The lost album that ended Supergrass: “It was painful”
There comes a point in every musician’s life – unless you’re Keith Richards – when you must accept that your glory days are most likely behind you, and while there have been countless artists who have glumly continued on in the face of this realisation, it takes a rather brave soul to pack up and go home, as Supergrass did back in 2010.
It was during the early 1990s when Supergrass first emerged from Oxford, in their original incarnation of The Jennies, and back then, the Gaz Coombes-led outfit represented the anarchic young voice of Britain’s youth. During the Britpop age, when the band struck upon their biggest hits, ‘Alright’ and ‘Caught By The Fuzz’ being perhaps the most memorable, they were far younger than their London counterparts, and that age gap afforded them both a sense of freedom and a presumed longevity.
With that, Supergrass’ heyday did seem to last for a longer period than many of their Britpop contemporaries, who had already burnt out in a flash of hedonistic consumption – or sold out to the world of New Labour – by the time that the 1990s had drawn to a close. Meanwhile, Coombes and the gang seemed to be going from strength to strength in the new millennium, continuing to amass chart hits, critical successes, and spent every waking moment either in the studio or on the road.
If the band’s recent revival, with anniversary tours of their groundbreaking I Should Coco album taking them to the heady heights of Glastonbury’s Pyramid Stage, shows anything, then it is the fact that Supergrass never truly lost their mojo, and those golden age tracks are still capable of speaking to audiences across the globe. Looking back, though, the band’s exhaustive touring schedule and mounting commercial pressure was bound to take its toll, in one way or another.
That fatigue came to a head in early 2010, while working on what promised to be their next record, Release The Drones. Reportedly taking the bulk of its inspiration from, as the name would suggest, drone music and krautrock, the album would have been quite the departure for Supergrass, had it ever been released.
Instead, the record was abandoned partway through the recording process, once Coombes had decided it wasn’t going to work. “We went to Battery studios in London, played them two or three tracks,” the songwriter recalled, per Louder. “I was sitting there listening to them thinking, ‘These aren’t very good’, and the guys were very flat after we played them to them. It just felt horrible and demoralising.”
“It got to the point where I didn’t want to go in [to the studio],” Coombes continued, recalling the moment when he realised that Supergrass was over. “It was painful. I didn’t see a way out apart from leaving the band.” So, that is exactly what he did. “I just knew that I had to for my headspace,” he declared. “I didn’t want to feel that low and uninspired.”
Thus, the story of one of Britpop’s brightest sparks was snuffed out there and then; Supergrass split, and Coombes immersed himself in various different solo projects, rather than committing himself to the inevitable disappointment and artistic entrapment of Release The Drones.
Even years later, when Supergrass reunited back in 2019, the group made the – probably pretty wise – decision not to go back into the studio, and certainly not to have another stab at that proposed krautrock record. Instead, they seem content to continue touring the material which put them on the musical map in the first place, and, indeed, why wouldn’t they?
