Timothy Allan Burgess (born 30 May 1967) is an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
musician, singer-songwriter and record label owner, best known as the lead singer of the
alternative rock
Alternative rock, or alt-rock, is a category of rock music that emerged from the independent music underground of the 1970s and became widely popular in the 1990s. "Alternative" refers to the genre's distinction from Popular culture, mainstre ...
band
the Charlatans.
Early life
Burgess was born in
Salford
Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...
, and grew up in Moulton, near
Northwich, Cheshire.
Career
The Charlatans
Burgess was initially the lead singer in The Electric Crayons (named after the
psychedelic compilation album ''The Electric Crayon Set'', released on the Bam-Caruso record label), who released one single, "Hip Shake Junkie".
Burgess then joined
the Charlatans, who were largely influenced by
acid house
Acid house (also simply known as just "acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synthesiz ...
, 1960s-era
West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to:
Geography Australia
* Western Australia
*Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia
* West Coast, Tasmania
**West Coast Range, mountain range in the region
Canada
* Britis ...
psychedelia and the
Syd Barrett
Roger Keith "Syd" Barrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English singer, songwriter, and musician who co-founded the rock band Pink Floyd in 1965. Barrett was their original frontman and primary songwriter, becoming known for his ...
era of
Pink Floyd
Pink Floyd are an English rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experimentation, philo ...
. The Charlatans' debut single "Indian Rope" was successful, and the group subsequently signed to
Situation Two
Situation Two (a.k.a. Situation 2) was a British independent record label founded in 1981 by Peter Kent as an offshoot of the Beggars Banquet label. At the time, Beggars Banquet releases were often distributed by WEA; to appeal to the indie ...
, an offshoot of the
Beggars Banquet label. In 1990 they released the single "
The Only One I Know
"The Only One I Know" is the second single by English rock band the Charlatans. It was their first top-10 hit, reaching 9 on the UK Singles Chart. In the UK it was the highest-charting single from the '' Some Friendly'' album. Its best showing ...
" on the imprint, which charted in the
top 10 of the
UK Singles Chart
The UK Singles Chart (currently titled Official Singles Chart, with the upper section more commonly known as the Official UK Top 40) is compiled by the Official Charts Company (OCC), on behalf of the British record industry, listing the top-s ...
.
The band have released thirteen studio albums to date.
Before the release of the 2004 Charlatans album ''
Up at the Lake
''Up at the Lake'' is the eighth album by the British alternative rock band The Charlatans, released on 17 May 2004 through Universal and Island Records Group. As promotion wrapped up for their seventh album '' Wonderland'' (2001), Universal wa ...
'', Burgess was living in
Los Angeles
Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...
in the US, away from the other band members who were still based in England. He explained the band's process during that period in a 2012 interview:
"I'm back in London now, but Mark and Tony enjoyed trips out to Los Angeles and we used Los Angeles as a writing tool. I loved the idea of incorporating a city into your music. We used LA quite a lot."
Solo
Burgess's debut solo album, ''I Believe'', was released in Europe on 3 September 2003 and included the track "Oh My Corazon".
Burgess's second solo album ''
Oh No I Love You'' was produced by Mark Nevers and recorded at his home in
Nashville
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and the ...
,
Tennessee
Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...
, US.
In 2012, Burgess explained the origin of this album:
"The root of this album goes right back to a Kurt Wagner show in Manchester. I carried Kurt's guitar to the car for him. I took the chance to ask him if he would ever consider writing a song with me. He said, "Sure Tim, you write the music and I'll write the words." That one song turned into an album and almost ten years after we first talked about it, the album is ready."
''Oh No I Love You'' also features collaborations with
Factory Floor,
R. Stevie Moore
Robert Steven Moore (born January 18, 1952) is an American multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter who pioneered lo-fi (or "DIY") music. Often called the "godfather of home recording", he is one of the most recognized artists of the cas ...
and
My Morning Jacket
My Morning Jacket is an American rock band formed in Louisville, Kentucky in 1998. The band consists of vocalist/guitarist Jim James, bassist Tom Blankenship, drummer Patrick Hallahan, guitarist Carl Broemel, and keyboardist Bo Koster. The ...
