Charlotte Hatherley

Night & Day, Manchester 16/9/09.


I have been trying to get to see Charlotte for some time but never managed it or had the chance but it's been an acoustic show. With a new record coming out she was touring, not extensively as she never tends to do long hauls. During a session on R6 (Marc Riley) I enquired about the N&D show as to whether it was full band plugged in. Positive was the reply so I booked it on the spot.

Being off this day I took myself of to Manchester using the well rehearsed routine stop over. A usual visit to Piccadliiy records, bought stuff etc etc.

Wasn't sure what sort of crowd she was going to attract, fairly big I imagined. Got in the N&D handy and bumped into a lad I know well from many gigs and we took up residency stage right. Charlotte had recently been touring with Bat for Lashes recently as a hired 'gun' and one of her amps had the BFL logo still on, a bit of free ad for Natasha.

After a couple of un-noteworthy opening bands Charlotte appeared looking very splendid in 80's style white jacket. Sleeves pulled up to forearm. Nice.

Her band consisted of just a drummer and a bass player, both were very good too. Miss H opened with three songs off the new album one being the opener (to the album) 'White' which was very good. She then took a pause for a drink and to say hi, then launched into 'Behave' which didn't come over as good live as on record sadly. Most material was new punctuated with the odd older song, in all a good mix of material.

After the show she had copies of the new record for sale as she was self-releasing it. I bought a copy and got Charlotte to sign it, I complemented her on the gig and told her her backing musicians were very good too. She was very nice and took a lot of time to talk to fans after the show.

Good to see someone happy with their work and doing it on their own terms.