www.myspace.com/markmorrissmusic
www.thebluetones.info/
Mark Morriss is a professional songwriter and the lead singer of The Bluetones.
Mark’s debut solo album, Memory Muscle, was released in May 2008. A gentler, folk-tinged record, it includes five re-recorded tracks which had previously been released under the name “Fi-Lo Beddow” as an EP in February 2006. The strings on the record were arranged by David Arnold, who became a fan of Expecting to Fly whilst scoring Independence Day.
It was in 1994 that The Bluetones first started to generate interest outside of their circle of friends, thanks in no small part to Radio 1 DJ John Peel picking up on a limited edition blue-vinyl pressing of a song called ‘Slight Return’ that the band were selling at their gigs. In 1995 they released their first 2 singles proper on their own Superior Quality Recordings label, ‘Are You Blue or Are You Blind?’ and ‘Bluetonic’. Both singles broke into the Uk Top 40, but it was the re-release of Slight Return in January 1996 that really catapaulted the group into the public eye, climbing to a giddy no.2 in the hit parade. Their debut album ‘Expecting to Fly’ followed shortly and debuted at no.1 in the Pop Album Chart List Countdown. There was then the release of the non-album single ‘Marblehead Johnson’ and then the second album ‘Return to the Last Chance Saloon’ which was released in 1988, preceded by another Top 10 single ‘Solomon Bites The Worm’. Their third album, ‘Science and Nature’ featured the singles ‘Keep the Home Fires Burning’, ‘Autophilia’ and ‘Mudslide’. This was followed later by a singles compilation called….’The Singles’, which contained no less than four new songs. Their next release came in 2003 in the form of Luxembourg, a collection of songs in which The Bluetones adopted a more stripped down approach to their sound. This album yielded two more Top 40 chartbusters; the double A-side ‘FastBoy/Liquid Lips’ and ‘Never Goin’ Nowhere’. A mammoth 50-date UK tour followed before a well-earnt break was taken until Autumn 2005, whereupon the EP ‘Serenity Now’ was issued through the Superior Quality Recordings label. In 2006, having signed to the indie label Cooking Vinyl, The Bluetones issued their fifth album, entitled simply ‘The Bluetones’, which was home to 3 more singles; ‘Surrendered’, ‘My Neighbour’s House’ and ‘Head on a Spike’. Again, the band toured throughout the UK, Europe and Japan before taking another little rest from each other. This is when Mark made his aforementioned solo album, ‘Memory Muscle’.
After various Bluetones having babies and so on, a new collection of songs…’A New Athens’ was recorded during the winter of 2009/10 with Gordon Mills. Featuring 11 (or is that 12?) new titles and finding our heroes once more in top form, they have been touring the UK again, including many festivals and show no signs of stopping!”
