Gaz Coombes | |
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 Coombes in 2021 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Gareth Michael Coombes |
| Born | 8 March 1976 Oxford, England |
| Genres | |
| Occupation(s) |
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| Instrument(s) |
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| Years active | 1990–present |
| Website | gazcoombes |
Gareth Michael "Gaz" Coombes (born 8 March 1976) is an English musician, best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of the alternative rock band Supergrass. He first entered the music scene aged 14 as the lead singer of the band The Jennifers which featured Supergrass bandmate Danny Goffey.
Born on 8 March 1976, Coombes is the son of Eileen and John Coombes. His father was a food scientist, who enjoyed playing jazz piano, [1] and his mother was an English teacher. [2] Although he was born in England, he lived with his family in San Francisco, California, from around the age of 5 up until the age of 9, at which point in 1985 they returned to his birthplace in Oxford. [3] [4]
Coombes played classical piano at this age, but gradually moved on to an interest in playing guitar. He began to attend Wheatley Park School in Holton, Oxfordshire, but found himself being picked on for being 'girly'. His elder brother Rob was friends with Nic Goffey at the time, and one day on the school's playing fields a 13-year-old Gaz Coombes met and befriended Nic's younger brother, 15-year-old Danny Goffey. Danny Goffey was two years older than Coombes and helped to "protect him" from being teased. Goffey recounts what happened; "I mean, you couldn't fucking miss him. He was gorgeous. He grew sideburns and they [other pupils] gave him loads of shit, but I was really into him. I think I fancied him a bit, y'know? He's really beautiful. He wasn't very mature at that age. He was like a kid. I just went up to him and asked him to form a band. I could. I was a drummer. The tallest drummer in the school." [3]
Coombes first entered the music world at age 14 as the lead singer of the band The Jennifers. They recorded their demo at Stargoat, Banbury, released April 1991 a month after Gaz turned 15. The band undertook a nationwide tour before Coombes was fifteen[ clarification needed ]. When they signed for their first recording contract with Nude Records, Coombes was under 18 at the time and so had to have his mother sign the contract for him. [5]
"There were a couple of ridiculous, punky, joke songs – "Harvey The Accountant" and "The Girl with the Removable Face". That one went: "The girl with the removable face/She didn't have much of a life/All the boys used to pull it off/And use it as a frisbee." Most of them were in that vein. Actually, we haven't changed much." says Coombes about some Jennifers songs. [6]
The Jennifers released "Just Got Back Today" on Nude Records in 1992 before they disbanded.
After the mild success experienced by The Jennifers, but still living with his parents, Coombes got a job at the local Harvester. He would take old Jennifers demos and play them over the restaurant's PA system before it opened, and this eventually led to him meeting Mick Quinn, a co-worker who played bass guitar and shared his musical tastes. With Danny Goffey they began to practice at Quinn's house, and Supergrass was formed shortly thereafter. [3]
In 1993 after The Jennifers disbanded, Coombes, Goffey and Quinn formed Supergrass. In 2002 Coombes's brother keyboardist Rob Coombes officially joined the band. Before that he was studying for an Astrophysics degree at Cardiff University. The band released six studio albums in their 17 years together, each of them entering the UK top 20: I Should Coco (1995), In It for the Money (1997), Supergrass (1999), Life on Other Planets (2002), Road to Rouen (2005) and Diamond Hoo Ha (2008). They also released a singles compilation Supergrass Is 10 (2004), commemorating the first decade of the band's life.
During the height of Supergrass's fame, around 1995, Coombes received offers from Vogue Italia and Calvin Klein to model for them in their ad campaigns and magazine publications, [7] [8] as well as an offer from Steven Spielberg to make a Monkees-style TV show of the band. Coombes however, along with the rest of the band, declined these offers, saying; "Yes, we probably would have been face down in a pool if we'd said yes to all that. I mean, our heads would have returned to our shoulders at some point, but... it felt like cheating. Too easy. Short cut. Y'know? If you have to do all that to be the biggest band in the world then... then what does that say about your music? And all that... [the publicity offers] would have just got in the way of the music. It would have taken so long to get to grips with. We'd have lost years." [3]
In 1999, Coombes made an appearance on the " Da Ali G Show " and played the Supergrass song "Sun Hits the Sky", whilst having to deal with Ali G 'remixing' it as he performed. "I tried to take the mickey out of his goatee, and he came back with: "So, you are looking like a monkey..." But if you go on his show, you know what you're letting yourself in for." [6]
Coombes appeared on The Annex on RTÉ 2fm with Jenny Huston alongside Goffey before Supergrass took the stage at Malahide Castle in Dublin, Ireland to support Arctic Monkeys on 16 June 2007.
On 12 April 2010, Coombes and the rest of Supergrass announced that the band was to split after seventeen years. Musical differences were cited as the reason. They played four farewell concerts before the split. Their seventh album Release the Drones remains unfinished and unreleased.
