0n the drums. Mr Dominic Greensmith; bass and crowd surfing,1ack Bessant; Gary 'T he Growl' Stringer and Kenwyn House. He plays the guitar
OK, so REEF drop their pants in public and talk about copping off, but there is more to these lads than your average rock 'n' roll band. This lot have, um, feelings. Story: Jonathan Trew
coming back brighter
10 NEW 21 Feb—6 Mar 1997
GARY STRINGER and Jack Bessant, respectively the singer and bassist of Reef. are looking distinctly bored. Bessant’s skateboard is by his side and he looks like he’d rather be surfing the street than filling the sofa. lt’s midday and already they’ve done a fistful of interviews and an afternoon packed with promotional duties stretches before them. Repeated dumb-ass questions (Do you take drugs? Do you get a lot of groupies?) and a touch of the morning-after-the-night-before blues have dulled the sparkle in their eyes. They field questions politely enough with just a hint of defensiveness. The occasional burst of enthusiasm shines through but it’s obvious that doing interviews is not their favourite activity. Fair enough.
Cut to a few hours later. Reef are in their element. lt’s four o’clock in the afternoon and 1200 people have packed themselves into HMV on Glasgow’s Argyle Street. The band are here to do an in-store performance to mark the release of their second album Glow. A knee- trembling mixture of full-blooded blues, primal riffs and gospel-drenched howling is causing