Diamond Hoo Ha

Finally I got to see one of my favourite bands live this week.



Supergrass played the London Astoria on Tuesday (22ND) as part of a UK tour to promote their latest album Diamond Hoo Ha.

I've been a fan of them since their debut album I Should Coco. There was something totally refreshing about their sound, and I look back at this album as part of the soundtrack to my life at the time. It also contains what I consider to be a perfect pop moment - Caught By The Fuzz. This track was championed by the late, great, John Peel, and must have reminded him a lot of his favourite track Teenage Kicks. CBTF also contains one of my favourite lyric lines of all time: "here comes my Mum, well she, she knows what I've done" - I cannot explain why but I think it's a moment of genius and it still makes me smile when I hear it.

Rather unfairly, Supergrass are considered by some music fans to be a bit of a novelty act, mainly because of their song Alright & their wacky videos like Pumping On Your Stereo. I see them as one of the most underrated bands around. Since their debut they've released one quality album after another - they're also great songwriters; craftsmen of their trade; what I consider to be A Proper Band.

OK, I'm sitting on the fence a bit here, so onto this week's gig. It was my first & possibly last visit to the intimate Astoria (due to close soon) - a nice unpretentious, dark grubby venue.

Supergrass didn't live up to my (admittedly high) expectations. I felt that they played too much of their new album (about 7 tracks). Now, you may argue that part of the purpose of bands playing live is to showcase new material. This is fair comment, and actually their new album is very good. The track Diamond Hoo Ha Man blows my socks off - easily up there with their best songs (although it does remind me a lot of Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes). But I digress. A lot of people watching would have not been familiar with their new album; in fact thanks to CD WOW's incompetance, I only got hold of my copy a week prior to seeing them live.

Having not seen them live before I suppose I was hoping to hear a play list that resembled their Greatest Hits album. This is unrealistic, but I would have certainly preferred more of their back catalogue, and maybe 4/5 of the new tracks.

It was still a good gig though. It seems weird seeing them as a 5 piece band now, having started off as a 3 piece all those years ago. They're great showmen and play with a lot of energy. Songs like Moving, Pumping On Your Stereo, & Sun Hits The Sky all sounded great live, and they didn't disappoint by ending the encore with Caught By The Fuzz. Nice work fellas!