Coombes announced on 28 October in The Hotrats and Supergrass Facebook page that he was working on his first solo album, recorded at his studio in Oxford with producer Sam Williams, and claimed that the record was on its final stages, planned to release it in 2011. [9] [10] He played most of the instruments on the record. [11]
Coombes starred in an advert for the Toyota Yaris where he plays himself and encounters a fan who wants a picture with him. [12] The Supergrass single "Pumping on Your Stereo" also appears in the advert.
Coombes appeared on and produced the single "Wonderful" by Little Fish, which was released in October 2011. [13] In December 2011, Coombes performed his first solo shows at The Rotunda in Oxford [14] and released his debut solo single "Hot Fruit" on 14 March 2012. His debut album, Here Come the Bombs was released shortly after and was well received by critics and fans alike. [15]
In May 2014, Coombes recorded a cover version of The Kinks' song "This Time Tomorrow" for a television advertisement for the UK department store, John Lewis. [16] The song was subsequently released as a digital single on the Caroline International label. [17]
Coombes's second solo album, Matador , was released on 26 January 2015. [18] The album debuted at number 18 in the Official UK Album chart and was also nominated for a Mercury Prize and an Ivor Novello award. [19]
On 24 June 2016, Coombes supported The Last Shadow Puppets (featuring Arctic Monkeys' front man, Alex Turner, and Miles Kane) at Bristol Summer Series. [20]
On 10 January 2018, Coombes announced his third solo album, World's Strongest Man would be released in May. The announcement was accompanied by the launch of the single "Deep Pockets". [21]
Coombes originally lived in Wheatley, then at 345 Cowley Road, East Oxford. He moved to a Regency townhouse in Brighton, East Sussex, which he first purchased in 1999, with his partner Jools Poore and their daughter, Raya May (born 2003). [6] [22] Due to the death of his mother, Eileen, in 2005, he felt compelled to move back into her house in Oxford during 2006, where he had grown up. [23] [24] Coombes and his partner now have a second daughter, named Tiger (b. 17 May 2008). [25] [26] Gaz Coombes and his brothers Rob Coombes, Charly Coombes and Eddie Coombes also jointly own a converted barn in Northern France, which is where the Supergrass album Road to Rouen was recorded. [27]
His three siblings are all involved in music: the second eldest is the keyboardist and fellow Supergrass member Rob, former 22-20s keyboardist Charly and Paris-based Ed, the eldest brother (who also plays piano). [6]
He is a Manchester United fan, and has appeared on the club's TV channel, MUTV. [28]
| Title | Album details | Peak chart positions | |
|---|---|---|---|
| UK [29] | BEL (WA) [30] | ||
| Here Come the Bombs |
| 54 | — |
| Matador |
| 18 | 100 |
| World's Strongest Man |
| 12 | 150 |
| Turn the Car Around |
| 6 | 101 |
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2015 | Matador (De Capo) EP |
| 2018 | Live in Paris EP |
| Year | Title | Album |
|---|---|---|
| 2012 | "Sub Divider" (Free download) | Here Come the Bombs |
| "Hot Fruit" | ||
| "Simulator" | ||
| "White noise" | ||
| 2013 | "Break the Silence" | |
| "Buffalo" | Matador | |
| 2014 | "This Time Tomorrow" | N/A |
| 2015 | "20/20" | Matador |
| "Detroit" | ||
| "The Girl Who Fell to Earth" | ||
| 2018 | "Deep Pockets" | World's Strongest Man |
| 2019 | "Salamander" | N/A |
| 2022 | "Sonny The Strong" | Turn The Car Around |
| "Don't Say It's Over" |
Supergrass are an English rock band formed in 1993 in Oxford. For the majority of the band's tenure, the line-up consisted of brothers Gaz and Rob Coombes (keyboards), Mick Quinn and Danny Goffey. Originally a three-piece, the band was officially joined by Rob Coombes in 2002.
I Should Coco is the debut studio album by English alternative rock band Supergrass, released on 15 May 1995 by Parlophone. The title of the album is Cockney rhyming slang for "I should think so".
In It for the Money is the second studio album by English alternative rock band Supergrass, released in 1997. NME called it "more fun than watching a wombat in a washing machine" and named it the 10th best album of the year. In 1998, Q readers voted it the 68th greatest album of all time, while in 2000 the same magazine placed it at number 57 in its list of the 100 Greatest British Albums Ever.
Life on Other Planets is the fourth album by English alternative rock band Supergrass. It is the first album that includes Rob Coombes as an official member of the band, and originally went under the working title of Get Lost. The American edition of the album included many bonus tracks and rare live editions. One of these live editions became infamous when it was discovered you can hear a gunshot in the background of the song. It peaked at #9 in the UK charts.
