THE BLUETONES Christmas Show - Afternoon Matinee + Evening show

THE BLUETONES Christmas Show - Afternoon Matinee + Evening show

The Bluetones frontman Mark Morriss and his partner in crime Adam Devlin are taking their 'Bluetones Acoustic' show back to Barnoldswick and will be making a 'Slight Return' in December 2025

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" Add to that Mark's unique voice, the requisite melodies and soaring guitars and you could also make reference to several classic West Coast USA artists and beyond." “ Louder Than War

The Bluetones Acoustic show is two members of Brit Pop legends The Bluetones, for special acoustic performances of the band's classics.

Mark Morriss and Adam Devlin have spent the best part of 3 decades honing their craft as a live performers, with 6 Bluetones albums under their belts including 14 Top 40 singles.

This line up has recently completed a near sold out tour of the UK, with a follow up later this year already in the pipeline, before Mark & Adam take it to Ireland and Scandinavia next year.

You will enjoy music interspersed with the banter and story-telling of two musicians who have been working together successfully for over 30 years.

as brilliant as always, great music and as always very engaging with the audience. Mark still has a great voice, and both him and Adam are very good guitarists. Brilliant night!" “ Audience member review, The Old Fire Station, Carlisle

Recent live review

Talking of the 'Tones, they sauntered on to some very jaunty swinging music from the '60s and quickly launched into a couple of classic tunes. This made me worried that they were not a band for between-tunes banter but frontman Mark Morriss quickly assuaged my fears. He was a witty and engaging frontman with a deadpan delivery that pointed to a possible secondary career in stand-up comedy (presented as evidence his routine about Nestle Pure Life bottles and the torque required to open them).

Physically they may not be in the first flush of youth, they seemed to have Nigel Planer playing guitar and Morriss is gradually transmogrifying into Mark E Smith (physically, if not vocally) because I guess nature abhors a vacuum.

Despite this they bust out the songs with the vim and vigour of a band half their age.

In the interest of balance I should also say who the Bluetones sound like. They sound like the Bluetones, of course.

They very much have their own distinct sound that they have fully perfected, although right at the end they make an unexpected swerve into the territory of odd funk-rock band Primus for a short experimental piece.

For reasons best known to them they had printed the setlists in German which gave us a chance to practise our modern language skills through the gig. As we sang along to such classics as 'Blautonisch', 'Marmorkopf Johnson' and 'Schneiden Sie einen Teppich ab' ('Bluetonic', 'Marblehead Johnson' and 'Cut Some Rug' respectively) we were reminded of why we loved these songs in the first place and what is more we fell in love with them all over again.

It wasn't all nostalgia, though. With 'Drive Thru' they played what they claimed to be the first new Bluetones song in 14 years and it was great. It really lifted everyone, both band and crowd, and gave a little nitrous boost to what was already a high-energy night. They had apparently constructed the playlist to be devoid of ballads as they were in the mood to play fast and loud, and it really showed.

Morriss pre-announced the encore, which did take some of the suspense out of it, but then they came back on to play a bizarre semi-improvised theme tune in the style of 'Are you Being Served' so I forgive them.

If I have one criticism, it is that they leaned a bit too heavily on their admittedly fantastic first album whilst barely touching the follow-up, 'Return to the Last Chance Saloon', which is one of my top five all time favourite albums.

They made up for it, however, with a thrilling finale of the song 'If…' from that album, even getting the audience to sing along in German to complete the Teutonic feel of the evening. This sent the audience out into the evening with a buzz on and capped a thoroughly entertaining night. Possibly as we are quite early on in the tour everything felt very fresh and vibrant, which is amazing considering some of the songs are over 30 years old(!). If the Bluetones are happy to keep playing them, though, I am happy to keep listening to them and based on tonight's performance I'll be coming back for the next 30 years.