Interview with the Bluetones

Jul 16 2009 by Will Harris, Flintshire Chronicle

MOST bands would consider knocking Oasis’ highest-selling album off the number one spot to be pretty high on their all-time achievement list. But not for Bluetones frontman Mark Morriss.

The Britpop band, who were riding high in the mid to late 1990s, are headlining Northwich’s newest music festival Whatfest this weekend.

The London-based four-piece will be joined by fellow Britpop stars Dodgy and emerging Liverpool outfit China Crisis over the weekend of July 17-19 at the festival venue in Whatcroft.

The Bluetones knocked Oasis’ (What’s The Story) Morning Glory off top spot with their debut album Expecting To Fly, only to be replaced again by the Manchester boys a week later.

But Morriss says: “It’s not one of those things I consider on my top 10 list of achievements to be honest. Other people seem to read more into it than we do. You’ve never got any real control over who buys your records.

“Making a record and writing songs you enjoy and are proud of gives you a greater sense of achievement than that.”

The Bluetones’ headline appearance at Whatfest is part of a busy summer for the band, who are putting the finishing touches to a new album, as yet untitled, to be released later this year.

“We’re doing quite a bit of this sort of thing over the summer,” adds Morriss. “We’re really concentrating on getting the album finished and we want to take it to places where people don’t normally get to hear us, the big festivals like Reading, Leeds or Glastonbury.

“We’ve never stopped. It’s been second nature to us since we were young men. It’s something we just love doing and we’re best friends as well, so it has never been an option for us.

“We’ve also retained a very loyal following who seem to keep buying tickets and records, so what can you do?”

Times have changed in the music industry for The Bluetones. After their number one success in 1996, subsequent albums Return to the Last Chance Saloon and Science & Nature both made the top 10 in the UK charts.

But after the turn of the millennium, things took a downward turn with 2003’s Luxembourg making number 49 and the 2006 self-titled offering only reaching number 100.

Nevertheless, Morriss says it has nothing to do with the industry itself.

“I think we’ve always had a diverse music scene in this country,” he said. “There was a period where it felt like everything was centred on guitar bands for a few years when we first emerged.

“It’s not that you’re fighting genres, it’s fighting fashions, but you just have to get on with it.

“If you’re a band people expect you to disintegrate and have a shelf life, yet it’s not the same for solo artists.

“It’s a weird prejudice in the music industry.”

And he is hoping the Whatfest crowd will take to the band’s new material.

He said: “We haven’t had a drastic turn. It’s got quite a folky feel to it but essentially it’s still going to be a good pop record.”

Tickets for Whatfest start from just £18.50 for the day, and £44 for the entire weekend. To book, visit www.whatfest.co.uk.