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Wales Online
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Wales Online
Supergrass Review: I Should Coco at 30 tour prove '90s legends are as fresh as ever
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info It's hard to believe it's been 30 years since I first heard Alright being blasted out of the car radio in my parents' Ford Escort. A rare instance when I'd convinced them to play Atlantic 252 instead of the regular MoR American rock tapes on our summer trips to west Wales. A tune that booted through the semi-serious posturing of '90s indie and that has endured for the decades since. It's a great song; fun, vibrant, perhaps has the catchiest opening of all time, but it's a song that is just the tip of the iceberg that is Supergrass' effortless back catalogue. Celebrating the 30th anniversary of debut album, I Should Coco, the band were welcomed into Cardiff's Great Hall by a crowd full of old and new fans who were champing at the bit for the record in full, topped off by a setlist of great(est) hits. Mercury-nominated back in 1995,the calibre, and pure nostalgia, this record comes with is insane and hearing it performed live and in full for the first time ever was a real pleasure. Of course there's Alright, Caught By the Fuzz, Mansize Rooster, Strange Ones, regular live songs over the years, the treat came with the airing of rarer live performances of album tracks such as Lose It and Sitting Up Straight. The setlist was topped up with hit after hit, including Moving, Richard III, Late in the Day - three songs that are amongst the best tunes of the '90s and three that also happen to be among my favourite ever. I'm admittedly slightly biased. Best of all, though, is just the easy joy and shorthand passed between band members - Gaz Coombes, Danny Goffey, Mick Quinn and Rob Coombes have that easy familiarity of a band that's been a unit for more than three decades (bar the hiatus and also Rob joined back in 2002). Not only does that enrich their music, but that fun on stage spreads in waves over the audience. While hankering for '90s nostalgia might be the current fashion, Supergrass' timeless songs sound as fresh as ever. From superstar gigs to cosy pubs, find out What's On in Wales by signing up to our newsletter here
Perth Now
13-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Perth Now
Supergrass got 'more psychedelic' the more weed they consumed
Supergrass believe their music got "more psychedelic" the more weed they consumed. The Britpop band have reflected on their career as they celebrate 30 years of their chart-topping debut album, 1995's 'I Should Coco', and referring to their psychedelic rock offerings, such as 'Time' and 'Sofa (of My Lethargy)', frontman Gaz Coombes confessed a lot of cannabis was involved in the recording sessions. He told The Independent: 'The further we got into the studio stash of weed, the more psychedelic we went." The 'Alright' band knew they'd made it when "about 10 bare-chested blokes" threw beer over their equipment when they opened for Shed Seven in Dundee. Drummer Danny Goffey recalled: 'About 10 bare-chested blokes threw all their beer all over Rob's keyboard and piled in, and things got smashed. 'That was the point where we realised, f****** hell, people are really into this.' Supergrass still can't believe the enduring legacy of the hit single 'Alright' from 'I Should Coco'. Gaz said: "The chorus is a bit odd. It's not a big chorus for such a hit… It's like having your cake and eating it a little bit. 'You get these songs through any decade that people are still playing 30, 40 years later, and every summer it comes out, or it just ends up on some advert here or there. We gave in to it a long time ago.' The song was featured in the 1995 film 'Clueless' and even attracted the attention of Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, who wanted to make a TV series with the band like 'The Monkees' '60s sitcom, which followed the 'Daydream Believer' hitmakers as they tried to make a name for themselves as a rock 'n roll band. However, after a surreal meeting with the 'ET' director, they decided it was best to focus on making their second album, 1997's 'In It for the Money', which hit number two in the UK. Danny recounted: 'It was like a weird acid trip, we'd grown up watching ET and that stuff.' Gaz said: 'It was an amazing experience to meet him. 'I remember sitting next to him in a meeting and talking about old Twilight Zone episodes.' He added: 'We all just looked at each other after the event and were like 'we need to make album number two', and then sort of laughed about the experience and that was that. 'I don't know how long it would have lasted if we'd have taken that turn.' Supergrass will mark three decades of 'I Should Coco' with a special set at Wilderness Festival on August 2.