Daniel Robert Goffey is an English musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known as the drummer and backing vocalist for Supergrass. He briefly toured with Babyshambles in 2010, following their drummer's departure.
Road to Rouen is the fifth studio album by English rock band Supergrass. The album was released in the UK on 15 August 2005 by Parlophone, and in the US on 27 September 2005 by Capitol Records. The title refers to the city in northern France where the album was recorded, as well as the 1978 album Road to Ruin by punk rock band Ramones.
"Pumping on Your Stereo" is a song by Supergrass, released as their first single from their self-titled third album (1999) on 24 May 1999. The single reached No. 11 on the UK Singles Chart and in New Zealand. It also peaked at No. 13 on the Canadian RPM Top 30 Rock Report in May 2000. In October 2011, NME placed it at No. 124 on its list "150 Best Tracks of the Past 15 Years".
"Alright" is a song by British alternative rock band Supergrass. It was released with "Time" as a double A-side single from their debut album, I Should Coco (1995), on 3 July 1995 by Parlophone. It was concurrently released on the soundtrack of the 1995 movie Clueless, which helped it become a big hit for the band. "Alright" peaked at number two on the UK Singles Chart, number six in Iceland, number eight in Ireland, number 30 in France and number 96 in Australia. The music video for the song was directed by Dom and Nic and filmed in North Wales.
"Caught by the Fuzz" is the debut single of Britpop band Supergrass.
"Mansize Rooster" is a song by English rock band Supergrass, released as the second single from their debut album, I Should Coco (1995). It reached number 20 on the UK Singles Chart, remaining on the chart for three weeks.
"Going Out" is the first single from English rock band Supergrass's second studio album, In It for the Money (1997). It was released on 26 February 1996, more than a year before the album, and reached five on the UK Singles Chart and number 20 on the Irish Singles Chart. The song was apparently originally written in the key of E because the engine of Supergrass' tour bus would tick at that same musical pitch.
"Richard III" is a song by English rock band Supergrass. It was the second single released from the band's second album, In It for the Money (1997), after "Going Out", which was released over a year before. "Richard III" was released in March 1997 and reached number two on the UK Singles Chart on 6 April, their highest placing since "Alright" / "Time" in 1995, which also peaked at number two. The song also reached number 21 in Iceland and number 30 in Ireland.
"Late in the Day" was the fourth single from Britpop band Supergrass' second studio album, In It for the Money (1997). It was released in October 1997 and reached number 18 on the UK Singles Chart. The song also charted in Iceland, peaking at number 32 in November 1997. The two CD releases of the single have the same photo as their cover but the colours of one have been reversed on the second one.
The discography of Supergrass, an English alternative rock band, consists of six studio albums, three extended plays, two compilation albums, 26 singles and 24 music videos. They were formed in 1993 by Gaz Coombes, Mick Quinn and Danny Goffey. Rising to prominence during the Britpop era in the mid-1990s with their single "Alright", they were joined by Rob Coombes in 2002 (keyboards) until their demise on 11 June 2010.
Diamond Hoo Ha is the sixth and final studio album by British alternative rock band Supergrass, released in the UK on 24 March 2008, and offers a return to punchier Supergrass songs, in comparison to the more mellow Road to Rouen, their previous album released in 2005. Several songs appearing on the album were performed at Guilfest 2007. In November 2007, the track "Diamond Hoo Ha Man"—one of the songs debuted at Guilfest—was distributed as the first single on a limited vinyl release, restricted to 1500 copies. "Bad Blood" followed as the second single on 17 March 2008, peaking in the top 75 at number 73.
"Diamond Hoo Ha Man" is a song by British rock band Supergrass. The single was first played live at Guilfest 2007 in Guildford, England, and this live version was then released as a free download via the band's website. It is the first official single from the band's sixth album, Diamond Hoo Ha, and was released on 14 January 2008 as a vinyl-only single, limited to 1,500 copies, thus limiting its chances of charting, which it failed to do. An instrumental version of the song was recorded by Biff Hyman for the Duke Diamond and Friends: Glange Fever Motion Picture Soundtrack.
"Bad Blood" is the second single from British rock group Supergrass' sixth album, Diamond Hoo Ha. It was released on 17 March 2008, which was one week before the album's release date. The song is about a rough night out in Reykjavík, Iceland, as Gaz Coombes explains;
Mick Quinn is an English musician and singer-songwriter. He is best known as founding member of English rock band Supergrass. He is a permanent member of fellow Oxford band Swervedriver.
Live on Other Planets is a double live album by Supergrass. Released on 27 November 2020, it consists of songs recorded during the band's reunion tour from earlier that year. Its title is a play on the band's fourth studio album, Life on Other Planets.
Laurence John "Loz" Colbert is an English musician, best known as the drummer in Ride and formerly of The Animalhouse, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Supergrass and Gaz Coombes. His drumming style has been characterized as furious drawing comparisons to Keith Moon.
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