Supergrass believe their music got “more psychedelic” the more weed they consumed.
The Britpop band have reflected on their career as they celebrate 30 years of their chart-topping debut album, 1995’s ‘I Should Coco’, and referring to their psychedelic rock offerings, such as ‘Time’ and ‘Sofa (of My Lethargy)’, frontman Gaz Coombes confessed a lot of cannabis was involved in the recording sessions.
He told The Independent: “The further we got into the studio stash of weed, the more psychedelic we went.”
The ‘Alright’ band knew they’d made it when “about 10 bare-chested blokes” threw beer over their equipment when they opened for Shed Seven in Dundee.
Drummer Danny Goffey recalled: “About 10 bare-chested blokes threw all their beer all over Rob’s keyboard and piled in, and things got smashed.
“That was the point where we realised, f****** hell, people are really into this.”
Supergrass still can’t believe the enduring legacy of the hit single ‘Alright’ from ‘I Should Coco’.
Gaz said: “The chorus is a bit odd. It’s not a big chorus for such a hit… It’s like having your cake and eating it a little bit.
“You get these songs through any decade that people are still playing 30, 40 years later, and every summer it comes out, or it just ends up on some advert here or there. We gave in to it a long time ago.”
The song was featured in the 1995 film ‘Clueless’ and even attracted the attention of Hollywood director Steven Spielberg, who wanted to make a TV series with the band like ‘The Monkees’ ‘60s sitcom, which followed the ‘Daydream Believer’ hitmakers as they tried to make a name for themselves as a rock ‘n roll band.
However, after a surreal meeting with the ‘ET’ director, they decided it was best to focus on making their second album, 1997’s ‘In It for the Money’, which hit number two in the UK.
Danny recounted: “It was like a weird acid trip, we’d grown up watching ET and that stuff.”
Gaz said: “It was an amazing experience to meet him.
“I remember sitting next to him in a meeting and talking about old Twilight Zone episodes.”
He added: “We all just looked at each other after the event and were like ‘we need to make album number two’, and then sort of laughed about the experience and that was that.
“I don’t know how long it would have lasted if we’d have taken that turn.”
Supergrass will mark three decades of ‘I Should Coco’ with a special set at Wilderness Festival on August 2.