INDIE heroes The Bluetones have announced they will tour again – four years after breaking up.

The eight-date tour this autumn will include Portsmouth Pyramids on September 23.

The band, who were a huge part of the Brit Pop era, were always an engaging and dynamic live outfit.

Fronted by the enigmatic Mark Morriss, they had an impressive run of hit singles that included ’Bluetonic’, ‘Slight Return’, ‘Marblehead Johnson’, ‘Solomon Bites The Worm’, ‘If’ and ‘Keep the Fires Burning’. Their live shows brought the West London four-piece an army of devoted followers worldwide.

The band’s members – Mark Morriss on vocals, Adam Devlin on guitar, Scott Morriss on bass guitar, and Eds Chesters on drums – scored 13 Top 40 singles and three Top 10 albums in the UK charts.

Glastonbury, Top Of The Pops, The Bluetones did the lot and toured with everyone from Radiohead to Bruce Hornsby & The Range. Finally, after playing more than 10,000 shows in more than 73 countries, they’re back for more.

Mark Morris told The Daily Echo:”Four years ago we drew a line under it – but it was only a pencil line!

“We are not back making a new album...but then I said this would definitely not happen!

“A new album has not been discussed so I don’t see it as being on the agenda – we just want to hang out! It’s our 20th anniversary and you only get one of those.

"You would imagine there would be more life in it because we were together so long in the first place. We will see: four years is a long time.

"It’s not the same as it was four years ago. All four of us have rebuilt our lives. For the first 20 years we’d done nothing else but be in The Bluetones – it was our entire life, but now we are having to make space for it.”

Asked why the band broke up he points to corruption in the music business.

“It wasn’t a case of musical ‘similarities’ but our baby was getting kicked round a bit: some criminal activity was going on with our funding: we were robbed and were embezzled out of money by our previous manager.

"He was our manager from 1994 – 2006 and he robbed us of hundreds of thousands of pounds – not just a few grand; we are talking a house each.

"He declared himself bankrupt so it was a clean slate for him. We didn’t realise the situation until we got an email the day before we were due to go on tour to America, Japan and Australia.

"No flights or hotels had been paid for and we had to cancel the tour.”

It was September 29, 2006. We kept it together; we felt we had to but in a weird way it was a long slow bleed out from there and I don’t think you get over it: trust was dropped. You need a certain trust in the music business but it had gone – though we did five more years and stuck out an album.”

Mark will release his third solo album in July.

The Bluetones will play their most popular songs at Portsmouth Pyramids on September 23. Tickets: call 0844 576 3000