It’s been 30 years since Supergrass released their debut album.
But – to look at the energy of the band and the Glasgow crowd – it doesn’t feel like it.
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Supergrass’ Gaz Coombes enjoying the moment at the BarrowlandsCredit: Getty
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Mick Quinn of SupergrassCredit: Getty
Most here in the Barrowlands would rather not think about the passage of time, I’m sure.
But thankfully, as the band launches into the first song off the album, one fan steps forward to remind us.
“Put your phones away, it was the 1990s”, she yells at people videoing the band.
Supergrass is touring I Should Coco, where the public first became acquainted with the three lads from Oxford.
On the first of two nights in Glasgow, the band rips through I’d Like To Know before going straight into the classic cautionary coming of age track Caught By The Fuzz.
For anyone who had a misspent youth falling foul of the police and parents it hits close to home – not for me of course.
It’s soon time for seminal Britpop classic, Alright, a song which is perhaps bigger than the band itself due to being a staple of indie and rock radio for the past three decades.
And frontman Gaz Coombes is obviously acutely aware of this, as he wryly introduces it as “so then, track four” before the familiar piano riff kicks in.
Bands playing albums from start to finish can be a different experience.
The traditional structure of the live show is replaced with the ebbs and flows of a studio recording.
Eagle-eyed Glastonbury fans work out Britpop legends are playing festival after spotting tour date clue
It’s a hard thing to get right but thankfully the band rise to the challenge.
Songs like Mansize Rooster and Strange Ones remind you of the youthful exuberance of the band’s early sound that made them such a fixture of the mid-1990s British scene.
But the punky edge to many of the tracks is also a reminder that, like so many scenes, they actually sounded quite different to the other acts they were lumped in with.
They close this side of the gig with the album closer – jaunty acoustic farewell Kinks-like Time To Go.
But luckily for the crowd, Supergrass aren’t leaving any time soon and deliver a rip-roaring ‘best of the rest’ set with indie classics like Richard III, Moving and Grace.
The band finish their set with an encore of Sun Hits The Sky and singalong favourite Pumping On Your Stereo.
It’s another sweaty night in the Barrowlands and I’m definitely feeling my age by the end – but for 90 minutes it feels like the crowd and the band are just the same as ever.
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Supergrass performed I Should Coco onCredit: Handout
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The band in their younger daysCredit: Times Newspapers Ltd