Bluetones: Recent News and links.
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It was The Bluetones second single proper, "Bluetonic", that
genuinely announced their arrival as it went top 20 in the UK charts in
September 1995. It's success and the reputation they were gaining from
a number of great gigs played up and down the country brought them much
attention and the next single "Slight Return" entered the UK charts at
number 2 in early '96. It was accompanied by the release of their debut
album, "Expecting to Fly", which went straight into the album chart at
number 1.
Fourth single "Cut Some Rug", taken from the album wasn't, in all
honesty, as good as it's two predecessors and charted at number 7, or
number 14 depending on which paper you read. For those of you wondering,
to cut some rug is to dance.
Summer '96 was spent playing live in various places and writing songs. A brand new single, "Marblehead Johnson" - described by one reviewer as a `jolly acoustic jangle', was released in the UK on September the 16th. Two new tracks were included, "The Simple Things" which, it is said, rocks!, and also "Nifkin's Bridge" which has been described as `dead cinematic'. The b-sides especially showed that the band were coming up with songs equally as good as their earlier material and their second album is greatly anticipated. The band's first proper single, "Are You Blue Or Are You Blind?" was also included as a fourth track on the CD release due to popular demand. Wondering about the title "Marblehead Johnson" ? It was taken from the name of the sadly departed comedian Bill Hicks' spoof metal band. The single entered the UK charts at number 5.
The Bluetones spent autumn '96 touring the UK with support from the hotly tipped Scottish band Geneva. They put on a pretty good show here in Sheffield, you can read my review of it here.
Since touring they have been writing new material and working on their second LP. The whole of '97 was spent working on it at the renowned Rockfield studios.
A video, titled "Mondo Concerto" should soon be available, featuring live concert footage
and the promo videos for each major single to date. Price and release date are as yet
unknown.
Panic rose in mid-December when the master rpaes for the completed
album recordings went missing. The tapes had been sent from Rockfield Studios in Monmouth
to Cardiff, to then be carried by train to London. However, somewhere between Rockfield
and Cardiff the tapes disappeared, putting the album release date into doubt. The only other
recording of the album was on poorer quality D.A.T. The tapes turned up about a week later in
a warehouse in London, fortunately soon enough for their loss not to effect release dates.
The first single was "Solomon bites the Worm", released on February 9th and
entering the UK charts at #10. The album followed on March 9th. The is titled "Return to the
Last Chance Saloon", in reference partly to the "tequila haze" that hung over
the recording sessions, and the number of Westerns watched by Mark during their time out. The
tracklisting for the LP is as follows: "Tone Blooze", "Unpainted Arizona", "Solomon Bites the Worm",
"U.T.A.", "4-Day Weekend", "Sleazy Bed Track", "If...", "The Jub-Jub Bird", "Sky Will Fall", "Ames",
"Down at the Reservoir", "Heard You Were Dead" and "Broken Starr".
"If..." was released on April 20th, along with the b-sides
"Blue Shadows" and "The Watchman" across the usual formats.
The next single from the album is "Sleazy Bed Track", a live favourite for around 2 years now. The video features the band replaced by chimps (just like the PG Tips adverts). It's said that each chimp actually shared some of the characteristics of the band member they were 'playing'. Weird, but entertaining all the same! It will be released on July 27th, backed by two unreleased recordings. The first is a cover of The Rain Parade's "Blue", and the second is the first song to be written for the band by bass player Scott 'Muldoon' Morriss titled "The Ballad of Muldoon".
Following the disbanding of A & M records, the band's parent label, they are now signed to Mercury records and seem set to keep releasing their material through their own Superior Quality imprint.
Their forthcoming autumn tour is titled the "Put 'Em On The Glass" tour - for some
reason quite unknown. Dates are:
October 31st Bradford St Georges Hall November 1st Hull University 2nd Derby Assembly Rooms 4th Edinburgh Assembly Rooms 5th Glasgow Barrowlands 6th Preston Guildhall 8th Liverpool Royal Court 9th Exeter University 10th Cardiff University 12th Folkestone Leas Cliff Hall 13th London The Forum
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" You want to know how rock'n'roll we are? Scott was supposed to dye his hair brown, but he was on the phone to my Nan for too long, so it went black!" - Mark Morriss |
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