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Biography
Use dmy dates|date=October 2011Use British English|date=October 2011for|the self-titled album|The Bluetones (album)Infobox musical artist| name = The Bluetones| image = The Bluetones.jpg| caption = The Bluetones in Bangkok , Thailand in 1996| image_size =| background = group_or_band| origin = Hounslow , London , England| genre = Alternative rock , Rock music|rock , indie rock , indie pop , Britpop | years_active = 1993& ndash;2011| label = A& M Records Universal Music Group Superior Quality Recordings Cooking Vinyl | associated_acts =| website = http://www.thebluetones.info www.bluetones.info| current_members =| past_members = Mark Morriss Adam Devlin Scott Morriss Eds Chesters Richard Payne The Bluetones were an England|English indie rock musical ensemble|band , formed in Hounslow , Greater London , in 1993. http://www.thebluetones.info/? page_id=2 Who us? : Official Biography http://www.bluetones.org.uk/pictures/collections/Mick_Mercer/index.html with a little charm...: pictures The band's members were Mark Morriss on Singing|vocals , Adam Devlin on guitar , Scott Morriss on bass guitar , and Eds Chesters on Drum kit|drums . A fifth member, Richard Payne , came on board between 1998 and 2002. The band was originally named "The Bottlegarden". http://www.bluetones.org.uk/faq/band_history.html with a little charm...: faq: band history
The band's biggest hit, " Slight Return ", was released in 1996. They have achieved thirteen Top 40 single (music)|singles and three Top 40|Top 10 album s in the United Kingdom|UK record chart|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 (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 (album)|Expecting to Fly on their own sublabel Superior Quality Recordings.cite book | first= Martin C. | last= Strong | year= 2000 | title= The Great Rock Discography | edition= 5th | publisher= Mojo Books | location= Edinburgh | page= 96 | isbn= 1-84195-017-3 The album entered the UK Albums Chart at record chart|number one , and featured the singles " Bluetonic " and " Slight Return ", with the latter being beaten to number one by one hit wonder|one-hit-wonder s Babylon Zoo 's " Spaceman (song)|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... (Bluetones song)|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 (The Bluetones song)|Keep the Home Fires Burning " and " Autophilia (Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Car)|Autophilia ".
After releasing a The Singles (The Bluetones album)|best-of album in 2002, the band followed up with Luxembourg (album)|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 A-side and B-side|B-sides released between 1995 and 2003, A Rough Outline: The Singles & B-Sides 95 - 03|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 The Bluetones (album)|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 United States|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. http://www.bluetones.info/ :: The Bluetones :: 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.
In February 2007, the band released BBC Radio Sessions (The Bluetones)|BBC Radio Sessions containing tracks recorded for the BBC 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 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 (music)|demo sound recording and reproduction|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. In May 2008 a ten-date tour covered Cambridge , Whitehaven , Sheffield , Newcastle upon Tyne , Birmingham , London , Bristol , Manchester and Darwen , including one of the last few concerts at the London Astoria|Astoria . They also played a show with Brit-pop rivals Dodgy on 17 May 2009, at a secret London venue, to benefit the homelessness charity Crisis (charity)|Crisis , as part of the charity's 'Hidden Gigs' campaign against hidden homelessness. http://www.crisis.org.uk/hidden/ Crisis.org.uk
In December 2008, the band embarked on a five-date concert tour|tour , 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.
On 31 May 2010, the band released an album called A New Athens (album)|A New Athens . Despite largely positive reviews by fans and critics alike, the album failed to chart in the UK Albums Chart.
The song " Sleazy Bed Track " from the 1998 album Return To The Last Chance Saloon was featured in the popular 2010 film Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and also included on the soundtrack.
On 28 March, the band announced they would split after a farewell tour in September 2011, with a message from frontman Mark Morriss saying "After 17 years and 6 albums, The Bluetones have decided that the time has arrived to call it a day and move on to other challenges. Before disappearing forever though, we will be heading out for one last tour, as a chance to say farewell and thank you to all the fans that have sustained us over these years, with a career-spanning Greatest Hits/Best Of... style set of songs. It's gonna be emotional."
Discography
Studio albums
Expecting to Fly (album)|Expecting to Fly (1996) #1 UK Singles Chart|UK
A New Athens (album)|A New Athens (2010) #21 Indiecite book
| first= David | last= Roberts | year= 2006 | title= British Hit Singles & Albums | edition= 19th | publisher= Guinness World Records Limited | location= London | isbn= 1-904994-10-5 | page= 67
