The Bluetones

In 1989, after going to see a Stone Roses concert at the ICA with a friend and an acquaintance, Mark Morriss was asked if he wanted to join the Bottlegarden, since he played guitar and they were looking for a guitarist. After a couple of rehearsals, he decided to bring his brother along as a bassist and placeholder at first but later officially joined since he was improving fast, making them a five-piece. They started playing venues in 1990, mainly around Hounslow, and the other guitarist, Luke, left to go to university around this time.^[3]

Around this time, Morriss moved from home into a shared house with members from Dodgy, also meeting Devlin who was in a local band called 'Perfect Mess', which he later left to join the Bottlegarden. The founding member Robin, who was the singer, left soon after he joined. Since it was not their band, the four disbanded and reformed as the Bluetones. Morriss in this time experimented with singing, and the drummer, Greg, also left just as they started, not thinking they were making any progress with it. The three then settled, writing and demoing songs together without the drums.^[3][5]

They were introduced to Chesters, who was working with Soho at the time, by Dodgy's drummer, Matthew Priest at The Dodgy Club since they needed a replacement drummer. One weekend, he came round to their place and listened to the first song they had demoed, "A Parting Gesture", and decided to join them after this, having doubts about the age gap and music style between him and Soho.^[3][6]

After the release of two singles on Fierce Panda Records, the band signed to A&M Records and released Expecting to Fly on their own sublabel Superior Quality Recordings.^[7] The album entered the UK Albums Chart at number one, and featured the singles "Bluetonic", "Slight Return" and "Cut Some Rug", with the latter climbing to number two on the UK chart. Following the touring and promotional duties for the album, the band released stand-alone single "Marblehead Johnson" to bridge the gap between albums.^[7]

The second Bluetones album, Return to the Last Chance Saloon, was released in 1998. While failing to repeat the commercial success of their debut, it reached the top 10 in the UK album charts and spawned the hit singles "Solomon Bites the Worm" and "If...".

In 2000, the Bluetones signed to Mercury Records, although not receiving the treatment they expected,^[8][9] after A&M were being sold to a different company,^[10] and released their third album, Science & Nature, which again reached the top 10 and featured the hit singles "Keep the Home Fires Burning" and "Autophilia".

After a greatist hits compilation in 2002, the band released their fourth studio album Luxembourg, primarily under Superior Quality after leaving Mercury, to mixed reviews in 2003. It featured double-A-side "Fast Boy/Liquid Lips" and "Never Going Nowhere".

A three-album deal was signed in late 2005 with the Cooking Vinyl record label, promptly followed by the limited release of EP Serenity Now and a full UK tour.^[11]

In early 2006, Universal issued a comprehensive box set of all Bluetones singles, B-sides and additional bonus tracks released between 1995 and 2003, 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 self-titled album, which was released on 9 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 United States, 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.^[12] 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 containing tracks recorded for the BBC between 1994 and 2000.^[13] 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 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 recordings, entitled The Early Garage Years. They also released a DVD under the title Blue Movies, which includes all of their 15 promotional music videos.

In January 2008, the band began a mini-tour of Scotland, playing five cities (Stirling, Dunfermline, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Edinburgh) in as many nights.^[12] 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 Astoria. They also played a gig with Dodgy on 17 May 2009, at a secret London venue, to benefit the homelessness charity Crisis, as part of the charity's 'Hidden Gigs' campaign against hidden homelessness.^[14]

In December 2008, the band embarked on a five-date 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 a new album entitled A New Athens. Despite moderate praise, the album failed to appear on the UK Albums Chart.

On 28 March 2011, the band announced they would split after a farewell tour in the autumn.^[15] On 13 April 2015, the band announced that they would reform for a new UK tour.^[16]

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 1 May 2026, their first album in almost sixteen years entitled Atlas.^[4] The album featured all nine tracks from three previous EP releases from 2024-2025 along with a bonus track.^[17] Although it failed to chart the UK Albums Chart, it reached number 20 on the Scottish Albums Chart.^[18]

The discography of the Bluetones, an English indie rock band, consists of seven studio albums, six compilation albums, two live album, six extended plays, twenty singles and four video releases.