No Rock And Roll Fun

YOU CAN'T STOP THEM, THEY ARE ROCK: There's an interview with the Charlatan's Tony Rogers in today's Belfast Newsletter, which explains how Tim 'all that is sex god' Burgess' new falsetto came about almost by accident:
‘Tim’s vocals actually came about when we were recording the B-Side for Impossible (from Us and Us Only)’’, says Tony. ‘‘The song was A Man Needs To Be Told, which ended up being the first song for Wonderland. Tim just started singing like that, which set the Curtis Maysfield-vibe for the album and changed the way we played the instruments.
"A lot of the songs were written on the piano or Hammond," says Tony, "but Tim’s vocals allowed for a bigger range of styles on the guitar and keyboards.’’
But despite the success of Wonderland, the band did experience more bad news prior to its release. In August last year, Tony was diagnosed as having testicular cancer. He has been for 12 scans to date and received treatment in December and is due for more soon, but he refused to let his illness effect the release of the album.
"The last thing I wanted was for Wonderland to be held back," says Tony. "It needed to be released when it was still fresh to us.
"The rest of the band tried to get me to slow down and take some time off, but the album was the only positive thing I had and I needed to keep working."
Tony says that he is feeling ‘fine’ at the moment and that he is trying to keep his health and fitness up to scratch.
It would be easy to imagine that the general feeling within The Charlatans camp would be one of doom and gloom, considering all that has happened to them over the years, but Tony insists that this is not the case.
“You just have to overcome these things like people do in all walks of life,’’ says Tony. ‘‘We don’t have a bad outlook on life, that’s just the way it’s been documented.
"We actually see ourselves as lone of the luckiest bands because we’ve managed to carry on with the music," he says.