Mark Morriss

Mark James Morriss (born 18 October 1971) is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He is the frontman and lead singer of the indie rock band the Bluetones. The older brother of bandmate/illustrator Scott Morriss,^[1] he began a solo career in 2006,^[2] fronted the backing group the Mummys,^[3] worked with Matt Berry's band the Maypoles and sung lead vocals for the Helicopter of the Holy Ghost project.^[4][5]

Since 2008, Morriss has been playing solo shows across the UK while not touring with the Bluetones.^[3] Following the band's temporary split in 2011,^[6] he continued these shows and expanded his solo discography.^[7] In 2023, he started touring acoustic shows with the Bluetones guitarist Adam Devlin, playing their songs.

Morriss was born in Chiswick, West London, although grew up in Hounslow, West London.^[8] His mother was a huge fan of music and named Morriss' younger brother Scott after Scott Walker.^[9] She worked behind the bar at Shepperton Studios.^[9]

From a young age, Morriss showed a strong interest in football, considering Kenny Dalglish to be his hero,^[9] supporting Liverpool.^[10] Being the captain for his school football team for five years, he had trials for Crystal Palace at age 10. He stopped playing five years later, as he felt it was becoming too competitive.^[11]

Following an injury from a tree accident, Morriss was unable to play football in his free time and decided to spend more time in his school's music department, and ended up getting guitar lessons outside of school. In this time, he befriended some of the founding members of the Bottlegarden, a group from 1989 that Morriss was involved with until its disbandment in 1993, with its lasting members rebranding as the Bluetones.^[11]

En la época en que cursaba sus estudios preuniversitarios, la madre de Morriss se mudaba a un pequeño pueblo de Cornualles porque iba a casarse, ya que el padre de Morriss se había marchado de casa en 1983. Como tenía problemas con su padrastro, ^{[ 12 ]} se mudó con la familia de su exnovia, y Scott, que estaba en medio de sus exámenes de secundaria, se mudó a la casa de sus abuelos, que estaba en la misma finca. Una de las primeras canciones escritas por los Bluetones, "The Fountainhead", trataba sobre el deseo de Morriss de no decepcionar a su abuelo, a quien veía como una figura paterna. ^{[ 13 ] [ 14 ]}

Morriss asistió a la Cranford Community School y al West Thames College , donde abandonó los estudios. Dejó la escuela con seis GCSE y tres A-levels en inglés, arte y estudios teatrales. ^{[ 15 ]}

Mark Morriss lanzó su álbum debut en solitario Memory Muscle en mayo de 2008 con críticas elogiosas. ^{[ 16 ]} Un disco con tintes folk , incluía cinco temas regrabados que habían sido lanzados previamente bajo el nombre de Fi-Lo Beddow, un nombre reformulado del protagonista de la película de acción y comedia estadounidense Every Which Way but Loose (1978), Philo Beddoe, ^{[ 17 ]} como un EP autoeditado en febrero de 2006. Las cuerdas del disco fueron arregladas por el compositor de cine David Arnold , quien se convirtió en fan del álbum debut de los Bluetones Expecting to Fly (1996) mientras componía la banda sonora de la película de acción y ciencia ficción Independence Day , que se estrenó el mismo año. ^{[ 18 ]}

En 2014, Morriss lanzó su segundo álbum en solitario, A Flash of Darkness, a través de Acid Jazz Records . ^{[ 19 ]} A este le siguió otro lanzamiento de Acid Jazz en 2015, The Taste of Mark Morriss , ^{[ 20 ]} un álbum de versiones. Morriss también ha grabado la música de los temas de todos los audiolibros infantiles escritos por David Walliams , todos publicados por HarperCollins . ^{[ 21 ]} Morriss se convirtió en miembro de la banda en vivo de Matt Berry , los Maypoles, y regularmente realiza giras por el Reino Unido con este grupo como guitarrista rítmico y corista . ^{[ 22 ]}

In 2021, Morriss appeared as the vocalist for Billy Reeves' the Helicopter of the Holy Ghost project, on their only album Afters.^[23] Morriss joined former theaudience member Reeves on the album, which was co-produced by Richard Archer of Hard-Fi, with the album also featuring members of Cocteau Twins, Engineers and Gazpacho.^[24][5][25]

In 2021, Morriss, Nigel Clarke of Dodgy and Chris Helme of the Seahorses formed a short-lived supergroup together entitled MCH, their combined surname initials (Morriss, Clarke, Helme). They wrote songs together, trying to capture a "broad, poppy sound".^[26][27]

In November 2021, allegations of emotional and physical abuse against Morriss were made by his ex-wife, Anna Wharton.^[28] Morriss disputed the claims, telling The Guardian: "I may have been thoughtless and selfish in some of the dealings in my personal life of late, but these allegations of abuse and gaslighting are wholly untrue, and I refute them completely."^[28] Following these allegations, Morriss was dropped from The Big Britpop Family Party in London,^[29] dismissed from The Helicopter of the Holy Ghost and MCH's ending coincided with this.

On 2 March 2022, Morriss issued a statement on his website in response to his ex-wife's allegations made against him.^[30]

Albums

• Memory Muscle (2008)
• A Flash of Darkness (2014) (originally a Pledge campaign album, but reissued through the Acid Jazz label)
• The Taste of Mark Morriss (2015)
• Look Up (2019) (originally a Pledge campaign album, but reissued on vinyl in 2019 through the Reckless Yes label)

EPs

• The Fi-Lo Beddow EP (2006)

Singles

• "I'm Sick" (2008)
• "Lay Low" (2008) (download-only)
• "This Is the Lie (And That's the Truth)" (2014)
• "Space Cadet" (2014)
• "Lucretia (My Reflection)" (2015)
• "All the Wrong People" (2019)
• "The Beans" (2019)

• Sitio web oficial