The Bluetones: music and dirt
When The Bluetones came in 199something, I really loved their singles. 'Slight Return', what a song.
I recently read an article about how the band made 'Slight Return'. I remember that time. It made me listen to The Bluetones again. They've got a new album out.
I also remember first reading Anna Wharton's words; she's Mark Morriss' ex wife. Morriss is the singer in The Bluetones.
Wharton accused Morriss of “telling people that I am crazy, and lying about me”, “gaslighting women to believe what he wanted them to, convincing them not to put the dots together and realise what a narcissistic, pathological liar and serial predator he is”. She claimed that he also told his mother that she tricked him into the pregnancy and lied that she was bipolar.
The quote is from this article in The Guardian. Wharton also wrote a lot about Morriss, for example, this post, which is available in its entirety here.
On the youtube page of the video at the top of this page, the description is:
After a 14 year hiatus from writing and recording (due to one thing or another) The Bluetones release their first single in ages, Drive Thru.
The 'due to one thing or another' sounds ominous in light of what Wharton called out.
Regardless. Regardless?
I still struggle with separating artists from their art.
I'm listening to Atlas, the new Bluetones album. The first track is the first single, the video I've embedded on this page. It's got fuzzy production, unlike the band's first albums.
I must say, I always loved the lead guitarist. There are so many things he's done on their first album – oh, wait, I need to list a couple more brilliant songs:
They do carry a lot of lovely tracks. It's not unfair to compare them with The Stone Roses; I must confess I didn't make that connection until today when someone else connected the dots: it makes perfect sense, although Bluetones are far more put-together and English in a Blur-in-1992 way. The guitars are a lodestar where Bluetones are concerned. There's also a fair amount of nerdy organ thrown in at times.
I've never ever thought of The Bluetones as a sexual band, but I guess someone like Morriss would hide behind that.
This is a wonderfully sweet song, at least the chorus; then again, it turns a bit sour as I think of what Morriss may have done.
May. I don't know. I don't know him. By the sounds of his voice and that of Wharton, though, I think she's most likely telling the truth about most things on how Morriss abused her in many different ways. Even half of what she's said should send him to therapy for a very long time.
At the very least, I can't help but wonder what the rest of the band thinks about him and his actions. Even if they'd loathe the man, I guess they would still go on tour with him and release new music, possibly because they'd need the money.
On the other hand, is that worth the effort?
I struggle with myself. I've written about this many times: I used to love and adore Morrissey, before I knew he was a xenophobe, racist, nationalist, islamophobe, and supporter of extreme far-right movements. I should have known better. Cornershop warned us.
The new Bluetones album is OK but I can't see myself listening to it more than once. I can't remember any songs bar the first one; that says more about myself than the band. I laud musicians these days, it's really hard work, forcing them on tour far more than they should be travelling. On the other hand, to paraphrase Daniel Radcliffe's father, at least they're not coal miners.
I can't help but feel a little dirty when I think about The Bluetones, when I'm able to not only focus on the music. I think I might throw myself back to a time before I heard about Morriss' terrible actions and inactions.
I think of Gene, another 1990s band. Beautiful lyrics, wonderfully melodic guitar lines, very The Smiths-like. No britpop go-Blighty bullshit. Martin Rossiter, the singer, stood up and spoke out in a beautiful article named Why Morrissey Is Dead To Me. That's balls.
The Gene song 'You'll Never Walk Again' is wonderful. It makes me think of the person who means the most to me: my wife. The guitars somehow matches her countless wonderful expressions.
We're giving the world The kick it requires And if you can't see why Look into my eyes
'cause with you on my side/no, the feeling's not gone