Supergrass were formed in 1993 by Gaz Coombes, Mick Quinn and Danny Goffey, and they released their debut single, "Caught by the Fuzz", in October 1994 on the small independent local label Backbeat Records. Success of the single brought a major label record deal. I Should Coco was recorded in Cornwall and produced by Sam Williams, who had been impressed by the band while scouting in Oxford. At the height of the Britpop era, the album became the band's most successful release when it reached number one on the UK Albums Chart,[2] and subsequently gained platinum status, selling over a million copies worldwide and 500,000 in the UK.[3] The most successful single released from I Should Coco is "Alright", which peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart,[2] and gained platinum status.[4]
Recording and production
Supergrass formed in 1993 after the break-up of The Jennifers and consists of Gaz Coombes (lead vocals), Danny Goffey (drums), Mick Quinn (bass), and Rob Coombes (keyboards). Gaz Coombes, Goffey, and Quinn had been playing gigs around Oxford when they were spotted by producer Sam Williams, who said he wanted to work with them. Between the months of May and August, the band recorded a six track demo at Sawmills Studio and, having signed a deal with Backbeat Records, a limited number of copies of "Caught by the Fuzz" and "Mansize Rooster" were released. The demo had also quickly reached EMI, however, and that led to the group being signed by the Parlophone label, which would re-release the two songs. Quinn said "it took about three and a half months total recording time and cost less to make than the video for Alright."[5]
A recording made at Carfax Tower in Oxford provided the bell chimes heard at the end of "Strange Ones".[6] These chimes were only heard on the I Should Coco version, not on Supergrass Is 10, because on the I Should Coco album the chimes are used as a transition to the next track, "Sitting Up Straight", which was not included in Supergrass Is 10. "Strange Ones" was written about Cowley Road, Oxford,[7] a place where the band once lived. It was originally intended to be the "throwaway song" on the B-side to "Caught by the Fuzz". Another song on the album with the same theme, "I'd Like To Know", was inspired by listening to "Strange Ones" played backwards on tape cassette. Supergrass took this sound, wrote new lyrics for it, and had another song for their album.[8] Gaz Coombes says, "One of the highlights of this album was recording 'Sofa (Of My Lethargy)'.... I remember everybody got in the live room and had an instrument, including Sam [Williams] on bass, a friend of his on Hammond organ and we played the rest, all live, one take.... We made I Should Coco so fast because we wanted to catch the energy and excitement of the songs on tape, and do it before the money ran out!"[9] In a 2005 interview with BBC Radio London Quinn remembered "writing that song ['Time'] in my living room on a rainy day and Gaz sort of turned up with this chord sequence and we just went straight through it and just did it on 4 track".[10]
Cover art and title
The album title is Cockney rhyming slang for "I should think so".[1] The front cover of the album is a painting based on three separate photos of Coombes, Goffey, and Quinn. The portraits of Coombes and Goffey were taken by Quinn in the summer of 1994 when he was experimenting with a macro lens.[11] The photo of Quinn was taken that same year by a friend, while they were on tour in Wolverhampton. The painting was then created by the Moody Painters who were based on Oxford's Cowley Road. The white band at the top was inspired by an old Donovan record that Quinn owned and is an homage to old 1950s and 1960s records, with the stereo-mono signs. The photo on the back of the album was taken at a club in London about five minutes after they came off stage. The photo consists of two separate shots grafted together because Quinn was "pulling a disgusting face in the original".[11] All of these elements were then put together by Nick Bax of The Designers Republic to create the finished sleeve.[11] The Bonus 7" featured a more kaleidoscope-style front cover, based on an original 1960's Parlophone paper 'company sleeve'.
