WE’RE PLEASED TO ANNOUNCE THE SIXTH LIVE EVENT TO BE STAGED BY THE MOUTH MAGAZINE – AND DELIGHTED TO REVEAL THAT THE HEADLINER IS MARK MORRISS, EX-FRONTMAN OF THE BLUETONES. OUR SUMMER SPECIAL WILL TAKE PLACE AT CAFÉ INDIEPENDENT IN SCUNTHORPE ON FRIDAY 19TH JUNE 2015. 

Morriss will perform songs by his former band alongside material from the solo albums MEMORY MUSCLE and A FLASH OF DARKNESS. In keeping with an eclectic tradition (in recent years he’s performed Duran Duran’s RIO and Foreigner’s I WANT TO KNOW WHAT LOVE IS, and recorded studio runs at Teenage Fanclub’s ALCOHOLIDAY, Pixies’ GOUGE AWAY, Girls Aloud’s CALL THE SHOTS, The Shins’ PINK BULLETS and even Barbra Streisand’s Gibb-brothers-penned WOMAN IN LOVE) there will doubtlessly be some surprise cover versions peppering his set, too…
The Bluetones formed in Hounslow during 1993, spending time living together and focusing entirely on the band, honing a sound influenced by The Smiths, Buffalo Springfield and REM. A self-released single paved the way for signing to a major label, and a couple of singles later the seminal SLIGHT RETURN reached number two in the UK chart during the Britpop boom of 1996. It was taken from The Bluetones’ debut album EXPECTING TO FLY – a thoughtful and textured record which knocked Oasis’ (WHAT’S THE STORY) MORNING GLORY? from the top of the charts. More hit singles (including BLUETONIC, ARE YOU BLUE OR ARE YOU BLIND?, CUT SOME RUG, MARBLEHEAD JOHNSON, SOLOMON BITES THE WORM and IF…) sealed The Bluetones’ reputation as a group who really knew their way around a good tune. But, inevitably for a band closely associated with a particular scene, times moved on and returns diminished. After having been through the whole machine (countless appearances on TOP OF THE POPS and other TV music shows, acres of coverage in the music press, hundreds of gigs and six UK charting albums) The Bluetones split in 2011 following a brief farewell tour. Morriss, who had tested the waters with solo releases THE FI-LO BEDDOW EP (2006) and album MEMORY MUSCLE (2008), began performing one-man shows and working towards the 2013 album A FLASH OF DARKNESS. From it, Morriss played CONSUELA in session for The Mouth Magazine last year (watch below). He’s also written the themes for the audio versions of children’s books written by his friend David Walliams and is a member of actor / comedian Matt Berry’s touring band. The pair will release a split 7″ single – on which each covers a song by the other – for this year’s Record Store Day (details here).

At our Mark Morriss event there will be two local support acts – singer-songwriter Daniel Senior and duo Duke & The Daisy. The venue doors will open at 7.00pm for an 7.30 start, and admission is £10 in advance, with tickets now available from SeeTickets (here) for those living outside of Scunthorpe (North Lincolnshire) and its surrounding areas. Physical tickets will be available at Café Indiependent itself in the near future, if you want to avoid paying booking fees. Click the poster for the SUMMER SPECIAL (above) for further details. See you there!

Previous shows hosted by The Mouth Magazine include the AUTUMN SPECIAL and SUNDAY SPECIAL, both headlined by Rachel Sermanni, and the WINTER SPECIAL headlined by Martin Stephenson of The Daintees. Last weekend Miles Hunt of The Wonder Stuff read extracts from his recently published memoir and performed acoustic versions of his band’s early songs at our EASTER SPECIAL. Highlights from each of these gigs featured in special editions of The Mouthcast. Other shows coming up include our BANK HOLIDAY SPECIAL on Saturday 2nd May, headlined by top-notch Sheffield four-piece High Hazels. See here for details.