National Youth Orchestra of Scotland The NYOS perform work by Elgar. Shostakovich and Glinka on the first date of this European tour. See panel, page 4 7. Fri 5 Aug, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall.
Acoustic Ladyland A triumph on Later with Jools Holland followed by the Best Band award at the BBC Jazz Awards — it‘s all happening for this exhilarating jazz-rock-punk quartet. See paid. page 43. Barfly, Glasgow, Sat 6 Aug.
Supergrass The kids are still alright. if a little older and mellower these days. This acoustic gig will combine stripped down oldies with material from their latest effort. Road to Rouen. See preview, right. Oran Mor, Glasgow, Tue 9 Aug.
The Beauty Shop I ovely lo~fi Americana from this Glasgow—signed lllinors band. whose beautiful. unpredictable songs trawl the depths of despondency. See Five Reasons. page 45 . Live on the lawn, Musselburgh, Fri 5 Aug; King Tut ’3, Glasgow. Sun 7 Aug.
Piping Live! Rechristened and in its second year, this Glasgow festival serves up piping hot, world class mu5ic on bagpipes from the Czech Republic. Brittany, Ireland. GaliCIa. Sardinia and even Scotland, played by the old guard and contemporary young hooligans. See pend. page 45. Various venues. Glasgow, Mon 8—-Sun 14 Aug.
Morning Runner Having just played to tens of thousands as Coldplay's tour support. Tut's intimate surrounds should prove something of a doddle for these hotly tipped indie kids. See panel, page 41. King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, Sat 6 Aug.
38 THE LIST (1 it Am; 7005)
‘WE LIKED THE CHALLENGE OF TRYING TO SIMPLIFY THE SONGS'
Growing strong
Nostalgia is all very well. But, Danny Goffey tells Malcolm Jack, SUPERGRASS are not ready to be put to pasture yet.
ou love Supergrass. They‘re probably not your favourite band. They 'rc probably not even your
second. or your third. But. somewhere deep in
your subconscious. there‘s an indelible tinderbox of nostalgia waiting to be sparked every time you hear the perfect pop piano plink of the first seconds of ‘Alright‘. lntrinsically linked to the mental image of
drunkenly flailing around a dance floor at some cack indie disco in 1995. it's like a covert Adidas trackie- topped sleeper cell in the back of the mind. One that refuses to believe Britpop ever really ceased to be.
And after ten years and four platinum albums. unlike most of their mid—90s contemporaries. Supergrass are still defiantly alive and kicking. ready to head out on an acoustic tour in support of new album Road In Rotten. It would have been easy to believe that another new release wouldn‘t have been forthcoming from the Oxford four piece after last year‘s best of compilation. But its tellingly unyielding title. .S'iipergruss' is 72'". was evidence enough of their intention not to let it appear a signal of inertia. As drummer Danny (ioffey explains. book ending their career to date. for sake of both posterity and progress. was the idea. rather than a farewell.
‘It was more just an attempt to get that last ten years of our life down.‘ he says. ‘Make sure that everything we‘d worked on over the last decade was all there. basically to capture it and seal it off a bit . . . before anything weird happened.‘ he adds. rather ominously. Is that to suggest that some kind of obscure directional foray is on the cards'.’ ‘Well. no. But there were a few people in the band who were talking about
wanting to get away from the kind of pop side of things. Not just keep bashing out more of the same kind of records as we had done before.’
Road In Roi/en is the result a stripped down effort by their tisual standards. reyealing a much more measured. and even delicate side to the hand than any of their pieyioiis | l’s. Perfect stuff for an acoustic tour then. although. as Danny reveals. other factors lit)’ ill the heart (if the decision to take 21 lil'sl foray into unplugged performance.
‘We were just looking for a new way to make touring a hit different.‘ he says. ‘\\'e didn‘t really want to go back and play the same yenues‘. and use exactly the same set up as we've always done. And we liked the challenge of trying to simplify the songs seeing if they‘ll still stand tip. It's probably one of the hardest tours we‘ve done for ages. actually. It‘s just meant to be fun for its to keep things slightly different.’
And does he hope their new lease of life might be a final nail in the coffin for their tag as ‘great Bi'itpop survivors"? ‘I would have thought we‘d already shaken that one. actually. We never really thought of ourselves as a Bi'itpop band anyway. We always fell slightly on the outside of that scene. although we did hang out with some of the hands attached to it. We certainly weren't involved in the fashion side of it at least. ‘cos we wore stupid woolly jumpers and had big sidebtirns' Which is probably why you fell for them in the first place.
Oran Mor, Glasgow, Tue 9 Aug.