The group's primary musical influences came from bands such as Buzzcocks, The Jam, Madness and The Kinks.[12] Supergrass took this contemporary music and mixed it with pop punk's characteristic fast, three-chord, guitar-based, catchy tunes to produce a sound uniquely their own; "we were just the three of us in my bedroom or someone's house, just making... we played really hard and just made loads of noise. Most of our early songs were just three chord grooves and stuff that was fun to play. So that's why the first album sounded so 'punky', I think... it's just 'cause we were all used to playing in this small room and it being really loud, so we just made the album sound like that."[13][14]Songs for Beginners by Graham Nash was another possible influence on I Should Coco. Gaz Coombes told The Guardian in 2003, "We used to listen to it a lot when we lived in Cowley Road in Oxford in 1994, just when the band were getting big."[15]
The musical styles and their particular inspirations for the songs on this album were extremely diverse. For example, there is the cheerful, fast, keyboard-augmented "I'd Like to Know", the guitar-driven punk narrative "Caught by the Fuzz", the mainly piano-based rhythm of the teen anthem "Alright", and the country music-influenced acoustic guitar in "Time to Go". Even in the varied genre of Britpop, I Should Coco was seen as eclectic. Overall, the album has been described as Britpop, influenced in equal parts by Buzzcocks and The Kinks, with strong hints of Supertramp in "She's So Loose", "Lose It" and the intro of "Strange Ones".[16]
In a 1995 interview with Metro, Mick Quinn said, "We listen to a lot of different kinds of music. We're not a '60s-revival band! We like things from the '70s and beyond as well; everything from Sly and the Family Stone and Motown to Frank Black and Tricky."[17]
"Strange Ones" and "I'd Like to Know" are both songs about the strange people on Cowley Road, Oxford. Mick Quinn tried to describe the concept: "There's a few people who are just really out there. There's a lot of people around Oxford who are real spliffheads and that, who go and lie down in Port Meadow, but I'm not really sure about them. I'm not really sure that they're individuals: they're part of a much larger thing." Danny Goffey added, "They're the sort of people who don't fit in anywhere, who don't link up with everyday life at all."[8]
"Caught by the Fuzz" was based on a real-life event: Gaz Coombes's arrest and caution for possession of cannabis aged fifteen.[18][19] In a 2004 interview, Coombes said "It wasn't trying to be a real statement, but at the time we knew that it was a big deal. Kids all around England were getting nicked for having a bit of hash on them. In Oxford that kind of thing happened quite a lot. It's all true so it was easy to write. It was a funny experience – not too funny at the time 'cause I was only 15 and shitting myself. The song has that disturbing energy. It's comparable to your heart racing. The adrenaline rush you get when your mum walks into the police station is similar to the energy of the song."[20]
"Mansize Rooster" is said to be about a young boy with a large penis, although this is not obvious from the lyrics.[21] Gaz Coombes once stated in an interview that "the most embarrassing moment in pop is on our album where it goes: 'Oi Mum! Got any mandies?'"[22] This was one of the many exclamations made between tracks on I Should Coco in the sped-up voices of the band members. It was said before the song "We're Not Supposed To" began.
