On the Road with Tim Burgess and Andy Bell: Exclusive Insights Into the Charlatans x Ride 2024 North American Tour and More

Following last year’s hugely successful joint North American tour, Charlatans and Ride wasted no time in kicking off 2024 in style by resuming the highly-anticipated multi-city event. Once again performing their respective albums Nowhere and Between 10th and 11th in entirety, Ride and Charlatans not only returned to a few of the cities they played on last year’s tour, but also included several additional stops across the U.S. We were fortunate enough to be in attendance for the first four dates of the history-making 2024 tour, and also jumped at the opportunity to speak with both Tim Burgess and Andy Bell about the experience. We’re delighted to share both conversations here, along with photos taken throughout the first stretch of the tour.

Bobby Weirdo: We just saw the third Ride show of the 2024 tour. The first one was at the Fillmore, which you also played last year on the Charlatans/Ride tour, [the] second one was the Wiltern, and [we’re in] San Diego tonight. How is it feeling so far?

Andy Bell: Yeah, really good. The best gig so far was tonight; it got better with time. We came over and rehearsed for a day before the first one, so we got the jet leg out of the way in the rehearsal. We’re very comfortable playing Nowhere and the big question is [how to] to put new songs into the set because we have a whole new album about to come out. We managed to put in one more new one. On the previous [leg of the tour] we played a song called “Monaco” and this time we’ve added a song called “Peace Sign”, which is going to be the first single of the album.

*Andy Bell in San Diego. January 6, 2024. Photo: WMF*

BW: And that album is coming out in 2024?

AB: Yeah, it’s coming out pretty soon.

BW: So, you did Nowhere last year as well when [Ride] played with Charlatans, and you’ve been playing it on this tour…

AB: You’ve got to think of the two tours as part of the same thing.

BW: Even though you’re playing some of the same cities…

AB: So, for example: New York, San Francisco, L.A. – we each take turns headlining. On the first run, I forget who played the closing slot [in those cities], but we’ve played two nights at the Wiltern and each [band] has had a chance to close the show. Same thing with the San Francisco gig, and I think the same thing will happen in New York. So, the whole thing is split in two.

BW: Oh, got it!

AB: Yeah, I didn’t quite get it either, but then the agent explained it to me and I said, “Oh yeah, that’s super clever.”

BW: Do you think you’ll come back to the U.S. and do a different album, or [would you do] mix of songs?

AB: When we come back, we’re going to be playing the new album. I don’t mean an album show like this – we won’t play every [new song]. It’ll be a mixture of all the albums, but we’ll basically be out here to promote the new record. So that’s the regular tour.

BW: You mentioned how you [take turns with Charlatans] playing first and second on this tour. Do you prefer playing first or second?

AB: I think we all prefer going on first!

BW: “All” meaning both bands?

AB: Every musician on the tour. There’s a lot of love between the two bands and there’s not much ego floating around. We both enjoy each other’s music, and once I’ve done my gig I don’t want my night to be over. For example, tonight – we had a really nice show, and now I’ll have a glass of wine and enjoy the Charlatans. That feels really good, and they say the same thing. It’s good to play first – your work is done and then you get to hear some good music.

If you’re closing the show you get to play a little bit longer, but actually I’m not sure if we do play longer or if we just do the same length set every night. There’s no real difference, so yeah – play first!

BW: You mention the love between [Ride] and the Charlatans. Was that the impetus for the two bands playing the tour together in the first place?

AB: Well, I’d say the impetus was that we did this before in 1993. We called the shows Daytripper, and it was at seaside resorts in the UK. We played one night in Blackpool [and] one night in Brighton, so a north gig and a south gig. In Blackpool they were the closers and in Brighton we were the closers. So that was the initial thing.

Charlatans kept going, but we took twenty years off. Since we’ve been back together and I’ve bumped into Tim, it’s always been like, “we should reprise that.” I think if we did it in the UK, they’re so much bigger than we are that it would just be them closing, but in America, I guess we’re on a little more equal footing.

