REVIEW: Charlatans provide a great reminder of Different Days gone by

With Tim Burgess’s long basin haircut obscuring his face and therefore his age and the band streaming their old music videos on the giant video wall behind the stage to accompany their back catalogue, you could be forgiven it was the early 1990s as fresh-faced pictures of Burgess and the late Rob Collins and Jon Brookes gazed out at you.

That the band have survived the loss of keyboard player Rob, to a car crash in 1996, and drummer Jon, to brain cancer in 2013, is testament to their popularity.

And that was clear by the sell-out crowd at the O2.

The crowd lapped up hits such as The Only One I Know and Sproston Green, from their 1990 number one debut album Some Friendly, as well as top-10 singles One to Another and North Country Boy in a set which spanned the band’s career.

They are on tour following the release of Different Days – their 13th studio album and a number four hit on its release in May – and the set featured more songs from this album than any other.

Different Days and There Will Be Chances were stand outs among the new stuff, which sometimes meant a lull in the crowd who were not so familiar with it.

But with plenty of hits to almost immediately fall back on, such as Tellin’ Stories and Just When You’re Thinkin’ Things Over, the atmosphere never really dropped on what was a great evening of top music with just the right amount of nostalgia for the 30 and 40-somethings in the crowd.