The Charlatans (UK band)

The Charlatans
The Charlatans playing at the Eolica festival July 2007, Tenerife
Background information
Origin	West Midlands/Northwich, England
Genres	Alternative rock, Madchester, indie rock, Britpop
Years active	1989–present
Labels	Dead Dead Good Records (Own Label), Situation Two/Beggars Banquet, Universal, Sanctuary, BMG Japan (Japan)
Website	http://www.thecharlatans.net/
Members	Martin Blunt Tim Burgess Mark Collins Tony Rogers
Past members	Jon Brookes Rob Collins Jon Day Baz Ketley

The Charlatans (known in the United States as The Charlatans UK) are an English indie rock band. The band's line-up currently comprises lead vocalist Tim Burgess, guitarist Mark Collins, bassist Martin Blunt and keyboardist Tony Rogers.

Former members of the band include vocalist Baz Ketley (1989); guitarist Jon Day (Jonathan Baker) (1989–1991); keyboardist Rob Collins (1989–1996), who died in a car accident during recording of their fifth album; and drummer Jon Brookes (1989-2013), who died after being diagnosed with a brain tumour in 2010.

In the UK, all of the band's twelve studio albums have charted in the Top 40 in the UK Albums Chart, three of them being number ones. They have also achieved seventeen Top 30 singles and four Top 10 hits in the UK Singles Chart.

The band were originally formed in the West Midlands by bassist Martin Blunt, who recruited fellow West Midlanders Rob Collins (keyboards), Jon Brookes (drums), Jon Day (Jonathan Baker) (guitar) and singer/guitarist Baz Ketley (who later left the band to be replaced by Tim Burgess).

Although the Charlatans would later become popularly associated with the Madchester scene, the band's early demos recorded in 1988 in Birmingham and Dudley already evidenced the sound that the band ultimately became famous for, dominated by Collins's Hammond organ but underpinned by the driving rhythm section of Blunt's powerful running bass and Brookes's drumming. With their sound – fusing 1960s soul, R&B and garage rock – inherited from Blunt's earlier 1982 band Makin' Time, the band saw themselves firmly in the West Midlands tradition of hard-edged soul and R&B that included Birmingham bands The Spencer Davis Group and early Dexys Midnight Runners.