The Bluetones are an English indie rock band formed in Hounslow, West London, in 1993. They comprise Mark Morriss (vocals), Adam Devlin (guitar), Mark's younger brother Scott Morriss (bass guitar), and Eds Chesters (drums). A fifth member, Richard Payne (keys) came on board between 1998 and 2002 although still regularly works and tours with them. Before their official formation, all members excluding Chesters were originally in a group called the Bottlegarden.
The band have scored thirteen Top 40 singles and three top 10 albums on the UK charts. Although their commercial success waned in the post-Britpop era, they continued to tour and release new records. Their most recent album, Atlas was released in May 2026, just under sixteen years after their previous album, A New Athens (2010).
History
1989–1994: Formation and early years
On 12 April 1989, after going to see the Stone Roses play at the ICA in London after a tube strike, with a friend Robin and an acquaintance Gareth, Mark Morriss was offered to join the Bottlegarden, since they were looking for a bassist and had informed them he recently started playing both bass and an electric guitar. After a couple of rehearsals, Morriss decided to bring his brother Scott along to takeover bass as a stopgap at first but eventually joined as he was improving fast, shaping them as a five-piece. They started playing venues in 1990, mainly around Hounslow. Their other guitarist besides Morriss, Luke, left to go to university soon after.
Around this time, Morriss moved from home into a shared house with members from rock band Dodgy for two years, also meeting the Bluetones guitarist Adam Devlin who was in a local "scuzzy" indie band called A Perfect Mess, which he later left to join the Bottlegarden, who were more baggy focussed and Madchester-inspired. Robin, the founding member and lead vocalist, left soon after Devlin joined. Since the remaining four members of the group did not own the group, they disbanded and reformed as the Bluetones, a name suggested by Devlin. Without a singer, Morriss experimented with vocals initially until they found a new drummer although ended up becoming solely the singer. Their drummer Greg left just as they started, realising they were becoming older and thought they were making little progress. The three then settled, writing and demoing songs together temporarily without drums.
They were introduced to their drummer Eds Chesters, who was working with the pop trio Soho at the time, by Dodgy's drummer, Matthew Priest at the Dodgy Club, since they needed a replacement drummer after Greg left. Chesters attended one of their rehearsal sessions in the garage they used and listened to the first song they had demoed together, "A Parting Gesture", and decided to join them after hearing it, already having previous doubts about the age gap and musical style between him and Soho. Devlin said in 2015 that when spending time with him before joining, Chesters "just clicked seamlessly."
After the release and publication of two singles through Fierce Panda Records compilations, the band signed to A&M Records after a signing battle in 1996, and released Expecting to Fly on 12 February on their sublabel Superior Quality Recordings. It was named after a Buffalo Springfield single, one of their biggest influences. The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number one, knocking Oasis' second studio album (What's the Story) Morning Glory? off that position for a week. Its singles were "Bluetonic", "Slight Return" and "Cut Some Rug", with the latter reaching number two on the UK Singles Chart. "Cut Some Rug" was released as a double A-side single, partnered with "Castle Rock". It was certified platinum by the British Phonographic Industry (BPI) in March 1998 for sales of 300,000, as well as 82,000 on first-week sales. Following the touring and promotional duties for the album, the band released stand-alone single "Marblehead Johnson" in September 1996 to bridge the gap between albums.
1997–2002: Return to the Last Chance Saloon and Mercury Records
After spending a few weeks rehearsing new material in the studio The House In The Woods in Bletchingley, Surrey, the Bluetones booked Rockfield Studios in Monmouthshire, Wales to record a second follow-up album. The album, Return to the Last Chance Saloon, was released on 9 March 1998. While failing to repeat the commercial success of Expecting to Fly, it reached the top 10 on the UK Albums Chart. Its singles were "Solomon Bites the Worm", "If...", "Sleazy Bed Track" and "4-Day Weekend". The first two singles reached number ten and thirteen on the UK Singles Chart. The band recruited their keyboardist Richard Payne at a similar time to the promotional duties for Return to the Last Chance Saloon. He became an official member towards the production for their third album.
In 2002, Mercury suggested to release a greatest hits compilation after three studio albums. Although the band personally thought they were still at an early stage in their career, they seemed to have little involvement and direction towards it. Because of this, they compromised by writing new material for the album. The album, entitled The Singles, was released 8 April and featured all of their singles at the time, excluding "Castle Rock", with the addition of four exclusive tracks, a limited edition second disc and its own single, "After Hours". The Singles received relative praise and was certified Silver by the BPI.
