Music

We are in upscale Chinese restaurant Hakkasan. Supergrass are, topically, recounting the story of a time, ‘a year or so ago’, when they were (they think) the sixth British band to play in China.

‘It was strange driving from the airport,’ says singer Gaz Coombes. ‘Driving into this industrial revolution, this mentalness. Because of the Olympics, everything was being built, there were cranes everywhere, and you couldn’t see the sun. Because it was so hazy and smoggy, you couldn’t tell if it was the sun or the moon.’

Although the band received a warm welcome, the strangeness didn’t end with the colour of the sky.
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‘They did have to vet all the lyrics,’ Danny Goffey says, ‘and during the gig the first ten rows were all saved for soldiers and officials.’

This show was part of the band’s last major tour, after which they were forced into semi-retirement by bassist Mick Quinn’s well-publicised accident. Having fallen out of a window and broken his back while sleepwalking, Mick wasn’t really able to contribute to the band. Or do much else, really.

‘You lie on your back,’ says Mick. ‘Listen to a lot of music. Do a lot of sudoku. That’s pretty much it. I was also on high levels of morphine.’

Using the adapt-and-survive mentality that serves Madagascan wildlife so well, Gaz and drummer Danny used this as an opportunity to reconnect with their roots, man. And so, with a new album written, recorded and ready to go, the band contracted out promotion of first single ‘Diamond Hoo Ha Man’ to Evel Knievel-jumpsuited Berliners Randy Hooha and Duke Diamond, aka The Diamond Hoo Ha Men. Eagle-eyed fans may have noticed that these so-called Hoo Ha Men bore a strong resemblance to Supergrass. It was, of course, them all along, and these garage rock-fuelled gigs rightly won the Hoo Has a lot of attention.

‘It was forms of the songs on this album [‘Diamond Hoo Ha’] that we bastardised slightly and made big riffs out of,’ says Gaz. ‘We made them a lot less complicated. But that whole thing was really about lifting everyone up, watching clubs full of 18-year-olds and just getting a vibe going.’

The reinvigorated twosome impressed with a raw energy that had been lacking in recent Supergrass shows, before retiring the pretend band after the album’s launch. ‘Yeah,’ Gaz drawls, ‘Randy’s developed a really severe ulcer. And an ingrowing toenail. It’s heavy stuff.’

Indeed, Supergrass’s defining quality is the ability to take their music seriously, to be adventurous with their songs, without taking themselves seriously as ‘artists’. Apart from making them eminently likeable, it means they’ve been able to take inspiration from unusual sources – whether it’s the drug bust documented in ‘Caught By The Fuzz’ or a karaoke tea party.

Which brings us to the reason for us being in Hakkasan. The ’Grass were slated to release ‘Whiskey and Green Tea’ as a single, although they seem to have changed their mind and put out ‘Bad Blood’ instead, but it’s a bit late for us to do anything about that now. So we’re skirting around pots of the titular beverage. The staff recommend we try jasmine tea rather than the green variety with our whiskey, in order to make the experience less unpleasant, but whichever way you prepare the drink, it’s a challenging combination. As a cultural mainstay of tarting up booze, however, it’s as common in China as putting Coke in red wine is in France (ie surprisingly common). And hey, you know what they say: when in China, don’t complain. Anyway, it’s not so much the drink that’s important as the backstory that inspired ‘Whiskey and Green Tea’.

Following their Beijing show, the band popped out of their hotel for some sightseeing. It was then that things took a turn for the strange. As they were leaving, they bumped into ’80s hair metal singer Sebastian Bach.

‘Yeah!’ says Gaz. ‘We saw him walk out of the hotel, this massive bloke with hairsprayed hair, and he took us under his wing. His hairy wing.

'He was like, “YEAH GUYS! YOU WANNA COME OUT TO THE KARAOKE?” – he talks like he sings.’

‘Yeah,’ says Danny, ‘like, “HEY GUYS! DO YOU WANNA CUP OF TEA? YEAH!” ’

‘So we went out and got really pissed,’ continues Gaz, ‘and I did a duet with him of “Come Together”.’

‘And then we woke up in the Forbidden City,’ recalls Danny. ‘It was really odd. The karaoke bar we went to was this massive corridor all lit up with mirrors; it was really plush. And in the karaoke booth itself, we went and sat down and they sent in this procession of girls, and you had to pick some and they sat down with you. If you don’t like any, they go “ayiyiyi” and send them all out, and then another lot come in. On my life, we didn’t pick any of these girls.’

‘There were girls sitting around,’ says Mick, ‘and we were playing dice games and gradually getting more and more hammered.’

‘I was really, really, really legless,’ says Gaz. ‘And then we ran into this bloke in the next bar that we went to, in the toilet, and he bashed into my nose or I headbutted him or something, and I woke up the next morning with this bashed nose. It was a fun evening.’

And not the sort of thing you would expect to happen to Snow Patrol. When, after the runaway success of ‘Alright’, the predicted mega-fame didn’t materialise, it was often viewed from the outside as a tragic missed opportunity. But it cut them loose from the Britpop pack and, like the Super Furry Animals, they were free to make albums for themselves and a loyal audience.

‘Yeah,’ smiles Gaz, ‘Although we’d probably sacrifice a few of them for a few million others. I’m just joking! No, we’re happy with the way things are. But we’ve got ambition, we’d all feel more than comfortable…’

‘Being HUGE!’ finishes Danny.

‘Playing the big 20,000-seater stadiums…’ says Gaz.

‘Yeah,’ says Danny. ‘Just let everyone know that it’s fine. If they wanna worship us, we’ll be able to handle it.’

Supergrass play the Astoria on Apr 22 & 23.