BW: I feel like there was a moment where there might have been a tour of you and Tim as solo artists – an Andy Bell/Tim Burgess solo tour. Is that correct?

AB: No, I never heard about that. I haven’t done a tour of my solo stuff. I’ve done a recent tour in the UK for my GLOK records, and as far as my solo records under my name, I’d need a band for that and I don’t have one.

BW: That’s a good segue into my next question: with all the Ride activity, will there still be GLOK and Andy Bell music coming up?

AB: I haven’t started making any new stuff yet for either of those two apart from demos – I’ve always got demos around. My priority right now is Ride until we’re done promoting the new record. But yeah – there will be more. I really enjoy it; I don’t ever want to stop. So, when Ride takes time out, I just switch and carry on doing something else musical. I never really stop going.

BW: How do you know what [music] is GLOK, and what is Andy Bell?

AB: Well, it can be Ride as well, because I never know where a song is going to go. For example, there have been demos where I thought “this is going to be a Ride song,” and it ended up being GLOK track, or vice versa. So, you never quite know until you’re finished, and even then…there was one song that I offered to Ride to do, and no one really wanted to do it.

BW: Is it OK to say which one that was?

AB: “Sidewinder” – it’s on the Andy Bell Flicker album and is actually about one of the Ride tours. It’s about a night out we had.

BW: Do you remember what city that night was in?

AB: Yeah, it was a mad night driving from Bristol to Leeds, and it’s about the party we had. I don’t know if they know that. They didn’t seem to latch on that song, so it ended up being on my record.

BW: Well, I’m glad it ended up there!

So, you’ve got the rest of this Ride/Charlatans tour, and then you’ll be back in the U.S. soon promoting the new Ride album. Speaking of the new album, I’m really excited about “Peace Sign”.

AB: Thank you.

BW: It’s [characteristically] Ride, but it’s also current, and that’s not an easy thing to do.

AB: That’s great to hear, because you never know how things are going to feel for people. Yeah, great!

BW: I’m excited!

*Tim Burgess and Andy Bell outside the Fillmore in San Francisco. January 4, 2024. Photo: WMF*

Bobby Weirdo: We’re sitting here in Phoenix.

Tim Burgess: Yeah!

BW: This is the fourth date that I’ll be seeing you play [this year]. The first two were places you played on the 2023 leg of the tour: the Fillmore and the Wiltern – San Francisco and L.A. respectively. Then, I saw you in San Diego, and that was the first time the Charlatans had been there in a long time – since the 90s, I believe.

TB: I think so too. Yeah, it was great.

BW: So, the first three shows have been good so far?

TB: I think the first three shows have been amazing. In my head at least, I thought we were brilliant in L.A. It was really nice going on first. I think the Fillmore blew my mind, just walking on there. It was so bright on stage, and I was jetlagged. I felt completely unprepared, but it was a great show. In L.A., we went on first. It was really dark and it was a beautiful atmosphere. It seemed like a homecoming.

BW: By “really dark,” you mean the vibe of the actual…

TB: Really dark on stage; the lights were nice. They were at the Fillmore as well, but I just felt like every move I made on stage was brilliant, which never happens!

*Tim Burgess at the Walter. January 5, 2024. Photo: WMF*

BW: You mentioned going on first at the Wiltern, because you were on second [when you kicked off] the tour at the Fillmore. You were on second in San Diego, and now you’re first tonight in Phoenix. Is there an adjustment [you make], or a different experience when you go on first or second?

TB: I think there’s benefits to both. Obviously, there’s less pressure going on first, and with that comes freedom. I think that’s why I really enjoyed the Wiltern, plus the sound was great.

I don’t think there’s an adjustment. It’s equal billing [on this tour] and rightly so. It’s good to share responsibilities. So, maybe there’s a slight adjustment – you go on later, you have to arrive earlier, and all those boring fundamentals, but we’re playing the same length set-wise pretty much, and it’s the same amount of effort.