Scotsman
10-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Supergrass, Glasgow review: 'still big kids at heart'
Sign up to our Arts and Culture newsletter, get the latest news and reviews from our specialist arts writers Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to The Scotsman, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... Supergrass, Barowland, Glasgow ★★★★ Anyone who's alarmed and disorientated to hear that Supergrass's debut album I Should Coco – possibly the Britpop era's purest expression of youthful abandon – is now 30 years old can take comfort in the band themselves, freshly reunited to tour the record in full. While there's less of the frantic physical energy of their earliest days, Gaz Coombes, Danny Goffey and Mick Quinn – plus Coombes' keyboard-playing brother Rob, an accomplice since the beginning and a full member since 2002 – are well-preserved middle-aged gents. They don't look or sound out of place revisiting simple, punky songs about being a 15-year-old getting busted for drug possession (Caught By the Fuzz) or about being young and endlessly carefree (Alright, still their signature and joint-biggest hit). Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Supergrass Playing against a backdrop of large prints of their cheeky young airbrushed faces, taken from the album's cover, at this first of two Barrowland nights, the Oxford quartet happily recreated this music with the same volume and energy it had way back when. That's an essential requirement on, for example, the jittery outsider anthem I'd Like to Know, its bristling, sulky, satisfyingly heavy companion piece Strange Ones and the toytown glam of Mansize Rooster. None of these are songs you enter into performing lightly if you aren't a teen or early twentysomething, but Supergrass carried them off with style, as Coombes and Goffey's matey hellos reinforced the sense they remain big kids at heart. Meanwhile, the back end of the album – from the complex, adrenalised Lenny to the swaying groove of Time and chucking-out anthem Time to Go – pointed towards the serious, acclaimed rock of Coombes' solo years.
Times
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Supergrass review — a boisterous encore saved a murky set
Britpop's revival continues apace with Supergrass, the latest act from the era, back on the road. However, at the first of two sold-out shows at Glasgow's Barrowland Ballroom,the once effervescent scamps of the scene failed to find their sparkle. Part of the problem was murky sound that sapped some of the bounce from the songs. Never much of a talker, frontman Gaz Coombes, dressed in a baggy black suit, matching trilby and red trainers, was hard to hear on the few occasions he addressed the audience. Another hitch was Supergrass's decision to celebrate the 30th anniversary of their debut album I Should Coco by playing it in full in sequence. A million seller in the mid-Nineties, the album is frontloaded with its big hits —
Scottish Sun
09-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Scottish Sun
Supergrass roll back years with blistering Barrowlands performance on Glasgow leg of anniversary tour
Read on to find out how the 90s legends fared on the first of two nights Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) It's been 30 years since Supergrass released their debut album. But - to look at the energy of the band and the Glasgow crowd - it doesn't feel like it. Sign up for the Entertainment newsletter Sign up 4 Supergrass' Gaz Coombes enjoying the moment at the Barrowlands Credit: Getty 4 Mick Quinn of Supergrass Credit: Getty Most here in the Barrowlands would rather not think about the passage of time, I'm sure. But thankfully, as the band launches into the first song off the album, one fan steps forward to remind us. "Put your phones away, it was the 1990s", she yells at people videoing the band. Supergrass is touring I Should Coco, where the public first became acquainted with the three lads from Oxford. On the first of two nights in Glasgow, the band rips through I'd Like To Know before going straight into the classic cautionary coming of age track Caught By The Fuzz. For anyone who had a misspent youth falling foul of the police and parents it hits close to home - not for me of course. It's soon time for seminal Britpop classic, Alright, a song which is perhaps bigger than the band itself due to being a staple of indie and rock radio for the past three decades. And frontman Gaz Coombes is obviously acutely aware of this, as he wryly introduces it as "so then, track four" before the familiar piano riff kicks in. Bands playing albums from start to finish can be a different experience. The traditional structure of the live show is replaced with the ebbs and flows of a studio recording. Eagle-eyed Glastonbury fans work out Britpop legends are playing festival after spotting tour date clue It's a hard thing to get right but thankfully the band rise to the challenge. Songs like Mansize Rooster and Strange Ones remind you of the youthful exuberance of the band's early sound that made them such a fixture of the mid-1990s British scene. But the punky edge to many of the tracks is also a reminder that, like so many scenes, they actually sounded quite different to the other acts they were lumped in with. They close this side of the gig with the album closer - jaunty acoustic farewell Kinks-like Time To Go. But luckily for the crowd, Supergrass aren't leaving any time soon and deliver a rip-roaring 'best of the rest' set with indie classics like Richard III, Moving and Grace. The band finish their set with an encore of Sun Hits The Sky and singalong favourite Pumping On Your Stereo. It's another sweaty night in the Barrowlands and I'm definitely feeling my age by the end - but for 90 minutes it feels like the crowd and the band are just the same as ever. 4 Supergrass performed I Should Coco on Credit: Handout
