'A very kind of spiritual experience'

The Charlatans' Tim Burgess reveals how the band returned to Wales' famous Rockfield Studios to record their new album. He speaks to Casey Cooper-Fisk

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UNDERPINNED by chirping psychedelic organ sounds, The Charlatans burst on to the scene in the late 1980s as a forerunner of Britpop, led by floppy-haired frontman Tim Burgess.

Formed in the West Midlands, the band moved to Northwich, Cheshire, the home of Burgess and the band's manager early in their career, where they were embraced by the Madchester scene on their acidic danceable debut, Some Friendly (1990).

The album featured classic tracks such as The Only One I Know, Then and Sproston Green, which went on to inspire the Britpop movement which would break out later that decade.

The guitar-heavy sound of the era was taken on by the band for 1997's Tellin' Stories, which featured the rousing singles How High, North Country Boy and One To Another, and was recorded at Monmouthshire's Rockfield Studios, which is based in a working farm known for its hedonistic atmosphere.

But while working at the Monmouthshire studios, tragedy struck, with the group's keyboard player Rob Collins dying in a car crash on a road close to the studios. Now made up of Burgess on vocals, guitarist Mark Collins, bass player Martin Blunt and keyboard player Tony Rogers, the band have returned to Rockfield to record their latest album We Are Love.

Speaking from his home, with its walls lined with thousands of records, Burgess, 58, explains: "We all started to gravitate towards Rockfield over the past couple of years. I made a solo album there, I brought Mark along to play on a track, he stayed in the same room as he stayed when we were there in '97.

"Obviously, then Tony and Martin were very curious about what it was like, and the idea just seemed to stick, and then once we got there it was emotional. We felt like, as a band, we could bring along or include past members who weren't with us any more, and it was kind of transcendental, a very kind of spiritual experience."