Beautiful people: (from l-r) Mick Quinn, Gaz Coombes, Rob Coombes and Danny Goffey
Supergrass’ cartoon logo was one of the classic images of the 90s, immediately marking out the trio’s distinctive looks and personalities: spiky-haired pixieish frontman Gaz Coombes, long-haired wildman drummer Danny Goffey and elder statesman bassist Mick Quinn. Gaz’s older brother, laidback hippy keyboardist Rob, was seamlessly incorporated into the imagery when he joined officially for fourthalbum Life On Other Planets in 2002.
That they thrived together for six albums is testament to honing each other’s skills and individualism while keeping a heads-down work ethic. Supergrass are too open and approachable to be called “insular” but, well, there’s a reason their new boxset and accompanying Best Of are called The Strange Ones. It’s an otherness that Gaz feels is the band’s most potent quality. “I’m really proud of what we achieved and, more than anything, how we achieved it,” he says, explaining the reasons why they’re back, 10 years after their final show in 2010. “We kept our own identity. That’s hard to do. It’s hard not to fall into the trap of becoming generic. When pop gets big, it unfortunately usually means it sounds like something else, because there’s a template and a formula. When something brand new comes along, it usually gets watered down, but I’m proud that we approached our albums always as a reaction to the music we’d just made.”