Mark Morriss, vocals
We were still a three piece: Adam Devlin, my brother Scott and myself. We hadn’t met Eds Chesters yet, so we didn’t have a drummer. We were spending a lot of time writing songs, trying to hone this west coast, mid-60s, Crosby, Stills & Nash sound – even though it was the 90s and we were from Hounslow in London.
Slight Return was the fourth or fifth song we wrote. Scott wrote the chord progressions and structure, but didn’t have any words or melody. He recorded guitar into a cassette player, then played that back on a second cassette player so he could record himself playing along to what he’d just recorded, in a very rudimentary way of four-tracking. We liked it, but we weren’t skipping around the room going: “My God, we’re going to be millionaires.” That came later.
It went down well at our early shows. It was catchy and memorable. We recorded a demo version and sold it on blue 7-inch vinyl at our gigs. When we got signed to A&M, they were keen for it to be a single, but we felt like it would be short-changing our fanbase, which was about 200 people, who had already bought it. We had to be talked around by the label, who said: “We can hear it being played on the radio.” But they wanted us to change the song’s name because Slight Return isn’t actually in the lyrics. The title in part refers to the last line of the song: “I’m coming home but just for a short while.” It’s also a kind of sideways tribute to Jimi Hendrix’s Voodoo Child (Slight Return). When we finally succumbed and let them release it as a single, lo and behold, it went ballistic.
We were at an airport flying to a press junket when our manager got a message on his pager saying: “Call the label.” Slight Return had gone into the midweek charts at No 2. I didn’t believe it until we got to the hotel and got the confirmation that it was selling by the truckload. 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 need to get to this level.”
I love playing it but I’m bored of rehearsing it. If we do rehearse it, we’ll play it at three times the speed or in a reggae or funk style. As soon as you play it live, the audience loves it. And if you’re doing something the audience is digging, what more do you want?
Adam Devlin, guitar
We were living together in a house in Hounslow pretty much unemployed. Mark and Scott were in this baggy Madchester band the Bottle Garden. I was in this scuzzier indie band called A Perfect Mess. When we formed the Bluetones, we all shifted over a position – Mark from guitarist to singer, and me from rhythm guitar to lead. Eds had been the drummer in the trip-hop band Soho and had performed Hippychick on Top of the Pops, but was frustrated because they mainly used drum machines and sequencers. So he joined the Bluetones instead.
We thought we could write half-decent songs, so we cobbled together a set that would get us on the London circuit. I remember Scott bringing in a faster, simpler version of Slight Return. I fleshed out the guitar parts and put in a guitar solo. Mark worked out the vocal melodies, and we added a coda – the instrumental that fades out at the end, which originally had a sample from Tom Courtenay in Billy Liar, which was all very 60s.
We had very different ideas from the record label and thought Can’t Be Trusted should have been the single. By then, I was living in another shared house in Wimbledon that didn’t have a washing machine. I was in the launderette when our manager phoned and said: “You’ve gone in at No 2.” I don’t think we were ready for it being so successful. I have younger half-brothers and siblings, who were still 13 and 15 at school. Their friends would ask: “Is this really your brother?”
I was at a farmers’ market recently when one of the stallholders said: “You were in that band who sang Where Did You Go?” I said: “Yes, but that’s not what it’s called.” People get confused because Slight Return isn’t actually in the lyrics.
We’ve been playing it for 30 years. One tour, we’d got so bored with it, we didn’t even play it, which was a mistake because people thought we’d gone up our own arses. We learned our lesson: it’s the song everyone wants to hear.
