Feel Good Festival: The Bluetones Rock Rochdale

The Bluetones - Feel Good Festival 2009

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The Bluetones rolled back the years as they rocked Rochdale.

Thousands flocked to Town Hall Square to see one of the nineties eponymous Britpop indie bands back together to headline the main stage at the Feel Good Festival.

Mark Morriss (vocals), Adam Devlin (guitar), Scott Morriss (bass guitar), Ed Chesters (drums) and Richard Payne (keyboard) have had a year off touring but were back in style with a superb performance belting out hits such as 'If' and 'Solomon bites the worm'.

There can be no doubt that even after more than a decade The Bluetones still have what it takes to hold an audience, Morriss’ trademark anachronistic reedy style vocals sounding as unique as ever, the ‘Tones’ captivated old and new fans alike.

It is safe to say on last night’s performance that The Bluetones remain enigmatic, hugely talented and yet vastly under-rated, lyrically and musically more than a match for their more illustrious Britpop cousins - an appreciative Rochdale crowd went away suitably impressed having danced and sung their way through an hour long set and still screaming for more despite the torrential rain that finally hit Rochdale seconds after the Tones encore.

Speaking exclusively to Rochdale Online after the gig, sheltering in their tour van from the downpour, guitarist Adam Devlin said he was staggered at the reception the band got: “It is the first time we’ve played Rochdale, which is strange really given we have played every other town in the North-West over the years, but the audience made it worth the wait, they were awesome and helped us to really enjoy ourselves”, he said. Drummer Ed Chesters added: “We’ve had a break from gigging, we’ve all been really busy with other things, but it’s been great tonight, really good to be back on stage together. We are currently writing and recording for what we hope will be a new album and later in the year we are having a tour of the North-East. But thank you Rochdale and thank you Rochdale Council, tonight was excellent.”

Backing The Bluetones on the main stage were three other excellent bands with a wide and varied range of musical styles.

First up was Manchester based The Travelling Band, hot off their two gigs at Glastonbury and impressing seasoned festival goers such as Suzy Woods who said: “The Travelling Band were very good, I loved their music.” Their tight harmonies and chirpy guitar sound deftly weaved with beautifully crafted lyrics belies their appearance and certainly took an appreciative Rochdale crowd by surprise.

Next on stage was Bristol band Babel for a session that can best be described as ‘folk with attitude’! Again the Rochdale crowd were treated to seriously good musicianship with a series of terrific songs that were full of musical twists; the violin of Emily Travis intriguingly juxtaposed with the guitars of Coughlan, Brown and Bird.

Without doubt a band to watch, Wave Machines took the stage and by the end of the first song it was obvious those predicting an apocalypse for electro-pop haven’t reckoned with this Merseyside outfit. Music brimmed full of experimentation with plenty of hooks for the audience to grab hold of and a falsetto vocal style that could have jarred but worked to create an enticing sound from the ‘interestingly’ masked wave making machine!

Musical organiser for the Feel Good Festival, London based, but Norden born, promoter Howard Monk said: “I am delighted, people have clearly enjoyed themselves and had a really good time and the standard of music has been terrific. Hopefully we can do more of this in Rochdale and make it a live music venue that draws people from all over.”

Final word must go to a Bluetones fan, Belfast born Cathy McFadden said: “What a great line-up there has been on stage tonight, I love the Bluetones and they were as good as I’ve seen them. The other bands were really good too.

"I’ve had such a good time, what a great festival. I have never been to Rochdale before but I can tell you now I LOVE ROCHDALE.

"Now can you tell me what time the last bus is and give me a lift to the bus station please?!”