Biography
Tim Burgess fronted the Charlatans and connected Madchester’s baggy aesthetic with the luminous retro leanings of Brit-pop. Among the few groups that surfaced at the outset of the 1990s, the Charlatans held a place near the summit of the British charts for the entire decade and continued working long afterward. During occasional breaks from the band Burgess issued his debut solo record I Believe in 2003, yet it was throughout the 2010s that he cultivated an identity apart from the group via a run of increasingly exploratory solo projects. Anchored in pop yet open to experimental psychedelia, chill-out electronica, and other modes of lighthearted artistic variety, Burgess titled his 2022 album Typical Music with clear irony. He followed the less-traveled paths of pop and rock, chronicling those routes in print and through his Twitter Listening Parties, an online series begun amid the COVID-19 pandemic that became a recurring feature of the early 2020s.
Born in Salford, Manchester, England, on May 30, 1967, Burgess joined the Charlatans in 1989 when the lineup comprised keyboardist Rob Collins, guitarist John Baker, bassist Martin Blunt, and drummer Jon Brookes; he was chosen after numerous other vocalists had already auditioned. The group signed with Beggars Banquet in 1991, and the single “The Only One I Know” reached number five on U.S. modern-rock stations. Nirvana and the grunge wave had not yet overtaken alternative radio, positioning the Charlatans for a potential American breakthrough that never materialized. The track found little traction beyond college playlists, and once “Smells Like Teen Spirit” arrived in summer 1991 the climate turned hostile toward English bands. Burgess stayed with the Charlatans while their more prominent Madchester contemporaries the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays dissolved sooner; initially viewed as scene opportunists, the group earned lasting regard by reshaping their dated blend of 1960s psychedelic rock and club rhythms on later releases. In 1995 Burgess appeared on the Chemical Brothers’ “Life Is Sweet,” underscoring his affinity for techno, a style his own band later absorbed. By the late 1990s his vocal approach showed clear admiration for Bob Dylan and Curtis Mayfield. Seeking to step outside the Charlatans’ established pattern, Burgess began recording a solo album in Los Angeles; that project, I Believe, surfaced in September 2003. Over the ensuing decade the Charlatans maintained a steady schedule of touring and recording while Burgess pursued outside work, including a contribution to Peter Hook’s Freebass album in 2010. Around the same period he launched his Tim’s Peak Diner DJ sets at assorted festivals and relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, where he cut his second solo album, 2012’s Oh No I Love You. The Charlatans delivered their twelfth record, Modern Nature, in 2015; Burgess then resumed solo activity with the 2016 summer mix album Tim Burgess Presents: Vinyl Adventures from Istanbul to San Francisco and, that autumn, the collaboration Same Language, Different Worlds with modern-classical composer Peter Laurence Gordon. Also in 2016 he released the memoir Tim Book Two Vinyl Adventures recounting his passion for records.
The Charlatans issued their thirteenth album, Different Days, in 2017. The next year Burgess retrieved the December 2008 recordings that became As I Was Now for a limited Record Store Day edition. In 2019 he published the lyric collection One, Two, Another. While the global COVID-19 pandemic persisted, Burgess hosted the social-media series “Tim’s Twitter Listening Party,” moderating exchanges of memories and commentary on landmark albums with participating artists that ranged from Oasis’ Bonehead to Throwing Muses. Those events preceded the May 2020 arrival of I Love the New Sky, his first proper solo album since Oh No I Love You. Its successor, the expansive double album Typical Music in 2022, offered magpie psychedelic pop whose depth and detail were shaped by Dave Fridmann’s mixing.
Born in Salford, Manchester, England, on May 30, 1967, Burgess joined the Charlatans in 1989 when the lineup comprised keyboardist Rob Collins, guitarist John Baker, bassist Martin Blunt, and drummer Jon Brookes; he was chosen after numerous other vocalists had already auditioned. The group signed with Beggars Banquet in 1991, and the single “The Only One I Know” reached number five on U.S. modern-rock stations. Nirvana and the grunge wave had not yet overtaken alternative radio, positioning the Charlatans for a potential American breakthrough that never materialized. The track found little traction beyond college playlists, and once “Smells Like Teen Spirit” arrived in summer 1991 the climate turned hostile toward English bands. Burgess stayed with the Charlatans while their more prominent Madchester contemporaries the Stone Roses and the Happy Mondays dissolved sooner; initially viewed as scene opportunists, the group earned lasting regard by reshaping their dated blend of 1960s psychedelic rock and club rhythms on later releases. In 1995 Burgess appeared on the Chemical Brothers’ “Life Is Sweet,” underscoring his affinity for techno, a style his own band later absorbed. By the late 1990s his vocal approach showed clear admiration for Bob Dylan and Curtis Mayfield. Seeking to step outside the Charlatans’ established pattern, Burgess began recording a solo album in Los Angeles; that project, I Believe, surfaced in September 2003. Over the ensuing decade the Charlatans maintained a steady schedule of touring and recording while Burgess pursued outside work, including a contribution to Peter Hook’s Freebass album in 2010. Around the same period he launched his Tim’s Peak Diner DJ sets at assorted festivals and relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, where he cut his second solo album, 2012’s Oh No I Love You. The Charlatans delivered their twelfth record, Modern Nature, in 2015; Burgess then resumed solo activity with the 2016 summer mix album Tim Burgess Presents: Vinyl Adventures from Istanbul to San Francisco and, that autumn, the collaboration Same Language, Different Worlds with modern-classical composer Peter Laurence Gordon. Also in 2016 he released the memoir Tim Book Two Vinyl Adventures recounting his passion for records.
The Charlatans issued their thirteenth album, Different Days, in 2017. The next year Burgess retrieved the December 2008 recordings that became As I Was Now for a limited Record Store Day edition. In 2019 he published the lyric collection One, Two, Another. While the global COVID-19 pandemic persisted, Burgess hosted the social-media series “Tim’s Twitter Listening Party,” moderating exchanges of memories and commentary on landmark albums with participating artists that ranged from Oasis’ Bonehead to Throwing Muses. Those events preceded the May 2020 arrival of I Love the New Sky, his first proper solo album since Oh No I Love You. Its successor, the expansive double album Typical Music in 2022, offered magpie psychedelic pop whose depth and detail were shaped by Dave Fridmann’s mixing.
Albums
Singles
