Here They Come Again Interview by Dawn & Di Written by / Photo by Di During their huge tour to promote new album Luxembourg, The Bluetones stopped off in Middlesbrough to entertain the Teesside crowd once more. Di and Dawn chatted to lead singer Mark Morriss on the band's tour bus before their Cornerhouse gig. Soon just never seems enough when it comes to waiting for The Bluetones to return to Teesside to play another of their great gigs. The minute one of their performances finishes you’re left craving more, and with their last appearance being at The Empire last September, it’s with great excitement that we meet Mark Morriss on this fine evening. As they arrive on Teesside, the band are partway through a massive, fifty-date tour of the UK – an understandably daunting and tiring task. Why did they embark on such a lengthy tour?

Mark explains: ‘It’s been a while since we’ve all been able to do something like a grass roots tour and go to the places that new people will get a chance to go to, in effect trying to start again – like trying to cast the net a little wider.’

Indeed, the tour takes in a plethora of venues, particularly encompassing much smaller venues than they have in recent years.

‘I love playing the smaller venues. Absolutely love it. Put LOVE in capital letters!’

Reassuring optimism from the animated Mr Morriss as, later that night, he and the boys will be found playing on a stage so small their elbows must’ve been knocking together, and the crowd almost had the Cornerhouse bursting at the seams.

The approach of this tour is just one indication of a new direction, and even a new beginning, for The Bluetones. Following their split from Mercury Records, Mark tells us: ‘This album came about as a result of leaving Mercury and a sudden feeling of liberation that came with that. I think it translated itself into this more direct and scratchy, boisterous sound on the new album’

Their new-found freedom has served the boys wonderfully well, as new album Luxembourg displays an original and innovative evolution of the band’s music, though never losing its much-loved charm and addictive melodies. Mark is obviously very excited about it and believes in it, as he tells us, ‘It evolved very quickly and very naturally. As soon as we started writing, the songs just plopped out of us! There’s a lot of scratchy guitars and stuff. That’s my favourite sound in the world – you know when the hands just relax on the strings?’

So what effect do they want their music to have on people?

‘I want them to get up and boogie! I think in the early days we liked the idea of people taking our records home and listening to them on their headphones in their bedrooms, but now I’m much more into the idea of cranking it up and letting their body take over.’

We could quite happily fulfil his request, but what if the day should arrive when the music stops? Having already carved out a relatively long career by music’s standards, have they ever considered calling time?

‘No, not yet. I suppose when we do start thinking about it, we’ll know it’s coming. We’ve a lot of ambitions left for the band – really to get out and have a decent jaunt across America, have some fun, see some different places. We’ll be cruising across Death Valley in a smelly vacuum flask on wheels!’

Before we finish the interview and leave Mark to his game of Ape Escape, we feel we must ask our friend Lucy’s all important question: Why don’t sheep shrink in the rain?

‘That’s a good question,’ muses Mark before his eyes light up and a grin spreads across his face. ‘They do, don’t they? That’s my answer!’

So we bid goodbye to Mark and wish him luck for the future. Hopefully, as a band, The Bluetones have a good, long journey ahead of them. The world would certainy seem a sadder place without them.

Huge thanks to Maureen and Dom for Middlesbrough and to the ever-lovely Mark Morriss for the interview and for inviting us to Newcastle. Visit www.Bluetones.info for more info.

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