, amongst others. The album was later nominated for the
Artrocker 'Album of the Year' award in 2012.
Collaborations
Burgess contributed vocals to
Saint Etienne's 1993 song "I Was Born on Christmas Day", which appeared on the "Xmas 93" CD single.
Burgess has twice contributed vocals to tracks by
the Chemical Brothers
The Chemical Brothers are an English electronic music duo formed by Tom Rowlands and Ed Simons in Manchester in 1989. They were pioneers (along with the Prodigy, Fatboy Slim, the Crystal Method, and other acts) in bringing the big beat genre t ...
: 1995's "Life Is Sweet", taken from their debut album ''
Exit Planet Dust
''Exit Planet Dust'' is the debut studio album by English electronic music duo The Chemical Brothers. It was first released on 26 June 1995 in the United Kingdom by Junior Boy's Own, Freestyle Dust, and Virgin Records, and on 15 August 1995 in ...
''; and 2005's "The Boxer", from their ''
Push the Button'' album.
Burgess is a member of
the Chavs, together with
Carl Barât
Carl Ashley Raphael Barât (; born 6 June 1978) is a British musician and actor, best known for being the co-frontman with Pete Doherty of the garage rock band The Libertines. He was the frontman and lead guitarist of Dirty Pretty Things, and ...
(
the Libertines
The Libertines are an English rock band, formed in London in 1997 by frontmen Carl Barât (vocals/guitar) and Pete Doherty (vocals/guitar). The band, centred on the songwriting partnership of Barât and Doherty, has also included John Hassall ...
) and
Jamie Reynolds (
the Klaxons). In mid-2008, Burgess stated that the band planned to record their debut album in August of that year; however, as of July 2015, an album has yet to emerge. Burgess explained in a 2010 interview:
"I think The Chavs have definitely got this mythical thing going on. They have existed and will exist again."
Burgess remixed the
Robots in Disguise song "The Tears", which was released in 2008.
In 2009, Burgess curated the Big Top stage at the
Isle of Wight Festival
The Isle of Wight Festival is a British music festival which takes place annually in Newport on the Isle of Wight, England. It was originally a counterculture event held from 1968 to 1970.
The 1970 event was by far the largest of these early ...
, with a line-up that included
Killing Joke
Killing Joke are an English rock music, rock band from Notting Hill, London, England, formed in 1979 by Jaz Coleman (vocals, keyboards), Paul Ferguson (drums), Geordie Walker (guitar) and Youth (musician), Youth (bass).
Their first album, ''Ki ...
and
the Horrors
The Horrors are an English rock band formed in Southend-on-Sea in 2005, consisting of lead vocalist Faris Badwan, guitarist Joshua Hayward, keyboardist and synthesizer player Tom Furse, bassist Rhys Webb, and drummer and percussionist Joe Spu ...
. Burgess later explained his reason for selecting The Horrors:
"I really believed in them from the very first time I met them. It was at the time when their first album was released."
Burgess contributed vocals to the song "You Don't Know This About Me" by
Freebass
Freebass were an English rock supergroup consisting of, originally, three bassists: Andy Rourke (formerly of The Smiths), Peter Hook (formerly of Joy Division & New Order) and Gary "Mani" Mounfield (of The Stone Roses and Primal Scream) and ...
, the group featuring
New Order ex-member
Peter Hook and Gary "
Mani
Mani may refer to:
Geography
* Maní, Casanare, a town and municipality in Casanare Department, Colombia
* Mani, Chad, a town and sub-prefecture in Chad
* Mani, Evros, a village in northeastern Greece
* Mani, Karnataka, a village in Dakshi ...
" Mounfield of
the Stone Roses
The Stone Roses were an English Rock music, rock band formed in Manchester in 1983. One of the pioneering groups of the Madchester movement in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the band's classic and most prominent lineup consisted of vocalist I ...
. The song was released in 2010 as part of the band's debut EP ''Two Worlds Collide''.
