Supergrass

bassline on it; the whole thing sounded like it was of time. GAZ COOMBES: I remember Mick starting of that middle eight with a bassline change. Then it would have been something we would have just jammed together. I had the chorus melody from the demo and a couple of lyrics f ying around. It was a bit heavier than Coco. We’d been listening to more American music such as the Pixies, and Nirvana’s MTV Unplugged was a big record for us during those sessions. That sound was creeping in a bit, there was less angular, cleaner guitars. We were going a bit more expansive, sonically. DANNY GOFFEY: Def nitely hints of Nirvana. It’s a really heavy rif . I wanted to do more Buzzcocks and Jam-style British stuf , but it seemed like the other two were listening to more American music. I wasn’t sure whether that was exactly the right thing to do at the time – but, you know, it’s a democratic band! ROB COOMBES: We didn’t have a set way of working – it was a songby-song thing. “Richard III” was a bit more organic: let’s just jam it and see what happens. QUINN: We had gone back to Sawmills on our own. [Coco producer]SamWilliamswasgreat but quite hands-on, and we wanted to stretch out more. There was a lot of pressure to recreate what we had done, and we felt we had a few more things to say. The only way we were going to do it was without any external pressure. GAZ COOMBES: Sawmills was a beautiful place to be. Quite idyllic, really. You just felt like you’d lef the planet for a bit and gone somewhere else. We were completely cut of from everything. QUINN: “Richard III” was the f rst backing track we put down on our f rst day there. We were just so blown away with the backing track that it spurred us on. The same as when we did “Alright” as a backing track, it just felt bulletproof. It set the scene for the whole record. We f nished that f rst week with about 10 backing tracks and took the tapesawaywithus.Inthatperiod, we got the phone call from Steven Spielberg. We f ew out to LA two weeks af er that. GAZ COOMBES: Spielberg had said that “Alright” was his kids’ favourite video – and he loved it too. I thought it was a big compliment to everyone, to be spotted by Spielberg. Let’s go and check it out, see what the deal is. NIC GOFFEY: The “Alright” video was deliberately over the top, a bit of a piss-take of Britpop culture, but a lot of the time it was taken as read that they were just silly cheeky chappies. DOM HAWLEY: Spielberg had gone quite far down the line of doing an HBO TV series with the band. We had explained, “They’re not The Monkees, they’re a rock band who do pop songs as well. If they were going to do something it wouldn’t be a sanitised thing.”

MICK QUINN

GAZ COOMBES: It was a mad little visit. I was sat next to him as we were going through our favourite Twilight Zone episodes. It was a bizarre bonding exercise. It was the wrong road for us at that point. We were really focused on the next record. If anything we came back from the States with even more conf dence. QUINN: It was extremely f attering but at the stage we’d just been given the keys to our own car and we felt like we were on a mission to make this record. I remember while we were out there, listening to the “Richard III” backing track and humming that theremin part. We’d got hold of a pocket theremin at the start of the sessions, and I remember thinking, ‘It would be good to mess around with some Beach Boys/Scooby-Doo sounds.’ We all tried to play the melody on the theremin and it was almost entirely impossible. Bits of it were Sam, bits of it were me, bits of it were Gaz. DANNY GOFFEY: We didn’t really know how to get it working. The theremin is a bit like magic. You don’t touch it! It felt fresh. It was fun to try not to sound too derivative to the musicweloved,andadd

Strange ones: the ’Grass in the Netherlands with Prodigy-inspired crops, July 1997

someofourownspiceandpersonality. Weallhadthatincommon. ROBCOOMBES:TheolderIget,the fondermymemoriesareofJohnCornfeld. Hewassocool,thewayhedealtwith everything.Hewassotalentedatgetting goodsounds. QUINN:Wespentalotoftimefailing aroundandjamming,whichisagreat thingbutitcangetfrustrating.“Richard III”alwaysfeelsalittlehalf-fnishedto me.Atinybit. DANNYGOFFEY:Itwasharderwithout aproducer.Itwasfreerbutabitmore taxingintermsofdecisionmaking. Thatwasthefrsttimewhereitbecame: ‘Whoisthestrongestpersonalityto gettheirideasthrough?’Wemightsit aroundnottalkingtoeachotherfor adaybecauseofsomethingthatwas happening.IwaslivinginCamdenand goingthroughthismadthingofsome sortoffame–Iwasabitmoreupforit thantheothers.Sometimestheband wasn’taswelcomingastheycouldhave beentopeople.Iremembermygirlfriend Pearl,nowmywife,gettingsenthome fromasessionwhenshewasfvemonths pregnant.Butthat’sallwaterunderthe bridge.Wewereallfairlyhedonistic. Idoremembertakingawholelotofshit outonmydrumkit,makingitaswildas possiblewithoutlosingtheplot. QUINN:Traditionally,lyricsalwayscame latewithus.Itwasliketryingtorevise foryourexams.No-onewantedtodoit. FACT FILE

