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The Age
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
‘We didn't slag off other bands': Gaz Coombes on Supergrass' success
There's a pair of boxing gloves hanging from a hook in Gaz Coombes' music studio, which is built inside the double garage of his house in the village of Wheatley, near Oxford. 'They were a gift from some friends,' says Coombes. 'They got me a punching bag too. It's good for when the lyrics aren't coming easily. I can take it out on something.' Does he float like a butterfly and sting like a bee? 'No!' he says, laughing. 'I float like a heavyweight and have no sting whatsoever. But it's fun.' Although he's now 49, with a greying beard, and wearing thick-framed spectacles and a Brooklyn baseball cap, there's something of the impish kid about Coombes. Whenever he talks about his time as a pop star in the '90s, there's still a sense of wonder, as if he's pinching himself. And his memories of childhood and adolescence are things he cherishes. He even lives in the same house where he grew up. 'I moved to Brighton in 1997 and lived there for almost 10 years. Then I had my first child and my mum got sick with cancer, so I came home to be around her. After she died, I just didn't leave. And then my dad wanted to sell the family house, but I couldn't let anyone else have it. So I bought it, and here I am.' It was, he says, a 'very sentimental purchase'. 'I have nothing but good memories of growing up here. I had a very lucky childhood and this house was full of people all the time. It was like a party house where aunts and uncles and friends and relatives would come. It's pretty special.' One of those uncles changed the young Coombes' life when he went away to work in the Bahamas, leaving his record collection in the Coombes family basement. 'I was told not to go near Uncle Pete's records. I was told: 'We need to look after them. They're precious.' So, of course, I would sneak off at any moment just to get down there and play them. And that's where I uncovered most of the greats in music at quite a young age. I was listening to After the Gold Rush by Neil Young and Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols and Patti Smith's Horses when I was 10 or 11. I loved chart stuff from that time in the mid-'80s, like Madonna, but this was like discovering a new language.' At school, he was teased 'for being girly'. Danny Goffey, a boy two years his senior, stepped in to protect him from bullies, and when he told Coombes he played drums, they decided to form a band, which they called The Jennifers. When they were offered a two-single deal with Nude Records, home to Suede, Coombes had to get his mother to sign the contract for him, as he was only 15. 'I remember doing my schoolwork in the back of a Transit van on the way to play a gig in Manchester, to support some punk band called Compulsion,' he says. 'I was playing in a band, but I really had to finish this English assignment.' TAKE 7: THE ANSWERS ACCORDING TO GAZ COOMBES Worst habit? Biscuits. Growing up I watched a lot of Sesame Street, so I blame Cookie Monster. He normalised it. Greatest fear? That there will be no more biscuits. What else? Massive crocodiles. Or being bitten by a poisonous spider in the Australian Outback when I'm miles from anywhere. The line that stayed with you? There was this '60s English band called Fire who had a song called Father's Name Is Dad, and it had the lyric: 'My father's name was dad, my mother's name was mum, how can I take the blame for anything I've done?' I thought that was so irreverent and punky. Biggest regret? I regret never seeing Elliott Smith or Nirvana play live. Favourite book? I love history books. My favourite at the moment is The Faber Book Of Reportage. It's people writing first-hand accounts of history, like a Viking funeral in 922AD, or a private audience with Elizabeth I in 1597. The artwork/song you wish was yours? A version of Tangled Up In Blue by Bob Dylan, but not the one on Blood On The Tracks, which I don't really like