Friday 22/10/10 The Charlatans @ Brixton Academy, London

It takes a lot to bring a halt to The Charlatans juggernaut. Death, illness, embezzlement and emigration have so far all failed to slam the breaks on the Manchester-West Midlands outfit's roller-coaster career.

So when news broke at the tail end of the summer of more bad luck blighting the band in the form of drummer Jon Brookes' brain tumour, there were many who thought the final straw to break the quintet's collective back had just been heaped onto their saddle. They're nothing if not survivors those Charlatans though.

Rave, baggy, shoegaze, grunge, Brit-pop, post-Britpop and nu-garage rock have all been and gone in the five-piece's colourful lifetime, yet the appeal of the evergreen Brit-rockers remains undimmed, in the live arena, any how.

Kicking off to a jubilant Friday night Brixton Academy crowd (is there any better?) with rumbling baggy anthem 'Then', frontman Tim Burgess and co wisely front-loaded the set with stellar classics to get the masses bouncing from the off. 'Weirdo' and 'Can't Get Out of Bed' sounded as fresh and vital as ever while 'One To Another' (their career high point to date?) was simply epic.

Last album stand out moment, the New Order-ish 'Vanity' deserves to sit alongside their best work, while 'Tellin' Stories', with its Dylan-esque bite dripped with Burgess' undiminished Manc drawl.
Pity the same can't be said for the Los Angeles ex-pat's waistline, which if attributed to a catwalk model would have the talking heads in Heat magazine in a right old lava so spindly has he become.
Material off 11th studio LP, 'Who We Touch', paled in comparison to the rest of the set sadly, it was just too pedestrian to rally the crowd.

Sensibly it was lightly sprinkled, with 'North Country Boy' and a kick ass 'Sproston Green' finale - bathed in trademark green light and dedicated to their absent sticksman - the highlights of the second half of the set.

The Verve's Pete Sailsbury did a sterling job deputising, lets hope Brookes makes a full recovery and returns to his rightful position soon though, The Charlatans aren't the same without him.

The Charlatans - live