Bluetones - Forum, London, 24/9/2015

  by Gillian Fish

published: 23 / 10 / 2015

intro

Gillian Fish travels back in time with 90's indie heroes the Bluetones at the sold-out London date of their 20th anniversary tour

The latest band to relive the glory days of 90’s indie and Britpop are the Bluetones. Despite bidding us a fond farewell four years ago, the West London band decided the 20th anniversary of the release of their first single was the perfect excuse to get back out on the road for a UK tour. I headed to the London date at the Kentish Town Forum along with a sold out audience of mostly 30-40 somethings all eager to relive the Britpop glory days. The Bluetones came out onto the stage to ‘Since You’ve Been Gone’ by Rainbow, and kicked off the evening with the aforementioned first single ‘Are You Blue or Are You Blind?’ a fitting place to start. It was quite clear that they still enjoy playing together, and the crowd fed off their enthusiasm and the charm and wit of lead singer Mark Morriss, who kept us entertained in between songs. “It’s our train-set and we’ll pick it up and play with it whenever we want!” was his response to any cynicism surrounding the reunion. There were no such doubts in the Forum though, with everybody fully embracing the opportunity to be transported back in time for one evening at least. “For anyone asking us about new material, I suggest you listen to the last couple of albums we recorded”, Morriss quipped referencing the albums that slipped under the radar in the mid to late 2000s. They played ‘A New Athens’ from the 2010 album of the same title; it worked as a reminder that the Bluetones are far from just being another Britpop band. They have always had a varied sound that isn’t contained to one genre and which still sounds fresh. The majority of ‘the hits’ they packed into the set came from their debut album ‘Expecting to Fly’, including the brilliant ‘Marblehead Johnson’ and the melodic ‘The Fountainhead’, guitarist Adam Devlin providing jangly guitars throughout. The bluesy swagger of ‘Soloman Bites The Worm’, taken from second album ‘Return to the Last Chance Saloon’, managed to sound like it could have been written this year. The biggest cheer and mass sing-along on the night was reserved for the awesome ‘Bluetonic’ with its impossibly catchy chorus delivered in Morriss’ trademark vocals. They joked that after playing all the fan favourites that they were going to “indulge themselves” for the next song, which led us to wonder if we were about to hear an obscure b-side or an unreleased track. True to their witty form they, however, launched into arguably their most well-known song ‘Slight Return’, much to the appreciation of the crowd. They returned to the stage for an encore featuring ‘After Hours’ before ending the night with the magnificent ‘If’, the whole Forum singing along at full volume. As they left the stage to rapturous applause, perhaps this signalled more than just a slight return for the Bluetones.

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