claims the aforementioned lntemet gig ‘was the most sought-after site on the network that’s ever occurred. Telecom phoned up and said everything was jammed.’ The idea of concerts going out over the lntemet — it’s a bit like Independence Day on a black and white portable, isn’t it? ‘I find it a bit sad to think you’ve got some bloke with glasses watching Supergrass on the lntemet — sorry, that was a bit prejudiced against people with glasses.’
‘Yeah but if you get your willy out on stage and it’s seen around the globe — that’s quite interesting,’ says Micky to an unconvinced Gaz. ‘Our Internet site was good for about a month before the gig when we were updating it daily and we took a camera on tour with us. It was Vladivar Vodka who sponsored us and then they decided it was their site and so it hasn’t really changed in three months. It’s a bit of a hassle, like trying to keep a diary, but I think it’s really good for the fans because they get to see how boring it is to sit on a bus all day, though they don’t have to smell the same socks every day.’
In the three fallow lntemet months, Supergrass have been otherwise occupied with writing and recording their next album, described by those who have heard work in progress as ‘I Should Coco to the power of ten’.
‘I get the same buzz off it as I did taking 1 Should Coco home for the first time to give it a listen,‘ says Gaz. ‘The difference is that songs that were two-and-a-half minutes long on I Should Coco are now four minutes. There’s a lot of things you could talk about but basically the music has taken over as it always does.’
Beyond that, it’s difficult for the band to throw any perspective on their recordings or offer any sneak preview descriptions.
‘lt’s not even called anything yet. It’s just called The Album.’
‘lt’s not even called that. It’s called Some Songs’
‘We should call it Box Of Tapes.’
‘Going Out’, the single released earlier this year, is all keen Supergrass watchers have to go on. The laid back, jamming feel and Beatley brass arrangements offered little in the way of continuity and lovers of the short, sharp, frenetic post-punk stormers of the first album paused for a rethink of the ‘definitive’ Supergrass sound and image, engendered by last year’s smash hit ‘Alright’ — power-pop delivered with a grin and a wink by these three chirpy cheeky chimps without a care in the world.
‘Sometimes we are chirpy, otherwise we wouldn’t have written “Alright” in the first place.’ says Micky.
“People didn’t actually understand that it was taking the piss,’ says Gaz. ‘They actually thought “hey this is Supergrass, this is how they are”. But we have matured now — by about two months in age.’ .
At least this means Supergrass make an all- round impact, something which cannot be said of most of the anoraked adolescents who have emerged in their wake. The cartoon potential of the three very distinctive-looking members of the band was picked up on as surely as Gaz’s potential as a Calvin Klein model (he said no) and The True Adventures Of Supergrass began appearing in strip form every month in Vox.
‘lt’s something you can’t stop,’ says Gaz. ‘Some of them are quite funny. I saved the world a couple of times with my sideburns and that’s fine by me.’
Potentially the most exciting development from Supergrass’s downright abundance of
SUPERGRASS EXCLUSIVE FEATURE
character is the professional interest in the band displayed by one Steven Spielberg. Tabloid tales of a British Monkees series for the 905 were quickly fabricated and just as quickly denied by the band’s representatives. Gaz and Micky still prefer to talk about the potential for a television series in ‘ifs’ rather than ‘whens’, following meetings with Spielberg whom they hail as ‘a regular guy’.
‘The first thing he said was “I’ve been hearing all this Monkees stuff and that’s the last thing I want to do with you guys”,’ relates Gaz. ‘So we just started looking at different angles — if it were to happen. It wouldn’t be as a band doing a TV programme. It would be three guys who have all these different experiences. The band would probably come in there somewhere
because we’re in a band already and everybody knows that. Weird things could happen, like we‘d walk into a bar and we’d also be playing on stage or something like that.’
‘It would be like Kids From Fame,’ adds Micky, ‘going into a guitar sh0p and starting up a song.’
‘We don’t want to be TV stars,’ says Gaz. ‘lt’s not the point really - it’sjust a different thing to do. As far as credibility goes, it could destroy us but it’s a bridge to other areas. It could save three years touring in America — and we can say we worked with Steven Spielberg.’
With all this on the horizon, the All-New True Adventures Of Supergrass should be well worth keeping up with.
Supergrass are at Irvine Beach on Sat 31 Aug.
‘li you got your willy out on stage and It’s seen around the globe - that’s quite lnterostlng.’
Micky Quinn
The List 23 Aug-5 Sept 1996 71