Supergrass

Oxford

Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey went to Wheatley Park School just outside Oxford and played together in the Jennifers, who released one single in 1992 and split that autumn. Coombes then got to know Mick Quinn while working at a Harvester restaurant. In February 1993 the three formed a band called Theodore Supergrass, and Quinn said they dropped the first word after about two months. Coombes's brother Rob played flute at their first gig, at the Co-Op Hall in Oxford, and sat in on keyboards for a John Peel session in January 1995.

The producer Sam Williams first saw the trio standing on an Oxford pavement in 1993 and later offered to record them. They spent five days at Sawmills Studio in Cornwall and cut six songs, among them Caught by the Fuzz and Mansize Rooster. Williams played the tapes to Radiohead's managers, and the band signed to Parlophone.

I Should Coco

The debut single appeared in 1994 on Backbeat, and John Peel placed it at number five in his Festive 50 that year. I Should Coco followed on 15 May 1995. It reached number one on the UK chart, stayed there three weeks, and sold 500,000 copies in Britain. It remains the only Supergrass number one, and was Parlophone's best-selling debut album since the Beatles' Please Please Me. It was nominated for the 1995 Mercury Prize.

Alright, released that July as a double A-side with Time, reached number two, appeared on the soundtrack of the film Clueless and won an Ivor Novello Award. Coombes said it was not written as an anthem, and Quinn later called it a creative millstone. Steven Spielberg thought the band would suit a Monkees-style television series. They turned him down.

Second and third albums

In It for the Money (1997) reached number two. Only two songs were written before the band entered Sawmills, so the rest took shape in the studio, and Rob Coombes is credited as a writer on all twelve. The singles included Richard III, which also hit number two, and Sun Hits the Sky, which reached ten. NME named it its tenth best album of the year.

The self-titled Supergrass arrived in September 1999 and reached number three, led by Pumping on Your Stereo. Tony Hoffer produced Life on Other Planets (2002), the first album to list Rob Coombes as a full member. It reached number nine.

Rouen, Berlin and the split

For Road to Rouen (2005) the band left Sawmills for Studio St. Mard, a converted barn near Rouen, and made a record that used strings and horns arranged by Simon Hale. It also reached number nine. Diamond Hoo Ha (2008) was cut at Hansa Tonstudio in Berlin with Nick Launay and went back to a punchier sound. It peaked at nineteen, their lowest chart placing.

Parlophone was taken over in 2008 and the band left the label. They signed to Cooking Vinyl in August 2009 and started a seventh album, Release the Drones, which remains unfinished. On 12 April 2010 they announced a split, citing musical and creative differences, and played their last show at La Cigale in Paris on 11 June.

Reunion

Supergrass came back in 2019 at the Pilton Party and went on to a tour that ended with two sold-out nights at Alexandra Palace in London on 7 March 2020. They told The Times they were not working on new material. The live album Live on Other Planets came out on 27 November 2020 and raised money for the #SaveOurVenues campaign. A set at the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert at Wembley on 3 September 2022 was named by Coombes as the final reunion show, and a 2025 UK tour was announced to play I Should Coco in full.