Released: March31,1997 Written: Supergrass/ RobCoombes Produced: Supergrasswith JohnCornfield Recorded: Summer/autumn 1996,Sawmills Studios,Golant, Fowey,Cornwall Highestchart positions:UK2; US–Personnel: GazCoombes (guitar,vocals), MickQuinn(bass), DannyGoffey (drums),Rob Coombes (keyboards), SamWilliams (theremin) Wehadsome summershows overtheperiodo makingtherecor andwe’dplaythe Irememberourtourmanager cameupwith,“Ispenttoomuchtime drinkingredwineandwearingvermillion”. Fantasticline!Thelyricscamemuchlater. GAZCOOMBES:Ireallylovethelyrics. ItfeltlikeOxfordatthattime.Notallthe songswerewrittenaboutbeingateenager inourlocaltown,butthatoneforme wasthetrialsandtribulationsofbeing ateenager–wakingupfeelingabitshit butthenattackingtheday.Withalotof thesongs,beforetheyhadlyrics,wewere namingthemlikekids:Susan,David, Gary.ThiswasRichard.Idon’tknow howitbecame“RichardIII”,wewerejust beingabitirreverentandsurreal.There wasnoincredibleacademicmindbehind anyofthis!Butitworked. QUINN:“CharlesII”wasanother.There mighthavebeena“HenryVIII”.Ithink “GetAway”wastheproperworkingtitle. DANNYGOFFEY:Wefnishedrecording latein’96,andwentofanddidtheBig DayOut[inAustralia]withTheProdigy. Itwasamad,madtime.Iremember talkingtoLiam[Howlett]andplaying him“RichardIII”,andhimsayingitwas oneofhisfavouriterifshe’deverheard. Theyweresohardcoreandpunky,I thoughtthatwasalovelycompliment. Iwentintotheirworldslightly.Ishaved my hair into a Mohican. We came back and our management freaked out. For the video, we decided just to cut it of . GAZ COOMBES: The commitment from us in that video I really liked. It’s a really intense performance from the band, really raw and honest. NIC GOFFEY: We were so close to the band, and that couldn’t help but be ref ected in how we dealt with the video. I think the reality of being rock stars had hit them and now they were dealing with it. That song was just full of tensions – tensions between them and the world, almost. HAWLEY: It felt like there was a little bit of an atmosphere going on sometimes thatwecouldtapinto. Everything came sphere of the song, was a bit of darkness

NNY GOFFEY:

ere were some derlying tensions. Nothing strong, but think Nic and Dom picked up on that and pushedthatinthe deo,withsmashing ghts,Mexican ndofsandstuf! COOMBES:“Richard n’tamassivefuck-you –weretainedthat playfu nessallthewaythrough.It wasmoreaboutsayingthatthisisalso whatwedo,andthere’ssomuchmoreto come.ItwasareactiontoCocobutnot arepudiation. DANNYGOFFEY:Thatwasalwaysgoing tobethefrstsinglebutIdoremember theUSrecordcompanyreallygoingfor “Cheapskate”.Thatwastheonetheyall thoughtwasgoingtobeamassivehit, butwewerelike,“No,‘RichardIII’has somethingmemorableanddiferent.’” GAZCOOMBES:Webattledfor “RichardIII”inAmerica.Butwewere ayoungnewbandandcouldn’tget through.Itwasunfortunatethatitdidn’t hitfrstintheUS. DANNYGOFFEY:It’salwaysgoodfunto play,especiallyifweevergettoplayin smallervenues.It’squiteasnarlylittle thing;sometimesitgetsabitlostatbig festivalsbutit’salwaysbrilliantinalittle club.There’ssomethingaboutthechords, thewayGaz’sguitarsounds,we’realljust lockedin.Itblowsthecobwebsaway. QUINN:Thedevil’schordgetsaninstant reaction.It’ssatanic!

InItForTheMoney(Remastered ExpandedEdition)isreleased viaBMGonAugust27

February1996: Supergrassrelease “GoingOut”asa follow-upto“Alright” EarlySummer1996:Gaz Coombesdemosan embryonic “Richard III” in his house on Cowley Road, Oxford Summer 1996: The band rehearse the song, writing new parts. Work continues at Sawmills in Cornwall January 1997: Supergrass play “Richard III” during the Big Day Out tour

TIMELINE

March 1997: Video shoot at Bow Studios in east London March 31, 1997: “Richard III” is released. The following week, the single peaks at No 2 in the UK charts April 21, 1997: Supergrass’s second album, In It For The Money, released