I Should Coco reached number one on the UK Albums Chart,[2] stayed there for three weeks,[32] and still remains the only number-one album Supergrass has ever achieved.[33] It sold 500,000 copies domestically, earning Platinum status in the UK, and has sold over a million copies worldwide.[34]NME writer Steve Sutherland gave the album a nine-out-of-ten rating. He wrote, "They play with the skill and assurance of a band who've been going for decades yet they still burn off the buzz of being new to the game." He added, "There's nothing contrived about I Should Coco, nothing added for effect."[28]
Culturally, the album's glorification of teenage freedom made a very big impact on the overall Britpop music scene. The whole genre was seen as the voice of youth, but Supergrass, still teens themselves when the album was made, addressed the subject with more insight than most. The most well-known song from the album, "Alright", is still played regularly in Britain and Ireland, and held up as a musical example of teenage rebellion. Though it is one of their most popular songs, the band rarely play "Alright" in their live sets any more. In a 1999 interview, Gaz Coombes joked, "We don't play 'Alright' anymore. We should play it in a minor key, and in the past tense."[35] Around the time of its release Coombes said that "it wasn't written as an anthem. It isn't supposed to be a rally cry for our generation. The stuff about 'We are young/We run green...' isn't about being 19 but really 13 or 14 and just discovering girls and drinking. It's meant to be light-hearted and a bit of a laugh, not at all a rebellious call to arms." Danny Goffey noted, "It certainly wasn't written in a very summery vibe. It was written in a cottage where the heating had packed up and we were trying to build fires to keep warm."[21]
All five singles released in the UK from I Should Coco were well received by the British public. The first single from the album, "Caught by the Fuzz", peaked at number 43 on the UK Singles Chart.[33] The second single from the album, "Mansize Rooster", was played as Supergrass's first live television performance on The Word in 1995, and reached number 20 on the UK Singles Chart.[33] "Lose It", officially the third single taken from the album, was a vinyl-only US release from Sub Pop records.[36] "Lenny" was the fourth single from I Should Coco; it reached number 10 on the UK Singles Chart, and remained there for four weeks.[33] The final release from the album, "Alright/Time", proved to be their breakthrough single, largely due to the popularity of the song "Alright". Supergrass's highest ranked single to date, along with "Richard III", "Alright" reached number 2 on the UK Singles Chart,[33] remained in the top three for a month, and still receives airplay in the UK.[37]I Should Coco was nominated for Best Album at the 1995 Mercury Prize awards, and the single "Alright" from the album won an Ivor Novello Award for Best Contemporary Song.[38][39]
In a 2005 interview with The Times, Coombes said, "It's insane that people think we would ever sound like that again... We're proud of 'Alright' and how well it did, but we never wanted to find a formula and stick to it. Our aim was always to progress and keep the music interesting, for us and for the fans. So the people who see us in the street and still shout 'We are young' may not like the new album, but fans who have grown up with us and know to expect change probably will."[40]
Supergrass are an English rock band formed in 1993 in Oxford. For the majority of the band's tenure, the line-up consisted of brothers Gaz and Rob Coombes (keyboards), Mick Quinn and Danny Goffey. Originally a three-piece, the band was officially joined by Rob Coombes in 2002.
In It for the Money is the second studio album by English alternative rock band Supergrass, released in 1997. NME called it "more fun than watching a wombat in a washing machine" and named it the 10th best album of the year. In 1998, Q readers voted it the 68th greatest album of all time, while in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 57 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.
Supergrass is the third album by the English alternative rock band Supergrass. It was released in the UK on 20 September 1999 and reached #3. It is often referred to as "the X-ray album", due to the picture on the sleeve. In Australia a free CD was included with some live tracks. In 2022, the album was remastered and reissued as a 2CD deluxe edition, which includes new remixes of several of the songs created by John Leckie and John Cornfield among other bonus tracks.
Life on Other Planets is the fourth album by English alternative rock band Supergrass. It is the first album that includes Rob Coombes as an official member of the band, and originally went under the working title of Get Lost. The American edition of the album included many bonus tracks and rare live editions. One of these live editions became infamous when it was discovered you can hear a gunshot in the background of the song. It peaked at #9 in the UK charts.
Supergrass Is 10 is a compilation album celebrating the first 10 years of the band Supergrass. It includes singles from their first release, "Caught by the Fuzz" (1994), to their then latest release, "Kiss of Life" (2004).
Gareth Michael "Gaz" Coombes is an English musician, best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band Supergrass. He first entered the music scene aged 14 as the lead singer of the band The Jennifers which featured Supergrass bandmate Danny Goffey.
Daniel Robert Goffey is an English musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known as the drummer and backing vocalist for Supergrass. He briefly toured with Babyshambles in 2010, following their drummer's departure.
Road to Rouen is the fifth studio album by English rock band Supergrass. The album was released in the UK on 15 August 2005 by Parlophone, and in the US on 27 September 2005 by Capitol Records. The title refers to the city in northern France where the album was recorded, as well as the 1978 album Road to Ruin by punk rock band Ramones.
