Timothy Allan Burgess (born 30 May 1967) is an English musician, best known as the lead singer of the alternative rock band the Charlatans.
Burgess was born in Worsley, Lancashire, but grew up in Moulton, Cheshire, where he moved when he was five. He went to Leftwich High School.
He left school at sixteen, and worked for the ICI overseas distribution department at Runcorn.
Burgess was initially the lead singer in The Electric Crayons (named after the psychedelic compilation album The Electric Crayon Set, released on the Bam-Caruso record label), who released one single, "Hip Shake Junkie".
Burgess then joined the Charlatans, who were largely influenced by acid house, 1960s-era West Coast psychedelia and the Syd Barrett era of Pink Floyd. The Charlatans' debut single "Indian Rope" was successful, and the group subsequently signed to Situation Two, an offshoot of the Beggars Banquet label. In 1990 they released the single "The Only One I Know" on the imprint, which charted in the top 10 of the UK Singles Chart. The band have released thirteen studio albums to date.
Before the release of the 2004 Charlatans album Up at the Lake, Burgess was living in Los Angeles in the US, away from the other band members who were still based in England. He explained the band's process during that period in a 2012 interview:
"I'm back in London now, but Mark and Tony enjoyed trips out to Los Angeles and we used Los Angeles as a writing tool. I loved the idea of incorporating a city into your music. We used LA quite a lot."
Burgess's debut solo album, I Believe, was released in Europe on 3 September 2003 and included the track "Oh My Corazon".
Burgess's second solo album Oh No I Love You was produced by Mark Nevers and recorded at his home in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2012, Burgess explained the origin of this album:
"The root of this album goes right back to a Kurt Wagner show in Manchester. I carried Kurt's guitar to the car for him. I took the chance to ask him if he would ever consider writing a song with me. He said, "Sure Tim, you write the music and I'll write the words." That one song turned into an album and almost ten years after we first talked about it, the album is ready."
Oh No I Love You also features collaborations with Factory Floor, R. Stevie Moore and My Morning Jacket, amongst others. The album was later nominated for the Artrocker 'Album of the Year' award in 2012.
Burgess contributed vocals to Saint Etienne's 1993 song "I Was Born on Christmas Day", which appeared on the "Xmas 93" CD single.
Burgess has twice contributed vocals to tracks by the Chemical Brothers: 1995's "Life Is Sweet", taken from their debut album Exit Planet Dust; and 2005's "The Boxer", from their Push the Button album.
Burgess is a member of the Chavs, together with Carl Barât (the Libertines) and Jamie Reynolds (the Klaxons). In mid-2008, Burgess stated that the band planned to record their debut album in August of that year; however, as of July 2015, an album has yet to emerge. Burgess explained in a 2010 interview:
"I think The Chavs have definitely got this mythical thing going on. They have existed and will exist again."
Burgess remixed the Robots in Disguise song "The Tears", which was released in 2008.
In 2009, Burgess curated the Big Top stage at the Isle of Wight Festival, with a line-up that included Killing Joke and the Horrors. Burgess later explained his reason for selecting The Horrors:
"I really believed in them from the very first time I met them. It was at the time when their first album was released."