This is my story, of how I came across CHARLIE (all those years ago).
At the time of going to the FOCUS gig at LeedsUniversity (13th March 1976), I'd never heard of CHARLIE.
Wow - what a first taste of their music & and performance (I was hooked).
The only gig I ever attended, where the support 'out did' the main act.
Went out and bought Fantasy Girls the next day.
The only other time I had the opportunity to see them was a year later (No Second Chance tour) at WakefieldTechnicalCollege.
Over the next few years, purchased all the vinyl LP's going (Fantasy Girls to Here Comes Trouble - which I still have & play) .
Also saw them on the TV music programme - OLD GREY WHISTLE TEST (seem to remember them playing Johnny Hold Back)
Then for some reason they totally vanish off my radar (not knowing they'd headed to the US, in search of fame & fortune).
It was about 5 years ago (one boring lunch time - thinking what search I could do on the www), I thought of CHARLIE.
Yep - the results were massive, but by change came across the input in Wikipedia.
From there, I found the now defunked charlie-music.de site
Updated myself on the missing years and started buying the 'new' CD's.
Also recently managed to find on ebay, a 'mint' copy of their very first single - I'm so happy\I need your love.
Have been in email contact with Julian Colbeck on a number of occassions (he kept me up to speed on things, leading up to the release of KOD).
Recently offered my services to 'police' the Forum Page, to remove the spam that's presently spoiling the site.
Julian informs me he has a pile of new media to add to the site, but this is 'nostalgia' - doesn't help pay the bills (so I'm guessing it's not high on his priorities).
I'm also led to believe that it's Julian that's running the show, as far as the remastering of the 'old stuff'.
Would be nice to hear from other CHARLIE-ITES (your stories)
I was lucky enough to see Charlie support The Who before Fantasy Girls was released.
The support should have been Steve Gibbons Band but he was ill so Charlie were drafted in.
What a performance it was - very good and I had to wait around 6 months for the album to appear. Shame the album was not out when they played this gig as I think it would have helped sales as the general consensus around me was that they were very good.
I only had the chance to see Charlie again once - and then they did not appear due to illness of a member of Liverpool Express, who they were due to support at the Rainbow, Finsbury Park. Shame they did not let the gig go on without the headline act!
I then found out that they were actually a local band to where I lived at the time (Enfield / Southgate) and the local Gazette ran an article on them. John Anderson did send me a copy of this but unfortunately I had a computer crash soon after so lost this.
My introduction to Charlie as it was for a lot of bands in my youth was Rosko's round table.
It was a show on radio 1 on a Fri afternoon where he would play all that week's new releases which would be reviewed by a panel. It was a weekly ritual I could never miss and discovered so many great bands thanks to that show.
The track was "First Class Traveller" and was hooked from the start. The intro, melody and harmonies all contributed to a great song.
I went straight out and bought the LP. To discover that it was full of great songs was a joy.
I saw the band live soon after at Farborough Tec in April 76 and sadly was the one and only time.
I continued to buy the albums until for some reason they dropped right off the radar. Must have read they broke up and was most disappointed.
Years later after some internet searching I discovered the Renaissance and Bear Tracks releases of the LP's on CD and was up to date with a CD format. My love for this bands music has never diminished and they still sound great to this day.
Having had a new CD recently, I still hold out hope for a live show somewhere in 2012.
i think it was aound 1978 or 1979 that i went to the recordshop in Eindhoven (netherlands) and saw the cover of Lines and thought: wow, what a girl! It was the time that i judged records by the cover and then listened.
I was immediatly blown away by the music and through the upcoming years i bought all the records, including the for that time really rocking "Goodmorning America".
Unfortunately i was not able to see any gigs because i lived in the Netherlands.
I was very surprised to hear Kitchens; what a sound again! Hope the next one will be released soon.
I had just moved from upstate New York to Los Angeles in 1978 with two buddies, when I was 21. I grabbed a job at a gas station. LA Dreamer filled the FM airwaves as I pumped gas, but I didn't know the band who played it. A young wpman with a surfboard on top of her car was skipping school - I filled her tank. The next week she came by and offered me a free album. It was a band she never listened to. She bought the album for the girl on the cover. She wanted to get her hairdresser to give her the same perm look as the girl on the album. She wanted the cover, but gave me, "Lines." My love of Charlie started there. Fortunately now, I own everything they've ever done, my six month affair with my surfer girl didn't last nearly as long. Although we did reconnect a few years back on Facebook.
In the late 90's my friends found No Second Chance on vinyl (US) in their grandma's record collection. They transferred it to tape and said "dude, you gotta hear this!" and played it for me. We got all the albums either on double CD's or on vinyl right after that.
Interestingly, I came across CHARLIE around about the time of the album LINES.
My father worked as a Senior Manager at BT in London and Terry Thomas' Dad worked with him.
Knowing of my interest in all things music related, he brought me home a signed copy of said album and I then remember following this up by buying a Picture Disc of TALK DIRTY and other albums thereafter.
Sadly, I did not get to see the band live as most of their success at this time was Stateside, but I thought that I would share my story with you!!!