because it's too upbeat. It's an alternate acoustic version from 1974 that I've only been able to find on YouTube. If you could time travel, where would you choose to go? London in 1966. Hendrix played his first concert in the UK, The Beatles released Revolver and England won the World Cup. The Jennifers split in 1992 and Coombes needed money. He got a job at his local Harvesters restaurant, which was where he met Mickey Quinn, a bass player and musical kindred spirit. Coombes often speaks of the unique chemistry between himself, Goffey and Quinn, who went on to form Supergrass in 1993. They quickly gelled and co-wrote songs that were fast, clever, catchy and quirky. Their debut album, 1995's I Should Coco, sold a million copies and became the biggest-selling debut album on the Parlophone label since The Beatles' Please Please Me. First single Caught By The Fuzz was about Coombes being busted for hash possession when he was 15. And Alright, which was so bouncy it sounded like they recorded it while jumping on trampolines, was aided by a madcap video filmed at Portmeirion in Wales, the setting for 1960s cult TV show The Prisoner. It was the video that attracted Steven Spielberg. Or rather, his kids. The story goes that they turned him on to Supergrass, and after watching the clip he had an idea – to make a Monkees -style TV show in which they would star. 'We always joke that his kids were kind of like: 'Daddy! We want that band! You need to get that band for us!'' says Coombes. 'So we were invited over to the Amblin offices in Universal Studios just to have a meeting with him. I was sitting there next to Steven Spielberg at this table, and I was a big fan of the Twilight Zone movie he produced, so I remember talking to him a bit about that.' The TV show didn't eventuate. Can he imagine an alternate reality where it did? 'I think it might actually have f---ed us up if we'd done it. None of us wanted a shortcut to fame. We just wanted to make great records.' Although Supergrass are always herded under the '90s Britpop umbrella, 'we didn't live in London, and we didn't slag off any other bands and get into the news that way, or s--- like that. We were just really enjoying the adventure together.' That adventure included touring America in Dolly Parton's former tour bus, and sharing stages with Pearl Jam, Radiohead and Foo Fighters. In fact, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died in 2022, was a huge fan, friend and booster. 'God bless him,' says Coombes. 'He was such a diamond of a guy. A really, really special human being. We miss him. He was also a real nerd about music. I had so many lengthy chats with him about things like Pacific Ocean Blue by Dennis Wilson.' Supergrass went on to make six albums that all entered the UK top 20, but in 2010, when they played rough mixes of their proposed seventh album, Release The Drones, to the record company, they could tell by the looks on their faces that it was over, 'and to tell you the truth, we were tired, we knew the chemistry wasn't there and things weren't firing any more'. Coombes went out on his own and has made four solo albums. The most recent, 2023's Turn The Car Around, received the best reviews and highest chart placing of his solo career. When Goffey suggested getting back together to tour behind the 30th anniversary of I Should Coco, Coombes had to think about it. 'I'm not really into nostalgia,' he says. 'I've very much got into a rhythm where I keep moving forward creatively. But then I thought about it, and this is a really special band and this album is a very special thing that we did. This tour is celebrating that.' As he approaches 50, does he feel like a different person to the teenager who wrote those songs with his two mates in the mid-'90s? 'Not really. I think we all still feel the essence of these mad little songs about our lives. When I play those songs now, I think about us writing them together in the next village, just near where I am right now,' he says. 'So, no, it doesn't feel like a different person. It's still me.'
