Charlatans star Tim Burgess' remark of 'Morning Tweets, coffee?' sparked a response that has led to a one-day coffee shop in a Manchester city centre music store. Sarah Walters reports.

It started with a swipe at Paris Hilton.

No, it wasn't exactly the explanation behind Tim Burgess metaphorical, metaphysical, Twitter-based coffee shop that I was expecting either.

But it is a far more fabulous one. “I follow Paris Hilton obviously,” laughs Tim, Salford-born long-term frontman with Manchester band The Charlatans, “and one evening she wrote, 'Night tweeps'.

“The next morning, I wrote, 'Morning tweets – coffee?', just to be aggravating. And that morning I got inundated with people saying they'd like a frappuccino or something strong and black for their hangover from hell.

“So, I went along with that really, and what it has become is a way of saying reverent yet interesting things to people with a lot of time on their hands.

“Twitter's a puzzle; you can post a link to your favourite song or advertise your new single and get a small response, but when you get 100 people responding to a question as irreverent as, 'Do you want a coffee?', it makes you go a bit further and open a coffee shop.”

Confused? Welcome to the club.

And before you go scrambling on Google maps looking for the location of this latest bohemian hangout – now named Tim Peaks, in honour of Tim's affection for all things David Lynch (“When I moved to a flat in Salford, I painted the living room all red,” he laughs, referencing Lynch's surreal TV series Twin Peaks. “And hired someone to talk backwards to me.”) – take note: this diner may have a jukebox, daily specials and even loyalty cards, but it is entirely virtual.

Tim Peaks, though, is an interesting social media experiment, one that has utterly broken down the barrier between the fan and the famous.

Even John Prescott and Lauren Laverne have called in. And it's worked because of Tim's commitment to it; he devotedly 'opens up' daily at 7am and is phenomenally diligent at filling orders and answering questions.

“I've always been quite obsessive,” Tim admits. “When I used to go to the Hacienda, I'd walk 20 miles back to my mum's house in Northwich because of my love of music.”

It's even more staggering when you consider the other projects he's got on the go at the same time. His autobiography is due out next year, and he's moving into radio presenting having confirmed Christmas Eve and New Year's Eve shows for BBC6 Music (thematically based on the nativity and the New Year's honours list).

He's mixing his second solo album, too – a follow up to 2003's I Believe, written and recorded in Nashville with producer Mark Nevers and Kurt Wagner (a collaboration he's waited 10 years for), and featuring a gospel choir once used by Bob Dylan – and he's discovering new music through his own record imprint, O Genesis, a sort of singles club that puts out rare collaborations and releases by new names with Tim on production duties.

As we sit in the Royal Exchange bar, in Manchester city centre, an excited stranger approaches to tell Tim he makes her coffee every morning. On one hand, it sounds utterly bonkers; on the other, it's a practical demonstration of how important Tim Peaks has become to its 15,000 or so followers.

In a couple of weeks, some of those followers will get to sip their favourite caffeine fix at Tim Peaks for real as it opens in Manchester for one day only in the basement of Fopp records, off Market Street.

The experiment in virtual diner ownership has not made Tim want to become an real life proprietor, but it has prompted an interesting spin off idea in the shape of listening parties for The Charlatans' back catalogue.

Called together on Twitter, Charlatans fans around the globe are told to drop the needle on the vinyl at an agreed GMT, at which point Tim takes to Twitter to tweet memories about the songs and the band and to answer incoming questions from his followers.

The listening parties have been given a graphic element by north west artist Aiden Smith, who converts the tweeted story into comic strips. He was discovered in the queue for a Charlatans gig in north Wales; now he's Tim Peaks' official illustrator.

In Manchester, it's the group's sixth studio album Us And Us Only that gets the insider analysis. And it's an oddly appropriate record to subject to such an intimate examination; it is, says Tim, an album with a big back story recorded at a “mental time”.

Long-term keyboardist and fan favourite Rob Collins died during the making of the previous album, Tellin' Stories, making Us And Us Only the debut album for Rob's replacement Tony Rogers who, far from apologetically stepping into Rob's shoes, blazed his own distinctive musical trail.

Bassist Martin Blunt was also going through a messy divorce, Tim remembers, and the band's accountant had run off with “loads of money”. The cherry on this teetering layer cake? It was their major label debut for Universal.

Belting tracks like Forever, Impossible and My Beautiful Friend made it an instant fan favourite. And on December 8, about 200 of them will be able to squeeze into the Fopp store, buy Tim Peaks branded mugs and treats (sold in aid of charity) and ask Tim questions about it.

“There'll be cakes, coffee and I'll be there, going through Us And Us Only, which is a pretty popular Charlatans album, and I imagine instead of asking me a question, the audience will be tweeting on their computers,” Tim smiles, then laughs.

“I'll be wearing a crown and there'll be no direct eye contact. Which is what I like as well!

“Most of the listening parties were done from The Charlatans studio or just where I am at that time. People get themselves a drink, sit down at six o'clock and tune in. But we wanted to do something different this time – and with the charity and the audience coming down, it's turned into something a little bit more.”

His social media savvy is even having a big influence on his solo album, which Tim expects to put out in May. “It's got a Nashville-New York-UK sound, and I love the idea of recording in a place and leaving it there to grow,” says Tim.

“I believe in Mark's mixing and he'll email it or Skype it over to me and I'll make some comments – just like with Tim Peaks. It would be quite easy for me to bring the recordings back to Manchester and fiddle with them, but then I would lose the sense of place or time that they currently have.

“Obviously, I'm really proud of it, and I want to tour the album next year,” he says, looking skyward at the Royal Exchange's opulent surroundings.

“I'd love to play here.”
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Tim Peaks opens at Fopp, Brown Street, Manchester, on December 8 from 6pm. Entry is on a first come, first serve basis. We also have five copies of the Aiden Smith comic strip exclusively drawn for the Manchester Evening News and signed by Tim and Aiden to give away. To enter, answer the follow question: What is the name of Tim Burgess' record label? Send your answers marked TIM PEAKS COMPETITION to features@men-news.co.uk ; closing date: December 4, 2011.
 
 

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