2011 they announced that they were working on a new studio album. They signed with the label Cooking Vinyl in 2013, but did not release their 6th feature length album until 25 April 2014.

It might sound like I’m damning Cast with faint praise by saying they’re only the third most legendary rock band to come out of Liverpool, but that’s only because number one and two on that list are The Beatles and The La’s, respectively. I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s highly respectable to come second to them, and it’s still a feather in Cast frontman John Power’s cap all the same since he was the bass player in The La’s as well. In fact, if you listen to the last track on the only album that The La’s ever released, you’ll hear that the line that closes the album is “The change is Cast”. Power, a songwriter himself who was frustrated by Lee Mavers’ erratic nature and their lack of any new material since 1986, decided to leave the band in December 1991 and made that lyric a very prophetic statement indeed.

After leaving The La’s, Power shopped around looking for a band to play the songs that Mavers had vetoed while he was still in The La’s. He started playing some sundry acoustic shows, including one at a free festival in his home city of Liverpool, where he was spotted by another bass player who’d just split from a reasonably successful rock band, ex-Shack man Peter Wilkinson. Taken in by Power’s songs, the two of them met up and Wilkinson became the first addition to the newly formed Cast. They started gigging in the middle of 1992 with a multitude of different line ups, but it was going nowhere fast and he’d yet to extricate himself from the record contract he’d signed with Go! Disks while still in The La’s.

Power split up the first incarnation of the band in the summer of 1993 and managed to worm his way out of his contract. Newly free, he set up Cast again with Wilkinson still by his side, and by November 1993 he had recruited Keith O’Neil and Liam Tyson into the fold on the drums and guitar respectively. They started gigging together in January 1994 and it was clear to all who saw them that Power had finally gotten it right, Noel Gallagher himself would later describe the bands live show as a “religious experience”. In no time at all the band secured a tour support slot with Oasis, who were by then pretty much the hottest band in the country, and as a direct result of those shows they were approached by the head of A&R from Polydor Records, who couldn’t believe that they were unsigned.

Needless to say, they weren’t unsigned for long. They signed to Polydor on the 13th of December 1994, three years to the day that Power left The La’s. Cast spent the rest of the decade as one of the most acclaimed bands in Britpop, scoring three top ten albums in the forms of 1995’s debut album “All Change”, 1997’s “Mother Nature Calls” and 1999’s “Magic Hour”. They also scored ten top twenty singles between ’95 and ’99, their highest charting effort being 1996’s “Flying”, that peaked at number four on the charts. Unfortunately, they didn’t see in the new millennium so successfully, with 2001’s fourth album “Beetroot” tanking spectacularly and one month after its release, the band split.

Power spent the rest of the decade playing solo, O’Neill became a tour manager, Wilkinson played with his old band Shack and Tyson joined Robert Plant’s Strange Sensations. However, the band reformed in June 2010, initially only for a tour to mark the 15th anniversary of “All Change”. By the time the tour had finished Power had written an entire album of Cast songs, which became the bands fifth album, 2012’s “Troubled Times”. Any fan of rock and roll would agree that it’s a pleasure to have one of the best bands of the 1990’s back in the fold, and playing some of the best gigs of their career to boot. For that reason, Cast come highly recommended.