The Charlottes on Cherry Red Records

coverpage

introduction

The Blue Mist

Darkness At Noon

The Pleasureheads

Nutmeg

Flowershop

The Charlottes

The Nightjars

80's Cambs rock

The Charlottes on Cherry Red Records

The newly resurgent Cherry Red saw The Charlottes as a priority act. Their plan was to give them the big push with an album release in the New Year. In the autumn the whole industry is geared towards Christmas "bankers". Meantime they would use an EP "Liar" (CHERRY 113, vinyl and CD) to keep things ticking over at home and to introduce the main foreign markets to the band. A simple but evocative park-bench-in-the-rain video clip was made for under a grand and The Charlottes went on a short tour. In Harlow their stage entrance coincided exactly with the video appearing on the venue's MTV screen.

In December 1990 the band recorded several songs at Minstrel Court Studio for the album but, when they returned after the Christmas break to record the best songs they had kept until last, Simon announced he was leaving to join Slowdive. Weeks previously The Charlottes had stood in for them. Slowdive had lost their drummer, and now they had headhunted Simon.

The others considered Simon's whirlwind drumming an essential element. They decided to break up. In a magazine interview, Petra said she was glad, as she was fed up of being attacked by journalists (she named names). Actually it is difficult to find a Charlottes review or interview that is less than complimentary, but on reflection they did gig perhaps too frequently in the London haunts of a bitchy and incestuous clique of hacks and musos who would soon become The Scene That Celebrates Itself.

Cherry Red brought together all the tracks that had been recorded and released the aptly-named "Things Come Apart" (BRED 92, vinyl and CD). It received excellent reviews, only losing points because several tracks were already available. It was snapped up by licensees in Germany and Italy. Cherry Red's Japanese label was selling twice as many as the home branch, leading to the release there of "Lovehappy" on CD. Graham had to conduct interviews with the Japanese media, pretending all the while that The Charlottes still existed. Both he and Petra turned down invitations to put together a new Charlottes to tour there. In the meantime "Liar" had zoomed up the U.S. college radio charts and RCA, SBK (an EMI America label) and Arista were clamouring to sign The Charlottes.

Petra and Graham decided to take up their university places. In 1994 Graham formed Barefoot Contessa, who sound totally different from The Charlottes. Occasionally Andrew Wade stood in for their first bassist Dinesh Bhatt. Petra co-runs Staxotrax. Simon drummed with Slowdive for a while, later played guitar in his own band Inner Sleeve, and now drums for Lowgold.

Continue - to see noted rock photographer Mick Mercer's pictures of The Charlottes in concert, and read the end of the Molesworth Records story.