BW: And you know that the sets are the same length because Ride is doing Nowhere and [Charlatans] are doing Between 10th and 11th.

TB: Yeah.

BW: Do you skip “Subtitle”?

TB: That’s what we walk on to – well, part of it. And then we move “The End of Everything” because it’s a good place to finish.

BW: For the flow of the live set.

TB: For the flow of the live set, yeah. Because “(No One) Not Even the Rain” ends the album, [but] “The End of Everything” is so powerful that it just seems to be a better end.

BW: What does the combination of Ride and Charlatans mean to you? Is it a particularly good match-up in some way?

TB: I think it really is; we’ve got a lot of history. I remember when we were making the Between 10th and 11threcord with Flood. Flood’s best mate was Alan Moulder, and he was making Ride’s second album too, so they would just be talking on the phone, saying how great each other’s record was, and all that kind of stuff.

Even before all that, Charlatans and Ride’s singles –and the first three EPs especially—would come out within like a week of each other, or even the same week. Ride would be on the cover of one magazine, and Charlatans on the cover of another. It was almost like a competition between journalists about who was the best band. It was quite nice, because we were ambivalent to all that, but it was very interesting as well. And everyone used to say that me and Mark [Gardener] looked alike, and all that kind of stuff. It was an interesting joint ascendency, if that’s the right word…ascendant, ascendance…ascension!

BW: I was going to say, very Tim Burgess!

TB: And then we both had a song called “Polar Bear” – I don’t know who came first. We did something called Daytripper, which was because me and Andy were hanging around…I mean, I first met Mark, I think. I used to go to Oxford and hang out, and then Andy would come and hang out with me in Salford. We’d go to Hacienda together, and other clubs in Manchester, and I think we were just interested in each other really, and what each other was doing. We’d play each other demos and I was playing Andy stuff from our third album, Up to Our Hips.

So, we have history. Then of course like in all walks of life, you just lose contact. They stopped being Ride for a bit, and then when they got back together again, this came up. We said yeah [to the tour] but then it didn’t happen for two years. But now it’s happened twice in eleven months, which is great. I think the rest of the world wants it as well – I keep getting letters from fans in Japan, [asking] when it’s going to happen [there]. The UK would like to see it, I’m sure.

BW: With both bands performing these particular albums?

TB: Yeah, or doing [another] album. I was a bit dubious about doing the same album at the Fillmore, the Wiltern, and New York, but I think it was what was required.

*Tim Burgess in Balboa Park (San Diego) on January 6, 2024. Photo: WMF*

BW: It’s probably really interesting playing in cities where you haven’t been in quite a while. Have you had an opportunity to meet any fans that have been fans for years and years, but have either never had the opportunity to see you play live, or at least not for a long time?

TB: Yeah, in San Diego, I was with some people who had seen us at Iguana’s in Tijuana in 1992!

And I always remember this amazing story: I met some people in El Paso in the early 2000s. They said they were living in Mexico, and they drove to Tijuana because they had an aerial on top of their car, and they wanted to hear the new Charlatans record. They only started to get a signal when they were close to Tijuana. They tuned in, and they heard “Weirdo” for the first time.

BW: Crazy! So, to recap: you’re going to be playing several cities that you’ve either never played, or it’s been ages: New Orleans…

TB: Atlanta…Dallas. Haven’t been there for ages. Houston – haven’t been there for ages.

BW: There’s a lot of exciting shows on this tour! After that, what’s next for Charlatans and Tim Burgess in 2024?

TB: Well, we’ve got some shows with New Order and some shows with Johnny Marr this year. It’s our intention to write some songs – I’m really excited because Ride have got some new stuff coming out and I’m really pleased for them. It makes me want to do some writing too. As far as I’m concerned, between the end of January and early summer, there’s not much going on, so I’ll be writing some songs, I think.

BW: I can’t wait!