Physical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
Mark Morriss, vocals
We’re still three pieces: Adam Devlin, my brother Scott and me. We hadn’t met the Eds Chesters, so we didn’t have a drummer. We were spending a lot of time writing songs, trying to develop this west coast, mid-60s, Crosby, Stills & Nash sound – even though it was the 90s and we were from Hounslow in London.
Little Back was the fourth or fifth song we wrote. Scott wrote the basics and designs, but had no words or music. He would record a guitar in a cassette player, and then play it back on a second cassette player so he could record himself playing what he had just recorded, in the classic four-track style. We loved it, but we weren’t jumping in the room saying, “Oh my God, we’re going to be millionaires.” This came later.
It went well at our first shows. It was captivating and memorable. We recorded the demo and sold it on 7-inch blue vinyl at our gigs. When we signed to A&M, they wanted it to be one, but we felt like it would make a little difference to our fans, which were about 200 people, who had already bought it. We needed to speak clearly to the author, who said: “We hear it played on the radio.” But they wanted us to change the name of the song because Little Back is not in the lyrics. Part of the title refers to the last line of the song: “I’ll come home but only for a little while.” It’s kind of a side tribute to Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Child (A Little Way Back). When we gave in and let them loose as one, lo and behold, it was gone.
We were at the airport flying to the press center when our boss got a message on his page saying: “Call the phone.” Slight Return had entered the midweek charts at No 2. I couldn’t believe it until we got to the hotel and got confirmation that it was being sold by car. I remember performing on Top of the Pops, when Radiohead did Street Spirit (Fade Out). Listening to Thom Yorke’s voice was inspiring. I thought: “We have to get to this level.”
I love playing it but I’m getting tired of repeating it. If we practice, we will play triple speed or like reggae or funk. When you sing live, the audience loves it. And if you’re doing something the audience is digging, what more do you want?
Adam Devlin, guitar
We lived together in a house in Hounslow without working. Mark and Scott were in Madchester’s baggy group Bottle Garden. I was in a scuzzier indie band called A Perfect Mess. When we formed the Bluetones, we both switched roles – Mark from guitarist to vocalist, and me from rhythm guitarist to lead. Eds was a drummer in the trip-hop group Soho and had performed Hippychick on Top of the Pops, but was disappointed because he mainly used drum machines and sequencers. So he joined the Bluetones instead.
We thought we could write great music, so we made music that would take us to the London area. I remember Scott bringing up the quick, easy method of Slight Return. I repaired the guitar parts and installed the guitar myself. Mark wrote the vocals, and we added the coda – the ending instrument, which was originally sampled by Tom Courtenay in Billy Liar, which was very ’60s.
We had very different ideas from the record label and thought I Can’t Be Trusted should have been a single. At the time I was living in a house in Wimbledon that didn’t have a washing machine. I was in the laundry room when our boss called and said: “You are number 2.” I don’t think we were ready for that. I have my brothers and my younger brothers, who were still 13 and 15 years old in school. The friends asked: “Is this really your brother?”
Recently I was at a farmers market when one of the vendors said, “You were in the band that sang Where Did You Go?” I said, “Yes, but that’s not what it’s called.” People get confused because Little Back is not really in the lyrics.
We’ve been playing for 30 years. One time we got tired of it, we didn’t play it at all, which was wrong because people thought we rode it ourselves. We learned our lesson: it’s the music everyone wants to hear.
