The Bluetones are an English indie rock band, formed in Hounslow, Greater London, in 1994. The band's members are Mark Morriss on vocals, Adam Devlin on guitar, Scott Morriss on bass guitar, and Eds Chesters on drums. A fifth member, Richard Payne, came on board between 1998 and 2002. The band was originally named "The Bottlegarden".[1]
The band's biggest hit, "Slight Return", was released in 1995 (as a double A-side with "The Fountainhead") and re-released on its own the following year. They have achieved thirteen Top 40 singles and three Top 10 albums in the UK charts.
The Bluetones' commercial success waned after the fall of the Britpop movement, yet they have continued to tour and release new records and are therefore often labelled as "Britpop survivors".
In September 2008, the band announced that they would be embarking on a five-date tour in December, taking in Lincoln, Manchester, Sheffield and Birmingham. The tour saw them playing their debut album, Expecting to Fly, in full. Some further dates were subsequently announced for February and March 2009.
History
After the release of two singles on Fierce Panda Records, they released Expecting to Fly on their own record label named Superior Quality Recordings. The album (one of only a few debut albums to enter the charts at number one)[citation needed] featured the singles "Bluetonic" and "Slight Return", with the latter being beaten to number one by one-hit-wonders Babylon Zoo's "Spaceman". Following the touring and promotional duties for Expecting to Fly, the band released standalone single "Marblehead Johnson" to bridge the gap between albums.
The second album, Return To The Last Chance Saloon, was released in 1998 and possessed a decidedly Mexican flavour.[citation needed] While failing to generate the commercial success of their debut, it did spawn hits in the form of "Solomon Bites the Worm" and "If...."
Whilst many of their mid 1990s peers had disbanded by 2000, The Bluetones released their third album, Science & Nature, which again reached the Top 10 and featured the hit singles "Keep the Home Fires Burning" and "Autophilia". Due to lack of press (most notably from the NME) the album failed to generate the commercial success of the previous efforts.[citation needed]
After releasing a best-of album in 2002, the band followed up with Luxembourg, somewhat stylistically spikier and less jangly than previous efforts and highly influenced by the bands of the day, such as The Strokes.[citation needed] The album received little attention in the music press.
A three-album deal was signed in late 2005 with the Cooking Vinyl record label, promptly followed by the release of limited release E.P. "Serenity Now" and a full UK tour.
In early 2006, Universal issued a comprehensive box set of all The Bluetones singles and B-sides released between 1995 and 2003, A Rough Outline.
A single, entitled "My Neighbour's House", was released in the United Kingdom on 18 September 2006. The single is taken from their self-titled album, which was released on 9 October that year. Despite largely positive reviews for the album, it failed to chart in the UK Albums Chart after its first week on sale. The album was also released in the United States, the first such occurrence since their debut. On 1 October 2006, it was announced that a planned nine-date tour of North America and Australia had been scrapped.[2] No reason was given.
On 1 November 2006, the band began a month-long tour of Europe in support of their new release, including two sold-out nights at Glasgow's King Tuts.
In February 2007, the band released BBC Radio Sessions containing tracks recorded for the BBC between 1994 and 2000. This was followed in June with their first full live album, entitled Once Upon a Time in West Twelve, recorded at the Shepherds Bush Empire on 18 November 2005, and was followed on 29 October 2007, by a live DVD of the same concert under the title Beat about the Bush. 2007 also saw the release of a compilation album of early demo recordings, entitled The Early Garage Years. They also released a DVD under the title Blue Movies.
In January 2008, the band began a mini-tour of Scotland, playing five cities (Stirling, Dunfermline, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh) in as many nights.[2]
May 2008 saw the band hit the road again, on a ten-date tour which covered Cambridge, Whitehaven, Sheffield, Newcastle upon Tyne, Birmingham, London, Bristol, Manchester and Darwen, including one of the last few concerts at the Astoria.
They recently played a show with Brit-pop rivals Dodgy on 17 May 2009 at a secret London venue to benefit the homelessness charity Crisis as part of the charity's 'Hidden Gigs' campaign against hidden homelessness. http://www.crisis.org.uk/hidden/
The band's next album is expected to be released in the spring of 2010.
Discography
Studio albums
[3]
EPs
Compilations
[3]
Live
Singles
All chart positions are for the UK Singles Chart:
[3]
Video/DVD releases
- 1997 - Mondo Concerto
- 2007 - Blue Movies
- 2007 - Beat about the Bush
- 2009 - Expecting to Fly Live
Television
Mark Morriss has made cameo appearances in the British comedy shows Spaced, Little Britain and the Adam and Joe Show.
References
External links
