An indie night only in the original meaning of the word, Charm nights were designed to give flesh to the ideas of our magazine of the same name of the late 1990s. Charm nights were, and are, for people who take music seriously, even if things do occasionally get a bit silly. We are not traditional promoters. Charm nights are neither about embracing the mainstream nor shunning it but challenging it to be better. Acts, have been drawn from predominantly from the cities of Leeds and York and our hometown of Harrogate, ranging from the Wedding Present’s David Gedge, eccentric pop band Wild Beasts (and their amazing falsetto front man Hayden Thorpe), the lush pop of The Grammatics, noisy post-rockers iLIKETRAINS, The Folk Theatre Partisans, acoustic singer-songwriter Hayley Hutchinson, break beats dance outfit Nu Step Alliance, nor forgetting Hood. Venues have usually, but not always been, small to tiny: Harrogate: The Tube (capacity 60), The Blues Bar (80), Montey's Rock Café (200), Raison d’Etre (250). Leeds: The Library (300) and The Wardrobe (500).

Small in size but hopefully not in ideas, there have been special themed events devoted to ‘ambient, noise and samples’, ‘anti-corporate ideas’, ‘alternative dance’, ‘bad rock’, and, perhaps particularly naively, a pre-USA election night ‘Alternative America’ special in 2004 with ten singers and a makeshift backing outfit, inspired by an overly thorough reading of Greil Marcus’s Invisible Republic book and drunken nights watching The Last Waltz, when we halted proceedings on stage to call upon the spirit of the late Johnny Cash to help defeat George W Bush. He couldn’t have been in that night. Perhaps we should have stuck to giving out pizza slices and chicken wings by hand to the audience in the shape of Dickie’s Famous Buffet as we did in the early days.

Charm #1 was held in August 1998 in a venue more used to country & western nights and snooker tournaments. It featured idiosyncratic pop band Kitten Heels, pretty young beatnik poet Rachel Bickerton and an Edinburgh festival bound comedy entitled ZVBXRPL by  Chris Chapman and Miles Watts (director/writer of Yorkshire pop film The Bandwagons 2007). Things haven’t been much more straightforward since then.

The night is MC-d like a cross between the old school showbiz -pre-Beatles era where each band member is introduced by name and a rabble-rousing evangelistic preacher spouting nonsense.

We believe in two things fundamentally:

1. Don’t pay us, pay the band, pay the soundman

2. Don’t expect to get exactly what you want. “Market sectors” and “niche definition” have no place in our world. Styles which usually live in their own little worlds are brought together regardless of bandwagons, live rock bands competing with live dance DJs, unexpected cameo performances, occasional films, traditional folk acts sharing the same platform as modern singer-songwriters, the ‘mainstream‘ slapped bang into the ‘non-commercial’.

A new ‘Charm mix’ is programmed for the PA for each event with an agenda outside a traditional ‘indie’ night. There is no typical mix, so here are three of our favourite sequences:

The Pop Group: We Are All Prostitutes (1979). Paul McCartney & Wings: Live and Let Die (1973). The Raconteurs: Broken Boy Soldier (2006)

Ice Cube: Dead Homiez (1990). Elvis Presley: In The Ghetto (1968). American Music Club: Patriot’s Heart (2004)

DJ Shadow: Fixed Income (2002). Pink Floyd Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun (1968). Joy Division: Heart and Soul (1980)

In the beginning of this mini-adventure, that night with the poet and the actors and those Kitten Heels (I wonder what they’re all doing now?), we hoped everyone would make money from Charm night - the venue, the soundman, the bands, and, lastly, ourselves. And we did sometimes leave at the end of the night with cash in our own pockets, having achieved all these objectives. More often than not, we came out lucky to break even.

We figured the world didn’t really need another set of promoters scrabbling about to make a living by ripping off musicians so five years ago we decided to take ourselves out of the money side altogether. We will not accept any payment for ourselves at Charm nights, not even to cover costs. Fundamentally, Charm nights are about music being more important than money.

