The Bluetones: Classic or Dud

My friend saw the singer in Safeways in Ealing once.

For some strange reason I listened to Last Chance Saloon the other day, can't imagine why because I didn't like it when it came out and very nearly got rid of it down the second hand emporium.

I quite enjoyed it, but no great shakes. Some of the early stuff was cool, Are You Blue Or Are You Blind, The Simple Things, Nifkin's Bridge and Don't Stand Me Down all being pretty class. But so much of they're stuff is just... Nondescript, I guess. I can't remember half their tunes that I've heard.

No,really.

http://www.bluetones.info/

Wow! Some of you guys are really harsh! Bluetones are a great pop band. They are amazing live, really fun. A lot better than all this "Nu Rave" and "Emo" rubbish around at moment!

^^^GEE DO YOU THINK THIS MIGHT BE A REGULAR DOING A COMEDY SOCKPUPPET GIMMICK

ratio of troll to non-troll posts on ILM finally reaches 1:1

He, he. I'm not a troll?! The Bluetones aren't that bad are they?!

hi dom

I think many people don't realize how good The Bluetones once. You might only lnow the hit singles like "Slight Return" and "Bluetonic" which are good but not as good as they got. Everyone should check out "Science and Nature", the song "Emily's Pine" is amazing. A real classic. And they are very good live, Mark is a great frontman. His banter with the crowd is very funny.

they have some funky jams

hi comstock

xpost

Acrobat: evens
Noodle Vague: 6/5
Louis Jagger: 5/1
The Lex: 33/1

This is a weird messageboard.

Free Peace Sweet! OTM

"Slight Return" was the classic first-year-students-go-home-at-end-of-term-to-once-more-burden-their-parents song.

This is a weird messageboard.

-- Free Peace Sweet!, Tuesday, 16 October 2007 13:14 (28 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

please lock this so it sticks at the top of every page.

FTR: I really like the Bluetones. Autophilia and If are on heavy rotation at Grozart Towers* right now.

*yes, I live in a tower.

"Slight Return" was the classic first-year-students-go-home-at-end-of-term-to-once-more-burden-their-parents song.

-- PhilK, Tuesday, October 16, 2007 2:43 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

haha. target marketing.

I was a 1st year student when Slight Return came out, and I did kind of like it at the time. Oh dear.

They were total crap live back then. I saw them at a small club supporting Supergrass shortly after Caught By The Fuzz came out. Haven't seen them since '95 though.

slight return was well depressing, boring overcast sunday afternoon-pop.

Haven't seen them since '95 though.

ROAD TRIP!

how old were you then? about 12?

I SWEAR THIS WASN'T ME.

Too much effort to sock-puppet at work.

I saw them at a small club supporting Supergrass shortly after Caught By The Fuzz came out.

I went to that tour as well, Supergrass approx 100000000 time better than the Bluetones. I don't hate the Bluetones at all, they're mostly kind of meh, but they have a couple of cracking songs in their repertoire.

how old were you then? about 12?

-- max r, Tuesday, 16 October 2007 14:01 (15 minutes ago) Bookmark Link

This has been quite a day for ILX hasn't it

i was only about 13/14. horrible.

As for The Bluetones, their ticket price has been slowly creeping up every time they come round on another tooling-for-payday UK tour SO someone perhaps knows something we don't?

xpost

There's a few normal people on here after all! I don't think they are very good like Radiohead or Jeff Buckley but I bet if you came and saw them live that after a few pints you'd be down the front singing along to all the hits with me! :D

don't reckon

Free Peace Sweet is right considering the first album. Although they are far from as good as the band - working with the same producer btw - that influenced Free Peace Sweet's nick. :)

I feel more of an emotional bond with 'Expecting to Fly' than any other record from that genre or era...I think only 'Modern Life Is Rubbish' comes anywhere close.

Still sounds great to these ears.

this board has got nowhere in seven years

Having said that I think 'His and Hers' is going on next. I'm 20 again!

I listened to their second record (Last Chance Saloon) the other week cos my brother picked it when he came round to play Pro Evo; once again I was surprised by how good it was, some good tunes and some wicked guitar playing.

lol britpop?

The second album's not really Britpop; they've got a big Americana thing going on. Or Mexicana, possibly. No mariarchi horns or anything, but an obsession with tequila and crunchy guitar riffs.

The Bluetones have three really wicked songs, all of which are b-sides. Drummer and guitarist both wicked. So... like Dodgy, then. Except I dunno about Dodgy's b-sides.

castle rock and don't stand me down are both good b-sides, but neither are as good as 'are you blue...'

as much as i lament bands that break up after a couple of good singles and a decent album, that's exactly what this lot should have done

Probably one of the worst bands generated by Britpop, though not the worst.

A friend who's normally pretty spot-on swears blind this lot got better and better and better with each album. Nifkin's Bridge, The Simple Things, and Don't Stand Me Down are the b-sides I meant. As said above, second album surprisingly pleasant, ten years after the fact.

Didn't the singer always say he was way more into films than music?

http://www.townsend-records.co.uk/i/covers/10003609.jpg

2010 release, the sixth studio album from the veteran Britpop band. A New Athens features guest appearances from Imogen Andrews and ex-Mohair keyboard whizz kid Alex Richards. The record itself, though filled to the brim with the band's trademark ear for melody and left-field sounding harmonies, does mark something of a sonic departure. As a whole, the album is perhaps darker sounding than anything they have released before, yet at the same time there is a definite air of playfulness within the tracks. As if the band are more comfortable with themselves and their craft than they have been before.

1. The Notes Between The Notes Between The Notes
2. Firefly
3. A New Athens
4. Culling Song
5. Into The Red
6. Golden Soul
7. The Day That Never Was
8. Carry Me Home
9. Half The Size Of Nothing
10. Haunted By You
11. Pranchestonelle

sixth? seems like only yesterday i couldn't get interested enough to listen to their third.

It's only them and Ash left now

say what

oh dear he's right you know

was anyone else completely unaware ash were in the process of releasing 26 7" singles over the last year or so? thought so

I knew about the Ash singles thing, they said they wanted to avoid all the pressure of making albums and just put out singles. It was very nice of them to then go and compile the first 12 singles onto an album with a volume two on it's way. It's a radical idea really, shame The Wedding Present beat them to it by just 18 years.

I actually quite liked the last Bluetones album, not sure how bothered I am about a new one. Six albums in Fourteen years is pretty bad going.

Why are the early singles by this band so fucking revered by 6music?

I dunno cos I don't listen to it but I guess the Bluetones are the most 6Music-y band I could ever think of.

I remember liking their second album most of all at the time (even more so than their supposed 'best album' Expecting To Fly), but I haven't listened to it for years and years.

Or any Bluetones album for that matter. I don't think I've even heard their last one.

I really like 'If...', but Expecting to Fly is the only one I know well.

are you blue... and the orig "demo" versions of bluetonic & slight return still sound fresh, but the album is a tough tough slog these days

https://annawharton.substack.com/p/if-im-lying-come-sue-me

it's a grim winter evening, let's settle down with a glass of mulled wine and read something truly horrible

https://www.bluetones.org.uk/interviews/2000/nme_19_02_00.html