Today we have some cracking early 90s East Anglian indie pop action (it's not often you'll hear that said!) from much missed band The Charlottes. Swooping in on the C86 bandwagon, The Charlottes showed the way for a lot of those who came after. There's more than a hint of Ride in there and when the drummer Simon Scott went off to form Slowdive there was a straight line drawn from one to the other.
As with many of the proper indie bands, The Charlottes were firm Peel favourites, recording two Peel Sessions, and they toured extensively; playing to the massed ranks of shoegazing fops at such places as the Duchess of York in Leeds and the Old Trout in Windsor. We knew what we wanted and we knew were to get it!
According to MusicOMH.com, a pretty bloody useful review, interview and features website I'd highly recommend:
"Lovehappy [the debut album] from The Charlottes, described by the NME's Steve Lamacq no less as "altogether more sexy than Kylie", when awarding it 9/10. Sadly for the band it sold rather fewer copies than the diminutive Antipodean."There's a pretty comprehesive biography here and on the Cherry Red site here and here is The Charlottes - Liar, in all its characteristic ding-dinga-dinga-ding indie-tweeness-glory.
the charlottes - although I think I saw the at the pop club in camden I remember seeing them at the tufnel park dome supporting Blur in the week before She's so high was released. The singer wrapped himself in fairy lights and had a girlfriend in fetishwear, rubber with knobbly bits like soft prickles? This site makes me realise what gaping holes there are in my memories. Damon at one point said 'We're a London band'. It's a fine line...
ReplyDeleteSaw them support Ride at Plinston Hall in Letchworth in April 1990. Great band, the 2 songs that stood out were the cover version of Venus and Liar.
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