Artist · chart history
The Bluetones
Band Hounslow United Kingdom Formed 1993
The Bluetones formed in 1993 in Hounslow, United Kingdom. The Bluetones has 4 chart appearances on 2 radio countdowns from 2 stations on RockLists, spanning 1995–2025. The most successful song on radio countdowns is “Slight Return”, which appears on 2 lists with a best position of #21. The station that charted The Bluetones most often is John Peel (BBC Radio 1), with 2 appearances. The artist’s biggest year on year-end countdowns was 1995.
The Bluetones came together in Hounslow, West London, in 1993, though most of them had already done time together in a band called the Bottlegarden. Mark Morriss sings, his younger brother Scott plays bass, Adam Devlin handles guitar and Eds Chesters drums, with Richard Payne adding keyboards as a full member from 1998 to 2002 and sticking around as a regular collaborator after that.
They arrived on A&M in the thick of Britpop with the Bluetones Companion EP and "Bluetonic" in 1995, then Expecting to Fly in 1996, home of "Slight Return". It's jangly, sun-dappled guitar pop with a lazy swing to it, Morriss crooning with a wry half-smile over Devlin's chiming lines, a gentler, wittier cousin to the swagger going on around them. The hits kept coming, a long string of UK top 40 singles and three top 10 albums.
When the Britpop boom faded, so did the sales, but the Bluetones never quit. They kept touring and recording, and in May 2026 they released Atlas, almost sixteen years after A New Athens in 2010.
Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.
Songs by The Bluetones on radio countdowns
| # | Song | Strength | Lists | Best | #1s | Peak year |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Slight Return | 2 | #21 | – | 1995 | |
| 2 | Bluetonic | 2 | #15 | – | 1995 |
Albums with charting songs
Where each song was first released, from MusicBrainz.
Every countdown appearance
| Year | # | Song | Countdown |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 24 | Slight Return | Absolute Radio 100 Ultimate Britpop Anthems |
| 2025 | 93 | Bluetonic | Absolute Radio 100 Ultimate Britpop Anthems |
| 1995 | 15 | Bluetonic | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1995 |
| 1995 | 21 | Slight Return | John Peel's Festive Fifty of 1995 |
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