"Pumping on Your Stereo" is a song by Supergrass, released as their first single from their self-titled third album (1999) on 24 May 1999. The single reached No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart and in New Zealand. It also peaked at No. 13 on the Canadian RPM Top 30 Rock Report in May 2000. In October 2011, NME placed it at No. 124 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".
"Alright" is a song by British alternative rock band Supergrass. It was released with "Time" as a double A-side single from their debut album, I Should Coco (1995), on 3 July 1995 by Parlophone. It was concurrently released on the soundtrack of the 1995 movie Clueless, which helped it become a big hit for the band. "Alright" peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, number six in Iceland, number eight in Ireland, number 30 in France and number 96 in Australia. The music video for the song was directed by Dom and Nic and filmed in North Wales.
"Caught by the Fuzz" is the debut single of Britpop band Supergrass.
"Mansize Rooster" is a song by English rock band Supergrass, released as the second single from their debut album, I Should Coco (1995). It reached number 20 on the UK Singles Chart, remaining on the chart for three weeks.
"Going Out" is the first single from English rock band Supergrass's second studio album, In It for the Money (1997). It was released on 26 February 1996, more than a year before the album, and reached five on the UK Singles Chart and number 20 on the Irish Singles Chart. The song was apparently originally written in the key of E because the engine of Supergrass' tour bus would tick at that same musical pitch.
"Richard III" is a song by English rock band Supergrass. It was the second single released from the band's second album, In It for the Money (1997), after "Going Out", which was released over a year before. "Richard III" was released in March 1997 and reached number two on the UK Singles Chart on 6 April, their highest placing since "Alright" / "Time" in 1995, which also peaked at number two. The song also reached number 21 in Iceland and number 30 in Ireland.
The discography of Supergrass, an English alternative rock band, consists of six studio albums, three extended plays, two compilation albums, 26 singles and 24 music videos. They were formed in 1993 by Gaz Coombes, Mick Quinn and Danny Goffey. Rising to prominence during the Britpop era in the mid-1990s with their single "Alright", they were joined by Rob Coombes in 2002 (keyboards) until their demise on 11 June 2010.
Diamond Hoo Ha is the sixth and final studio album by British alternative rock band Supergrass, released in the UK on 24 March 2008, and offers a return to punchier Supergrass songs, in comparison to the more mellow Road to Rouen, their previous album released in 2005. Several songs appearing on the album were performed at Guilfest 2007. In November 2007, the track "Diamond Hoo Ha Man"—one of the songs debuted at Guilfest—was distributed as the first single on a limited vinyl release, restricted to 1500 copies. "Bad Blood" followed as the second single on 17 March 2008, peaking in the top 75 at number 73.
"Diamond Hoo Ha Man" is a song by British rock band Supergrass. The single was first played live at Guilfest 2007 in Guildford, England, and this live version was then released as a free download via the band's website. It is the first official single from the band's sixth album, Diamond Hoo Ha, and was released on 14 January 2008 as a vinyl-only single, limited to 1,500 copies, thus limiting its chances of charting, which it failed to do. An instrumental version of the song was recorded by Biff Hyman for the Duke Diamond and Friends: Glange Fever Motion Picture Soundtrack.
"Bad Blood" is the second single from British rock group Supergrass' sixth album, Diamond Hoo Ha. It was released on 17 March 2008, which was one week before the album's release date. The song is about a rough night out in Reykjavík, Iceland, as Gaz Coombes explains;
Mick Quinn is an English musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known as founding member of English rock band Supergrass. He is a permanent member of fellow Oxford band Swervedriver.
Live on Other Planets is a double live album by Supergrass. Released on 27 November 2020, it consists of songs recorded during the band's reunion tour from earlier that year. Its title is a play on the band's fourth studio album, Life on Other Planets.
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