Continued from page 6

us , so we ' ve had two drummers . There ' s no reason why we couldn ' t have Loz ( Ride drummer Laurence Colbert ) play with Pete . They ' re friends anyway . It ' ll be dependent on how we feel , I suppose . There won ' t be the same thing every night . IE : I wonder how people will celebrate the anniversary of ** Between 10th and 11th at shows . Hopefully ,

you won ' t be dodging bouquets of bananas . TB : There ' s plenty of banana skins to be slipped on through life , wherever you go ( laughs ).

IE : The Charlatans began around 35 years ago . Was there a point when you stopped wondering when the band ' s career might crash and realized that it could continue as long as you wanted ? TB : I first got an inkling in 1995 . My drive was to never have to work in a proper job again , and that

album ( 1995 ' s ** The Charlatans ) was really successful . Then we followed up with ** Tellin ' Stories . But obviously , along the way , there ' s been things like the death of ( original keyboardist ) Rob Collins and the death of ( original drummer ) Jon Brookes , where we ' ve obviously realized it ' s hard to say whether or not we ' ll be working again next week .

IE : I remember reading that " Page One " was written about feeling trapped by where the band was at that time . Have 30 years changed how you think of those days ? TB : It was a really difficult time for the Charlatans at that point . For lots of it , we only had ourselves to blame . We did the first album , and it was suggested that " White Shirt " become a ( second ) single in America and that we do a video for it . Julian Temple was set to set to do the video , which was very exciting . For some reason , we did an about-turn and

decided that we wanted to release a four-track EP . And then we did another EP . Then it was time to go and release the follow-up album , and we didn ' t have any songs . So , we had to write in the studio – a very tough lesson . First , it was really expensive , and secondly , it was really stressful . And so I think the whole album is quite a stressy record .

IE : It was difficult , but now you ' re coming here to celebrate it .

TB : That ' s a really incredible way of looking at it . I mean , it is a celebration of it . It was suggested that both bands play an album in its entirety , and it was also mentioned that ** Some Friendly and Between 10th and 11th were big albums for us in America . No one ' s heard tracks from ** Between 10th and 11th for so long . We really only play " Weirdo " and occasionally " Can ' t Even Be Bothered ." Very , very occasionally , we ' ll play " Tremelo Song ." We ' ve not played the album in its entirety since it came out , so it ' s very exciting . And we ' re thinking , why didn ' t we have that idea before ? Because this sounds so great , and it sounds so odd . It ' s a nervous record . It ' s a kind of shoegazey record , even though we didn ' t know that it was . It fits into the shoegazing scene that we weren ' t involved in . It ' s also an electronic record that is not electronic anymore because it ' s all played

organically . So , it ' s really lovely .

The Charatans UK , 1994

IE : " Weirdo " is adopted among Charlatans fans as an outsider anthem . Was that part of your intention for the song ? The lyric actually seems fairly dark . TB : Well , I think the whole album is kind of self-critical . I found it really hard to write even one line in a song . Everything was like pulling teeth . I was a little bit dried up . So , everything came very slowly , and it was hard work . It ' s the only time it ' s ever really been like that . The next album got a lot better , and after that , it ' s just been fine . It was just that one album . I think because the success of the first album was so huge , we made it a kind of – is the phrase , " a rod for our back ?" We made it really difficult for ourselves . It was a struggle , but the album sounds great . [ Producer ] Flood had a big part of it . He would work