Charm live history:
 

69: July 2009: Milo, Leeds. Modern Music Review presents Pagan Wanderer Lu

68: December 2008: Blues Bar, Harrogate. Charm 10th birthday party: Wintermute plus Danny Webster, John Davey & Adam Westerman, Karl Culley & Ashley Johnson, Jeremy Grove, Mark Ellis.
67: May 2008: Monteys Rock Cafe, Harrogate. Charm 10th Birthday Series no 2: The Lodger plus Arc of Manapples.
66. April 2008: Monteys Rock Cafe, Harrogate. Charm 10th Birthday Series no 1: Napoleon IIIrd plus Crimson Story
65: December 2007: Monteys Rock Café, Harrogate. Charm Christmas Party with Drowned in Flames, The EggCorns, Education and Karl Culley.
64. November 2007: Monteys Rock Café, Harrogate. 'Everything Weird Is Normal.' Experimental music featuring Gareth S Brown plus Mark Ellis and Allan Smyth.
63: October 2007: Monteys Rock Café, Harrogate. The Grammatics plus Tigerbomb.
62. September 2007: Monteys Rock Café, Harrogate. Nihilist plus Karl Culley.
61. August 2007: Monteys Rock Café, Harrogate. Croak Ditch plus John Davey.
60. June 2007: Monteys Rock Café. Underground Rock USA theme night featuring Piskie Sits plus Attack of the 50ft Robots.
59. April 2007: Monteys Rock Café. Folk Theatre Partisans (Fran Rodgers, Ben Wetherill, David Broad, Michael Rossiter) plus Graham Parry.
58. December 2006: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Charm’s Christmas Party with Education, The Lodger, The Sloths, Harrogate Friday the 13th Folk players, Liam Gray & Nader Mabadi, Karl Culley, Danny Webster, Jeremy Grove and Mark Ellis.
57. November 2006: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Scaramanga Six plus Arc of Man Apples.
56. October 2006: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Wild Beasts plus Tigerbomb.
55. Sunday, May 14, 2006: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. ILIKETRAINS plus The Sloths.
54. March 2006: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. The Lodger plus The Call.
53. December 2005: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Charm Christmas Party with Las Sangras, The Call, John Parkes, Ray Black, Karl Culley, Tom Syson, Jeremy Grove, Adam West, Danny Webster, John Davey and Chris Milner.
52. November 2005: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. The Ivories plus the Lust Puppies.
51. October 2005: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Folk Is Not A 4 Letter Word featuring Harrogate Friday 13th Folk club instrumentalists, Ben Wetherill, Fran Rogers, Karl Culley, Ben & Robin and Lyn Geddes.
50. September 2005: The Blues Bar. This Et Al plus Tigerbomb.
49. June 2005: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. This Et Al plus Y.
48. May 2005: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Peace Through Superior Firepower plus John Davey.
47. April 2005: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Being 747 plus Karl Culley.
46 (b). March 2005: Harrogate Theatre. Annual Music Party. Charm's Graham Chalmers & James Littlewood perform poetry/narratives with music (Ginsberg/Radiohead/HS Thompson and more)
46 (a). March 2005: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Scaramanga Six plus Tigerbomb.
45. February 2005: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Hood.
44. January 2005: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. The Husbands plus Mark Ellis.
43. December, 2004: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Charm Christmas Party. John Peel Tribute. Recorded tracks chosen by town’s leading promoters/musicians.
42. November 1, 2004: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Charm’s American Splendour USA Election Special with acoustic set and electric set featuring Tom Syson, James Littlewood, Adam West, Chris Smith, Jeremy Grove, John Davey, Danny Webster, Philip Legard, Hayley Hutchinson and Paul Middleton.
41. October 2004: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. The Lust Puppies plus Nothing.
