Supergrass are a band that have always, despite attempts to the contrary, tried to define classification.
Of all the young British hopefuls that came roaring across the Atlantic in the mid-1990s, one group stood out not only for its instantly memorable tunes but also for its unusually cheerful sense of bravado. Like others before them, Supergrass arrived here in the fall of '95 with an album, I Should Coco, that had already topped the UK chart and taken markets in Europe and Japan by storm. Unlike the others, there was no arrogant,take-it-or-leave-it attitude about Supergrass, just a tremendous, old-fashioned urge to play their music and put a smile on people's faces.
The lively, unpretentious video for "Alright", which won a healthy amount of plays on MTV, stood in sharp contrast to the moody, monochromatic Alternative Nation norm. Unlike the overwhelmingly angst-driven American bands, here were three kids who had their musical chops down as well as anyone, but were nevertheless happy to be teen pop idols. Universally greeted as a breath of fresh air, they did more than lay the foundations of a promising career.
Although Supergrass was not convened until February 1993, the origins of the group go back to the days when Danny and Gaz put together a four-piece called The Jennifers while both were at Wheatley Park Comprehensive School in Oxford (Mick was also a pupil there, but had departed some years before).
"I remember driving back from London at about 2am with a van load of people and suddenly thinking I'd have to try and do some homework before I got to bed," Danny recalls.
The Jennifers signed to Nude Records (at about the same time as Suede) but only released one single, "Just Got Back Today", before things came to a natural conclusion. Soon afterwards Gaz met Mick when they were both working in a local branch of the Harvester restaurant chain. Together with Danny they auditioned various guitarists with a view to forming another four-piece, but soon realised that their chemistry as a trio was too strong to tamper with.
Their first audience was a herd of cows in the field adjacent to Mick's house. Apparently, the music-loving cattle used to gather outside the window while the group wrote and rehearsed there. "I wonder where those cows are now," Gaz muses, nostalgically. "Probably moved on to another group, if they haven't been incinerated because of the BSE scare," Danny says.After the cows came the A&R herd."It was ridiculously easy to get a deal," Danny recalls nonchalantly. "We recorded six tracks in a week down at Sawmills Studio [in Cornwall], sent the tape off to a few people, and by the time we played our last pub gig at the Jericho Tavern in Oxford, the place was just full of record company suits."
Their British debut single was "Caught By The Fuzz", a song referring to a Jennifers-era incident when the then 15-year-old Gaz was arrested for possession of cannibis and hauled off to the local police station to be given a caution. The track had initially been released in the summer of 1994 by bedroom label, Backbeat, which pressed a mere 250 copies, and was then included on an EP featuring various teenage bands, released by Fierce Panda. Parlophone released it in October 1994, whereupon both NME and Melody Maker declared it "Single of the Week", and it duly became the group's first UK hit.
In the space of a year, a sensational succession of UK hits ensued: "Mansize Rooster" (No.20), "Lenny" (No.10), "Alright" (No.2) and "Going Out" (No.5, and also featured on the new album). Meanwhile, a non-stop round of tours and festival appearances - notably at Glastonbury and T In The Park - honed the band's sound and sealed their reputation as one of the country's premier live attractions. As well as America, they have played to audiences in Europe, Japan, Brazil and Australia, where they recently played the Big Day Out tour.
