Whisper it, but those “ridiculously fresh-faced” young chaps The Bluetones aren’t so young any more…
Three of them are pushing 40, while guitarist Adam Devlin has actually breached the big 4-0! But with age comes experience and Adam had just finished a session to improve his fitness levels as the band prepare for their most gruelling tour for half a decade when we caught up with him.
“I’m sitting outside the local swimming pool I’ve been trying to get myself in shape for the tour,” Adam says. “It’s been a while since we went out on such a long tour and I’m not so young as I used to be!
“But it’s a bit of a trick anyway because we’re all incredibly fresh-faced. The core of our fanbase has grown older too, though. The majority of our fans came to see us from the beginning and have always bought our records, although there are quite a few younger fans, too. They must have been about six years old when we started out.”
Despite the advancing years, Adam says the band have never spoken about splitting up or retiring gracefully.Tempers”No, not seriously. There have probably been times when all of us individually have kind of thought about leaving or going and doing other things, but not collectively. Apart from being mates, we never argue about anything and we get on really well when we’re working. There might be the odd time in the studio when tempers can get a bit fraught, but nothing serious.
“It’s the same on tour. There will always be times when somebody gets on your nerves but again it’s never serious. Mind you, we’re about to go out on tour for two months I’d better not speak too soon or it might go horrendously wrong,” he laughed.
Four years on from their last, eponymous album, Adam says there was one simple reason it’s taken so long to bring out their next, new record.
“Me, Mark and Scott all became dads within a year or so of each other,” he said. “My little boy is two-and-a-half now the other two’s kids are one-and-a-half so everything stopped. Before that we were writing and demoing stuff but all that had to end for about a year-and-a-half.
“We did the odd gig here and there but it was a real shock to the system. I think I can say the same for the other guys as well, that’s why this album ended up on the back burner.”
Now though, the guys are back with A New Athens, which Adam describes as their most consistent record for some time.
“It’s very poppy bouncy and poppy,” he said, adding, “for no apparent reason. We didn’t set out to make the record sound like this. Sometimes in the past when we did want it to go down a particular road, it didn’t work as well as it could.Consistent”I think it’s very consistent. The last two or three albums I don’t think were so consistent. They are very bouncy songs and we’ve thrown quite a lot at them. I really enjoyed recoding them it was a really easy album to make. Musically it’s not much departed from the bulk of our previous stuff, it’s a very recognisable Bluetones record, although it has a continuity about it.”
The tour starts on Saturday at Edinburgh’s Bongo Club, followed on Sunday at Moshulu in Aberdeen.
The Bluetones then come to The Doghouse in Dundee on Monday night for what should be a top-notch night of new material mixed with the bulk of their classic hits of the 90s.
“I’m glad the tour starts in Scotland,” Adam says. “We have quite a good rapport with our Scottish audiences. Back in the 90s we came to Scotland quite a lot in our formative years and that’s served us quite well. But that’s not unique to us bands generally say the further north you go the better it gets. So it’s good to start the tour with a bang.”
Advance tickets for The Doghouse are £13 (subject to booking fee) from www.ticketmaster.co.uk hotline 0844 277 0700 or from Groucho’s.
Doors open at 7pm.