Sydney Morning Herald
23-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘We didn't slag off other bands': Gaz Coombes on Supergrass' success
There's a pair of boxing gloves hanging from a hook in Gaz Coombes' music studio, which is built inside the double garage of his house in the village of Wheatley, near Oxford. 'They were a gift from some friends,' says Coombes. 'They got me a punching bag too. It's good for when the lyrics aren't coming easily. I can take it out on something.' Does he float like a butterfly and sting like a bee? 'No!' he says, laughing. 'I float like a heavyweight and have no sting whatsoever. But it's fun.' Although he's now 49, with a greying beard, and wearing thick-framed spectacles and a Brooklyn baseball cap, there's something of the impish kid about Coombes. Whenever he talks about his time as a pop star in the '90s, there's still a sense of wonder, as if he's pinching himself. And his memories of childhood and adolescence are things he cherishes. He even lives in the same house where he grew up. 'I moved to Brighton in 1997 and lived there for almost 10 years. Then I had my first child and my mum got sick with cancer, so I came home to be around her. After she died, I just didn't leave. And then my dad wanted to sell the family house, but I couldn't let anyone else have it. So I bought it, and here I am.' It was, he says, a 'very sentimental purchase'. 'I have nothing but good memories of growing up here. I had a very lucky childhood and this house was full of people all the time. It was like a party house where aunts and uncles and friends and relatives would come. It's pretty special.' One of those uncles changed the young Coombes' life when he went away to work in the Bahamas, leaving his record collection in the Coombes family basement. 'I was told not to go near Uncle Pete's records. I was told: 'We need to look after them. They're precious.' So, of course, I would sneak off at any moment just to get down there and play them. And that's where I uncovered most of the greats in music at quite a young age. I was listening to After the Gold Rush by Neil Young and Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's The Sex Pistols and Patti Smith's Horses when I was 10 or 11. I loved chart stuff from that time in the mid-'80s, like Madonna, but this was like discovering a new language.' At school, he was teased 'for being girly'. Danny Goffey, a boy two years his senior, stepped in to protect him from bullies, and when he told Coombes he played drums, they decided to form a band, which they called The Jennifers. When they were offered a two-single deal with Nude Records, home to Suede, Coombes had to get his mother to sign the contract for him, as he was only 15. 'I remember doing my schoolwork in the back of a Transit van on the way to play a gig in Manchester, to support some punk band called Compulsion,' he says. 'I was playing in a band, but I really had to finish this English assignment.' TAKE 7: THE ANSWERS ACCORDING TO GAZ COOMBES Worst habit? Biscuits. Growing up I watched a lot of Sesame Street, so I blame Cookie Monster. He normalised it. Greatest fear? That there will be no more biscuits. What else? Massive crocodiles. Or being bitten by a poisonous spider in the Australian Outback when I'm miles from anywhere. The line that stayed with you? There was this '60s English band called Fire who had a song called Father's Name Is Dad, and it had the lyric: 'My father's name was dad, my mother's name was mum, how can I take the blame for anything I've done?' I thought that was so irreverent and punky. Biggest regret? I regret never seeing Elliott Smith or Nirvana play live. Favourite book? I love history books. My favourite at the moment is The Faber Book Of Reportage. It's people writing first-hand accounts of history, like a Viking funeral in 922AD, or a private audience with Elizabeth I in 1597. The artwork/song you wish was yours? A version of Tangled Up In Blue by Bob Dylan, but not the one on Blood On The Tracks, which I don't really like because it's too upbeat. It's an alternate acoustic version from 1974 that I've only been able to find on YouTube. If you could time travel, where would you choose to go? London in 1966. Hendrix played his first concert in the UK, The Beatles released Revolver and England won the World Cup. The Jennifers split in 1992 and Coombes needed money. He got a job at his local Harvesters restaurant, which was where he met Mickey Quinn, a bass player and musical kindred spirit. Coombes often speaks of the unique chemistry between himself, Goffey and Quinn, who went on to form Supergrass in 1993. They quickly gelled and co-wrote songs that were fast, clever, catchy and quirky. Their debut album, 1995's I Should Coco, sold a million copies and became the biggest-selling debut album on the Parlophone label since The Beatles' Please Please Me. First single Caught By The Fuzz was about Coombes being busted for hash possession when he was 15. And Alright, which was so bouncy it sounded like they recorded it while jumping on trampolines, was aided by a madcap video filmed at Portmeirion in Wales, the setting for 1960s cult TV show The Prisoner. It was the video that attracted Steven Spielberg. Or rather, his kids. The story goes that they turned him on to Supergrass, and after watching the clip he had an idea – to make a Monkees -style TV show in which they would star. 