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Adam, Scott, Eds and Mark all once lived
together in Hounslow and rehearsed songs in their garage. When enough
material was prepared, the band played a handful of low-key gigs
and almost immediately a fanbase began to grow; a small band of
devotees bewitched by the nascent Bluetones' ability to mix Adam's
uplifting guitar melodies with the heartfelt emotion in Mark's lyrics,
all the while underpinned by Scott and Eds' shuffling rhythm section.
It was 1994 and a new sound had hit the British music scene.
The record-buying public were first tempted by the Fierce Panda
EP 'Return to Splendour'. The EP contained 'No. 11', the eleventh
song written and later renamed 'Bluetonic'. It quickly became an
Evening Session favourite and the ''Blue Army' of fans began to
grow.
A series of support slots followed (with Strangelove, Shed Seven,
the Charlatans and Supergrass) and the band capitalised on their
new-found following with the release of 'Slight Return' / 'The Fountainhead'
on their own Superior Quality Recordings
label. The 2000 7" copies sold out by mail order before the
pressings even came back.
In 1995, The Bluetones' first headline tour and proper single received
instant acclaim. 'Are You Blue or Are You Blind?' broke the Top
40, entering the chart at Number 31. The tour ended with hordes
of fans being turned away and summer festival appearances took the
band's effortless charm to a whole new audience. The subsequent
release of 'Bluetonic' elevated The Bluetones even higher up the
chart.
The following year, Bluemania hit the UK in a big way. The band's
'Slight Return' single was added to practically every radio station
playlist in the country and leapt into the charts at Number 2. Soon
after, the debut LP 'Expecting to Fly' (note the Neil Young reference)
flew to Number 1 in the album chart.
This year of celebration continued with another
Top 10 single 'Cut Some Rug', two more sell-out tours, an hysteria-filled
trip to Japan and a series of big festival shows. In the autumn,
a brand new song 'Marblehead Johnson' completed a hat-trick of Top
10 hits and the Bluetones found themselves in huge demand.
After a Brit nomination for Best New Band the following January,
The Bluetones took it easy in 1997. Apart from a few festival headlines
(Glastonbury and V97) the rest of the year was spent writing and
recording their second album.
1998
Launched in February 1998, The Bluetones comeback was marked with
yet another Top 10 single, 'Solomon Bites the Worm'. The accompanying
album 'Return to the Last Chance Saloon' rapidly went gold and spurned
more Top 40 hits in the shape of 'If...' and 'Sleazy Bed Track'.
A world tour took the band all the way to Australia and the end
of the summer found them playing in front of 45,000 people on the
main stage at Reading.
October 1998 saw the beginning of Superior Quality Recordings' presence
on the internet. After the closure of their distributor's offices
(A&M was absorbed by Mercury in the summer), The Bluetones took
control of their release schedule and decided to issue '4-Day Weekend'
themselves via their website (www.bluetones.co.uk). 15,000 copies
were sold within the first month and the record had to be re-pressed
to meet demand. Such was the success of this enterprise that the
label thought an online record shop might be a good idea...
For The Bluetones, the end of 1998 saw no
break from action. A sell-out headline slot at an NME Brats show
in January was quickly accompanied by another sold-out show at the
Queen Elizabeth Hall for John Peel. The set was later broadcast
on Radio 1 and included brand new songs 'One Speed Gearbox' and
'Emily's Pine'...
The band have officially added ex-dodgy
keyboard player Richard Payne to the line-up.
(the above was taken from the S.Q.R
site - see link)
2000
The 3rd album Science & Nature
was released mid 2000, with the following double CD (CD 'A', CD
'B') singles released 'Keep The Home Fires Burning', 'Autophilia'
and a special 'Mudslide' EP which featured remixes and new tunes.
The band spent the first half
of 2000 promoting the new album & singles with gigs up and down
the country. The May tour of Manchester, Middlesbrough, Leeds,
Norwich, Guildford, & Wolverhampton saw a mixture of old + new
tunes with a couple of b-sides thrown in.
The Summer of 2000 had the
'tones playing Glastonbury, Leeds & Reading, T-In The Park
festivals. The band finished off the year with a December support slot
with The Beautiful South.
2001
Warm ups at The Edinburgh
Liquid Rooms(see mp3 top of page), glasgow king tuts, Penrith
Festival, Cumbria, portsmouth wedgewood rooms and oxford zodiac then
the Ross-on-Wye Festival in August. Norwich, London, Glasgow
and Manchester is December with a taste of the new material
including 'After Hours' and 'Freeze Dried Pop'.
2002
March sees the boys out on
tour of England and Scotland to plug their new 'best of
album'. The sets feature most of their hits and the newest stuff and
is a great time to see them live. Look for them at at least one of
the summer festivals this year.
- - - - - - - - -
The
new single 'After Hours' was releaed on the 25th on March 2002.
Followed in April with the new 'best of' album, which features
all the singles to date and a few new tunes. A limted edition comes with
a b-sides cd, features a previously
un-released Frank Sinatra tune 'That's Life'.. recordered for the
film 'Strictly Sinatra'. See the albums section for details.
Check the news link for
up-to-date info. |