40. July 2004: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Charm’s Psychedelic Summer with Xenis Emputae Travelling Band plus Danny Webster plus Mark Ellis.
39. April 2004: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Les Flames! plus Scaramanga Six.
38. March 2004: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Mz Sojourn plus Nothing.
37. February 2004: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Being 747 plus Enamel Camel.
36. January 2004: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. A Wilderness of Stone Harlequin. The best of alternative Harrogate music with Xenis Emputae Travelling Band, Six Flags Over The Vatican, Kisses Evolve Slowly From Sparks, Liquid Fear, The Purple Mushrooms, Mark Ellis, Adam West, Croak Ditch.
35. November 2003: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Being 747 plus Mike Newsham.
34. July 2003: Harrogate International Festival fringe section. The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Movement in Squares no 2 (a history of ambience, noise & samples) with Liquid Fear.
33. July 2003: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. The Bilderberg Group plus Flowered 3rd.
32. March 2003: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Acoustic night with Bodixa plus Hayley Hutchinson plus Mark Ellis.
31. February 2003: The Blues Bar, Harrogate. Peace Through Superior Firepower.
30. February 2002: brb, Harrogate. Being 747 plus Deep Impact DJs.
29. December 2001: brb, Harrogate. Hayley Hutchinson plus Jeremy Grove & Danny Webster.
28. November 2000: The Death of Charm magazine party (to mark final issue of Charm magazine). Jack & Dannys, Harrogate. The Somatics plus Being 747 plus Flowered 3rd plus Purple Mushrooms plus Jon Betz.
27: August 2000: Harrogate International Festival fringe section. The Tube, Harrogate. Bad Rock with Black Snake.
26: August 2000: Harrogate International Festival fringe section. The Tube, Harrogate. This Is ‘Soul’ with Suki.
25: June 2000: The Wardrobe, Leeds. The Somatics plus Farming Incident plus Jeremy Grove.
24: June 2000: The Tube, Harrogate. Bodixa plus Jeremy Grove and John Davey.
23. May 2000: The Wardrobe, Leeds. Sleepy People plus Cinema Blues plus Scaramanga Six.
22. May 2000: The Tube, Harrogate. Harrogate. Tung plus The Nosedivers.
21. April 2000: The Wardrobe, Leeds. Mama Scuba plus Monte Carlo plus Spencer Bayles of Last Night’s TV.
20. April 2000: The Tube, Harrogate. Pop Threat plus Deluxe.
19. March 2000: The Wardobe, Leeds. Mir plus Candy Filter Tip plus Chris Milner.
18. March 2000: The Tube, Harrogate. Tung.
17. February 2000: The Library, leeds. Pop Threat plus Superelectric plus Gareth Dickinson of Bingo plus Paul & Steve Morricone of Scaramanga Six.
16. February 2000: The Tube, Harrogate. Scaramanga Six plus Dan Gelder of Mir.
15. January 2000: The Library, Leeds. Base 4 plus Bingo and Jon Btez of Starkitten.
14. January 2000: The Tube, Harrogate. Base 4 plus Unknown Factor..
13. December 1999: Charm’s 2nd Christmas Party. The Tube, Harrogate. Sweetcorn.
12. October 1999: Charm’s first event in Leeds. The Library, Hyde Park. Landspeed Loungers plus Nothing and DJ Dust.
11. September 1999: The Tube, Harrogate. Four Day Hombre.
10. August 1999: The Tube, Harrogate. Alternative Dance with Nu Step Alliance and Superelectric.
9. August 1999: The Tube, Harrogate. This Is Art Rock with Bingo.
8. July 1999: Raison D’Etre, Harrogate. Cinerama with Davd Gedge plus Peckinpah.
7. June 1999: The Tube, Harrogate. This Is ‘Pop’ with The Makers.
6. May 1999: The Tube, Harrogate. Ambertone (formerly Chest)
5. April 1999: The Tube, Harrogate. Peckinpah

4. March 1999: The Tube, Harrogate: Landspeed Loungers
3. February 1999: The Tube, Harrogate. Band: Cognac.
2. December 1998: Charm Christmas Party. The Tube, Harrogate. Bands: Purple Mushrooms. Ade Payne.
1. August 1998: First Charm live event. Venue: The Manhattan Club, Harrogate. Kitten Heels, beatnik poet Rachel Bickerton plus drama group, Blue Circle Productions

Graham Chalmers

© Modern Music Review (2008)