2003–2011: Later career and initial split
After a relatively praised response from The Singles, the band left Mercury and released their fourth studio album Luxembourg, primarily under Superior Quality, to mixed reviews in 2003. It featured the double A-side single "Fast Boy/Liquid Lips" and "Never Going Nowhere" which both charted in the Top 40.
A three-album deal was signed in late 2005 with the Cooking Vinyl record label, promptly followed by the limited EP release Serenity Now and a full UK tour. Named after a reference to the Seinfield episode "The Serenity Now", the EP was self-released by the band through mail order and on tour dates.
In early 2006, Universal issued a comprehensive box set of all the Bluetones singles, B-sides and additional bonus tracks released between 1995 and 2003, entitled A Rough Outline: The Singles & B-sides 95 - 03.
The single "My Neighbour's House" was released in the UK on 18 September 2006, and was taken from their self-titled album, which was released in October that year. It failed to chart on 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 at first, on 1 October 2006, it was announced that a planned nine-date tour of North America, Japan 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 Tut's Wah Wah Hut.
It was later revealed that in September 2006, the band's former tour manager they had since 1994 robbed them of hundreds of thousands of pounds. Since he declared himself bankrupt, he faced no issues. The band found out after receiving an email the day before they were set to do their nine-date tour. It was cancelled since no money for the flights or hotels had been funded.
In February 2007, the band released the compilation BBC Radio Sessions containing tracks recorded for BBC sessions between 1994 and 2000. This was followed in June with their first full live album, Once Upon a Time in West Twelve, recorded at the Shepherd's Bush Empire in West London 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 demorecordings, entitled The Early Garage Years. They also released a DVD under the title Blue Movies, which included their first fifteen promotional music videos with exclusive band commentary and additional commentary from Edgar Wright for the videos he directed, and various Top of the Pops performance archives.
Morriss performing at the Rochdale Feel Good Festival 2009
In December 2008, the band embarked on a five-date tour, taking place 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. This followed another DVD release by CIA Recordings in May, Expecting to Fly Live, produced and directed by Alan Miles. It featured a recording of them playing the album in full at the Astoria on 18 May as one of the last acts to perform before the venue shut down.
On 31 May 2010, the band released a new album through CIA entitled A New Athens. Despite moderate praise, the album failed to appear on the UK Albums Chart.
On 28 March 2011, the band announced on their Myspace account they would split after a farewell tour in the following autumn after seventeen years of touring and six studio albums. The tour started on 3 September at The Orange Box, Yeovil, Somerset, and ended on 22 September at the O2 Academy Birmingham. For some of these dates, they changed into dressing gowns for a second encore.
On 17 January 2013, Morriss, Devlin and Chesters played a one-off solo show at the Queen of Hoxton as part of Morriss' Pledge campaign which helped fund the production of his second solo studio album, A Flash of Darkness.
2015–present: Reformation and new releases
On 13 April 2015, the band announced that they would reform after a mutual agreement for a new UK tour, which coincided with the forthcoming twentieth anniversary of Expecting to Fly's release. Entitled the Jukebox Tour, its dates were between April and May 2016.
In summer 2017, they co-headlined the Star Shaped Festival tour run by the popular Britpop club of the same name alongside the newly reformed Sleeper. This took place in Birmingham, London, Manchester and Glasgow in July and August 2017.
On 6 August 2021, the band released a six-CD box set compilation of all of their releases on Superior Quality from 1994 to 2002 on Edsel Records as well as featuring three previously unreleased demo recordings. Its exclusive release included signed copies and five badges. A year after, on 12 August 2022, they released a follow-up four-CD box set compilation of their releases from 2003 to 2010, featuring two unreleased tracks.
On 1 May 2026, the band released their first album in almost sixteen years entitled Atlas. It was released on their independent label, Brainhole Records and featured all nine tracks from three previous EP releases from 2024–2025 along with a bonus track. Although it failed to chart the UK Albums Chart, it reached number twenty on the Scottish Albums Chart.
Band members
Current
Mark Morriss – lead vocals (1993–2011, 2015–present)
Adam Devlin – lead guitar (1993–2011, 2015–present)
Scott Morriss – bass, backing vocals (1993–2011, 2015–present)
Top 50 peaks: "Australian-charts.com". Australian-charts.com > The Bluetones in Australian Charts. Hung Medien. Retrieved 1 April 2016.
Top 100 peaks to December 2010: Ryan, Gavin (2011). Australia's Music Charts 1988–2010 (pdfed.). Mt. Martha, VIC, Australia: Moonlight Publishing. p.35.