'We always joke that his kids were kind of like: 'Daddy! We want that band! You need to get that band for us!'' says Coombes. 'So we were invited over to the Amblin offices in Universal Studios just to have a meeting with him. I was sitting there next to Steven Spielberg at this table, and I was a big fan of the Twilight Zone movie he produced, so I remember talking to him a bit about that.' The TV show didn't eventuate. Can he imagine an alternate reality where it did? 'I think it might actually have f---ed us up if we'd done it. None of us wanted a shortcut to fame. We just wanted to make great records.' Although Supergrass are always herded under the '90s Britpop umbrella, 'we didn't live in London, and we didn't slag off any other bands and get into the news that way, or s--- like that. We were just really enjoying the adventure together.' That adventure included touring America in Dolly Parton's former tour bus, and sharing stages with Pearl Jam, Radiohead and Foo Fighters. In fact, Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who died in 2022, was a huge fan, friend and booster. 'God bless him,' says Coombes. 'He was such a diamond of a guy. A really, really special human being. We miss him. He was also a real nerd about music. I had so many lengthy chats with him about things like Pacific Ocean Blue by Dennis Wilson.' Supergrass went on to make six albums that all entered the UK top 20, but in 2010, when they played rough mixes of their proposed seventh album, Release The Drones, to the record company, they could tell by the looks on their faces that it was over, 'and to tell you the truth, we were tired, we knew the chemistry wasn't there and things weren't firing any more'. Coombes went out on his own and has made four solo albums. The most recent, 2023's Turn The Car Around, received the best reviews and highest chart placing of his solo career. When Goffey suggested getting back together to tour behind the 30th anniversary of I Should Coco, Coombes had to think about it. 'I'm not really into nostalgia,' he says. 'I've very much got into a rhythm where I keep moving forward creatively. But then I thought about it, and this is a really special band and this album is a very special thing that we did. This tour is celebrating that.' As he approaches 50, does he feel like a different person to the teenager who wrote those songs with his two mates in the mid-'90s? 'Not really. I think we all still feel the essence of these mad little songs about our lives. When I play those songs now, I think about us writing them together in the next village, just near where I am right now,' he says. 'So, no, it doesn't feel like a different person. It's still me.'
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sex Pistols, sans Johnny Rotten, will play 'Never Mind the Bollocks' in Minneapolis
Punk rock royalty is headed to Downtown Minneapolis. The Sex Pistols, or at least a version of the Sex Pistols, are coming to The Fillmore on Oct. 7, the band announced on Friday. It will be the band's first North American tour in 22 years. Though, this won't be a classic lineup reunion. The current formation features three founding members, guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook, and bassist Glen Matlock, who was replaced by Sid Vicious in 1977. Unlike past reunions, singer Johnny Rotten, aka John Lydon, is not part of this tour. Instead, the Sex Pistols will be fronted by 40-year-old singer Frank Carter (Gallows, Pure Love), as they were during recent UK gigs. On this tour, they'll be playing Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols in its entirety, as well as other songs. Lydon has previously expressed his unequivocal disdain for this current incarnation of the band. "I've been shocked how awful it is," he recently told Louder Than War. "It just seems like they've rented a puppet and there it is. It is truly karaoke, I think, with really mediocre results." For Jones' part, he told that he and Lydon haven't spoken since 2008. "I wish him all the best. I really do," Jones said. "We had a great time when we were young, and it was life-changing for all of us. But after the court case with Pistol it wasn't even worth asking John [about the reunion tour]. I don't think he was interested.' Tickets for the show are on sale at 10 a.m. on Friday, April 4. A presale will be held on Wednesday, April 2, with the code "DANCE."
