Still Flying. (Mark Morriss Concert Review.)
"So... you're the people who couldn't get Stone Roses tickets."
Last night, while Ian Brown swaggered to 70,000 fans in Manchester that, "yeah, as you see we still got it", another Britpop frontman took more of a self-deprecating approach. Mark Morriss's opener, 'Keep The Home Fires Burning', set the tone for the evening with its first lines: "Can I stay at your house? I'll sleep on the floor." This was an intimate gig at Leeds's Northern Monkey, before a crowd a thousandth of the size of the one at Heaton Park, and according to Mark, if he doesn't sing these songs, "no one else will." Which wasn't exactly true - by the time 'Bluetonic' rolled up, four songs in, the night had become a full-on singalong around the bloke with the guitar. Despite some "wooly" sound problems, Morriss marched on because he's "a professional". Some, possibly unkindly, inferred that this was a not-so-subtle indictment on the sound engineer - by contrast - being an amateur. To be fair to all, Morriss almost didn't even need the amplifier or microphone except to drown out the latest episode of Have I Got News For You (until he convinced the bar staff to switch off the television) and the always-unfathomable members of the audience who would rather buy tickets or pay a cover charge to talk loudly to each other, infuriating performers and punters alike (instead of... I don't know... talking to each other somewhere else for free?) Oh, and the guy who shouted "'Slack Jaw'!" after every song. Morriss counselled him to be patient.
As we approached the middle of the set, Mark announced another "new one. I have high hopes for this one." (It was in fact Barbara Streisand's 'Woman In Love', which The Bluetones had originally recorded as a b-side to 'After Hours'.) After 'The Day That Never Was', Mark told "'Slack Jaw'!" guy that every time he shouts that, the chances of it being played diminished (but the singer did inevitably acquiesce). It became a potential request-fest at this point, although Morriss claimed that he couldn't play 'Autophilia (or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love My Car)' because "Every time he writes a new amazing song another amazing song leaves his head." He did give 'A Parting Gesture' a grand attempt, but after forgetting the exact chord progression it mutated into another singalong, this time of K.C. and the Sunshine Band's 'Give It Up'. After an amusing reggae 'Ziggy Stardust', it was time for Mark Morriss's signature song. Just as Judy Garland "sang 'Over The Rainbow' 40,000 times", 'Slight Return' is his 'Over The Rainbow' (Morriss meant this in the most pessimistic way possible, although he promised not to think of crossword answers while he mechanically went through the motions.) After a brief "Vegas" crooner version of the track, he sang The Bluetones' only Number Two hit (kept from the top spot by... sigh... 'Spaceman' by Babylon Zoo.)
The planned encores had included a cover of The Shins' 'Pink Bullets' and 'The Fountainhead', but instead we had another 'request' - the appropriate 'Carry Me Home'. After one final 'Sleazy Bed Track' (possibly creating new Bluetones fans through its use as Scott and Ramona Flowers's makeout song in Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World) it was time to call it a night.
Despite his cynicism, Morriss created a truly crowd-pleasing gig (at least for the first few rows of the crowd that actually wanted to be pleased). Unlike some other Britpop frontmen's tedious solo shows of only 'new' material, the man knows how to put a set together. This was a night of a couple of new solo tracks, a couple of old solo tracks, a few covers and nearly a dozen Bluetones songs spanning fifteen years. Appropriately, I was originally introduced to the wonder of The Bluetones in the nineties by a friend of my sisters, who put a single Discman headphone in my ear and said "Listen to this* - they sound like The Stone Roses."
I've heard Ian Brown sing - Mark Morriss sounds better. And, in the end, he promised to relearn 'Autophilia' for next time.
I'll be there.
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Approximate setlist:
Keep The Home Fires Burning
A New Athens
It's Hard To Be Good All The Time
Bluetonic
So It Goes
Marblehead Johnson
Woman In Love
The Day That Never Was
Alcoholiday
Low Company
Slack Jaw
Ziggy Stardust
Slight Return
I'm Sick
A Parting Gesture/Give It Up
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Carry Me Home
Sleazy Bed Track
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*(It was 'Are You Blue or Are You Blind?')
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