The Bluetones biography
The Bluetones were an English indie rock band, formed in Hounslow, Greater London, in 1993. The band's members were 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".
The band's biggest hit, "Slight Return", was released in 1996. 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 continued to tour and release new records and were therefore often labelled as "Britpop survivors".
The band's latest album A New Athens was released on 31 May 2010.
The band split on 1 October 2011 following a farewell tour which ended with a concert in Osaka, Japan.
History
After the release of two singles on Fierce Panda Records, the band signed to A&M Records and released
Expecting to Fly on their own sublabel Superior Quality Recordings.
The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number one, and 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 stand-alone single "Marblehead Johnson" to bridge the gap between albums.
The second album, Return To The Last Chance Saloon, was released in 1998. 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".
After releasing a best-of album in 2002, the band followed up with Luxembourg, an album which received mixed reviews.
A three-album deal was signed in late 2005 with the Cooking Vinyl record label, promptly followed by the limited release of 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 UK on 18 September 2006. The single was taken from their self-titled album, which was released on 9 October that year. It failed to chart in the UK Albums Chart after its first week on sale. The album was also released in the US, the first such occurrence since their debut. Although no reason was cited, on 1 October 2006, it was announced that a planned nine-date tour of North America and Australia had been scrapped. However, 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.
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