Yahoo
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Sex Pistols — minus Johnny Rotten — book Fillmore Detroit for first show here since 1996
Three-fourths of the original surviving Sex Pistols will play the Fillmore Detroit on Oct. 4, part of a 13-city North American tour celebrating the band's 1977 album. Guitarist Steve Jones, bassist Glen Matlock and drummer Paul Cook will be joined by fellow Brit and 40-year-old punk veteran Frank Carter for the shows, which will feature a performance of 'Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols' in its entirety. The Fillmore stop will be the first Detroit show under the Sex Pistols banner since a 1996 Cobo Arena concert. The current lineup is officially billed as the Sex Pistols featuring Frank Carter. Tickets for the Fillmore Detroit show will go on sale at 10 a.m. April 4, following a presale window next week. Presale registration is open now. The upcoming live run — marking 50 years since the influential punk band's formation — follows a series of U.K. dates last year. The group is also set to tour Australia and Europe. The 2024 shows were largely met with strong reviews. But Rotten, the founding Sex Pistols singer who fell out with the band amid production of a 2022 TV biodrama, has been sharply critical, calling the act 'karaoke" and characterizing it as a cash grab. This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Sex Pistols — minus Johnny Rotten — book first Detroit show since 1996
CBS News
28-03-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Sex Pistols announce first North American tour in 22 years
The Sex Pistols, the legendary English punk band that helped the underground subculture of the genre to reach mainstream heights, is going on its first North American tour in more than 20 years. The Pistols last went on a North American tour in 2003, when they were joined by original vocalist John Lyndon (formerly Rotten) . The 2025 iteration of the Pistols — original guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and bassist Glen Matlock joined by frontman Frank Carter (of Gallows, Pure Love and Frank Carter and the Rattlesnakes) — will hit the road on Sept. 16 at a very memorable stage: The Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas, Texas. It was the site of a particularly hostile show for the band when it first toured the U.S. in 1978. Jones told The Associated Press he recalls having "pigs' hooves and bottles and whatnot slung at us by cowboys." It is one of a few dates featured in three "Live in the U.S.A." albums, documenting the band's '78 run: Atlanta, Dallas and San Francisco. The latter will be released on April 25 and captures the show where the band originally called it quits. "We were thinking of breaking up in San Francisco again," Jones joked. The 2025 tour is currently scheduled to conclude Oct. 16 at the Hollywood Palladium in Los Angeles. The band will hit Washington; Philadelphia; Brooklyn, New York; Montreal; Toronto; Cleveland; Detroit; Minneapolis; Denver; Seattle and San Francisco. Additional tour dates will be announced later. Pre-sale opens April 2 and 3. Tickets go on sale April 4 at 10 a.m. local time. They will perform the band's sole album, 1977's "Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols Album" live in its entirety as well as other material. So, why tour the U.S. and Canada now? "Why not?" Jones said. "I think everybody needs this band right now. I think the world needs this band right now," Carter said. "And I think definitely America is screaming out for a band like the Sex Pistols." "At the end of the day, we're living in a really, really difficult time. So not only do people want to come and just be entertained, they want to enjoy themselves," he continued. "Punk is an energetic music. It's one where you can go and vent and let your hair down, hopefully in a safe manner. Fingers crossed, no bottles or pigs' hooves." Carter fronted the Sex Pistols last year for a few U.K. dates. The band said they did not reach out to Lydon to see if he wanted to participate in this reunion tour. "The last thing he wants to do is have anything to do with us right now," Jones said, referring to a previous lawsuit between the singer and the band over music use in their TV series "Pistol." The judge ruled against Lydon's opposition. "We wish him the best," Jones said. "Good luck to him," Matlock added. "I wish he thinks, maybe, 'good luck' to us. Probably doesn't. But over the years, John (has had) all our phone numbers, and I can't see many missed calls from him." As for the 2025 tour: Fans shouldn't expect the violence of their 1978 run, but they should anticipate a tighter performance. "We're a bit older but we play just as well, if not better," Matlock said. "And I think that's something that's got a great deal of aplomb that we're going to bring to the public over there." Does this mean there could be new Sex Pistols music in the future? "It's early days," Jones said. "Let's see what happens." The band is currently on a world tour taking them to Japan later this month before stops in New Zealand, Australia and across Europe.
