The British guitar band The Charlatans has a bizarre history. While the first success emerged in the late 1980s in the upward wave of Madchester bands, the group had to add the UK prefix during an overseas tour in 1991 because an American garage band had already claimed the name. Back in England, guitarist Baker left the band, bassist Blunt was struck down by a severe depression and a year later
… keyboard player Collins was sentenced to 8 months in prison because he - unintentionally - turned out to be complicit in an armed robbery. In the meantime, the third album Up To Our Hips was released, a mix of Britpop, dance and techno, which was received extremely positively. When tragedy struck again with the death of Collins in a 1996 car accident, entered their next album at the top of the UK charts. Wonderland is the sixth studio album, which again is a very successful mix of retro pop - in the spirit of the Byrds, Stones and Small Faces - and dance, with the instrumental The Bell And The Butterfly as the highlight. (BP)more
