The Charlatans
Coventry Godiva Festival
2nd July 2016
Every year Coventry City Council throw a free family festival in the War Memorial Park, now say what you want about Coventry Council’s mistakes over the year but the Godiva Festival is always a triumph. It’s always full of all manner of people, and although it’s not got the headliners of other paid events it’s good to see the people of Coventry come out in droves for whoever does play.
This year the headliners of the Saturday night are The Charlatans. The last time I saw the Charlatans was with Oasis at that little gig at Knebworth Park. They looked tiny and I watched them on the big screen. This time I was going to actually see them.
They take the stage after an enthusiastic introduction. All in black bar the singer and all looking cool as. Tim Burgess has still got his insane blond mop of hair and in a black and white striped top is unmissable even if you were right at the back. The swirling keyboards are the key to the Charlatans, lumped in with Madchester when it all kicked off because of their sixties psych vibe, they have carried on with a string of albums and keeping a loyal and, as evidenced tonight, very enthusiastic fanbase, while others have fallen along the way.
Stand out tracks for me were the old favourites, Just When You’re Thinking Things Over and How High are brilliant and The Only One I Know, not the encore, gets everybody dancing. They finish with Sproston Green and that spirals off into the night as they leave the stage. Tim smiles throughout the show and dances like a loon for most of it too. They seemed to enjoy it as much as we did, a great gig.
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The Charlatans website is thecharlatans.net. Thay are also on Facebook and Twitter.
All words by Adrian Bloxham.