During his time in Los Angeles, Burgess collaborated with
Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Rafael Phoenix (; né Bottom; born October 28, 1974) is an American actor. He is known for playing dark and unconventional characters in independent films. He has received various accolades, including an Academy Award, a British Academ ...
on an album that Phoenix was recording at the time; however, in a 2012 interview, Burgess explained that he had not heard from Phoenix since his return to the UK:
"I've not seen him for ages... I don't live in Los Angeles anymore. The time that we spent together was a really great moment. A really great couple of months for me really. He invited me into the recording studio to work on a record and we had a really great time. All relationships with people in bands or actors I've met along the way, you meet them, you're best friends for a minute and you just don't see them at all. If you just remember them as being really great friends and in a way they are. Even if you don't see someone, it's kind of better, 'cos you never get a chance to fall out!"
On 15 November 2012, Burgess performed at
Manchester Cathedral as part of a "supergroup" featuring
Mark Collins of the Charlatans,
Martin Duffy
Martin Bernard Duffy (18 May 1967 – 18 December 2022) was an English musician who originally played keyboards with Felt and most famously with Primal Scream.
Career
Duffy was born in Birmingham and grew up in Rednal in the south of the city ...
of
Primal Scream
Primal Scream are a Scottish rock band originally formed in 1982 in Glasgow by Bobby Gillespie (vocals) and Jim Beattie. The band's current lineup consists of Gillespie, Andrew Innes (guitar), Simone Butler (bass), and Darrin Mooney (drums) ...
, and
New Order's Peter Hook. The performance was part of a concert organised to help the city's "deprived youth."
Burgess collaborated with
Asia Argento
Asia Argento (; born Aria Maria Vittoria Rossa Argento; 20 September 1975) is an Italian actress and filmmaker. The daughter of filmmaker Dario Argento, she has had roles in several of her father's features and achieved mainstream success with ...
on the song "Hours / Ours", which was released on Burgess's own record label O Genesis in 2014.
Burgess collaborated with Peter Gordon to release ''Same Language, Different Worlds'' on 2 September 2017 through Burgess' own label, O Genesis. The Charlatans frontman originally met New Yorker Peter Gordon in 2012 and they decided then on a music collaboration. Burgess had been a longtime fan of Gordon's work with Arthur Russell and The Love of Life Orchestra. The album was produced by Gordon in New York and features many of his and Tim's previous collaborators: Ernie Brooks who played with Arthur Russell on the first Modern Lovers album, trombone player Peter Zummo, conga player Mustafa Ahmed and Nik Void from Factory Floor.
O Genesis
O Genesis is Burgess's own record label, founded in 2011. A compilation CD showcasing the label's artists was released on 10 March 2014, featuring Burgess as a solo artist alongside artists such as
Minny Pops
Minny Pops is a Dutch, Amsterdam-based new wave/electronic/art punk band, associated with the Ultra post-punk movement in the Netherlands and the Factory Records label in the UK.
History
The vocalist/songwriter/programmer Wally van Middendo ...
,
Hatcham Social
Hatcham Social are an English indie pop band. The group first met and formed in New Cross, London in 2006 and have since released a string of singles on indie labels, followed by three studio albums. With the debut album, they made headway in th ...
and Joseph Coward.
Other work
In February 2013, Burgess replaced
BBC Radio 6 Music
BBC Radio 6 Music is a British digital radio station owned and operated by the BBC, specialising primarily in alternative music. BBC 6 Music was the first national music radio station to be launched by the BBC in 32 years. It is available onl ...
host
Lauren Laverne
Lauren Cecilia Fisher (née Gofton; born 28 April 1978), known professionally as Lauren Laverne, is an English radio DJ, model, television presenter, author and singer. She was the lead singer and additional guitarist in the alternative rock ba ...
when she and other
National Union of Journalists (NUJ) members engaged in strike action against the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
.
In 2019, Burgess made his acting debut in the short film ''The Bookshop'' as the protagonist Leonard.
resulted in most live music concerts being cancelled, Burgess started "Tim's Twitter Listening Party", where he would
with one or more guests, normally a member of the band, who would provide insights and anecdotes about the songs, recording the album or other associated items. Over 700 parties were held in the first year.
. Following the release of the book, Burgess responded to a question about whether he would have changed anything about his career:
music festival in 2013. Frame stated during the interview that Burgess is "so positive" and both will occasionally drink tea together.
Burgess lived in the US for twelve years, before returning to the UK in 2013; he currently lives in