Supergrass Trivia Quiz

Answer: Oxford

Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey had previously been playing around Oxfordshire in a band called The Jennifers, who did actually manage to release one single on Nude Records in 1992 called "Just Got Back Today". It wasn't until a year later when Coombes met Mick Quinn whilst working at a local Harvester that the seeds were sown for the hugely successful group we now know as Supergrass.

As for the other options, Northampton's most famous musical heroes are the seminal goth heroes Bauhaus, Luton is the birthplace of Paul Young, and Swindon blessed us with the excellent XTC.

Answer: Theodore

Danny Goffey says "We were Theodore Supergrass and the idea was the band would be a little black character, and we wouldn't ever have to do interviews".
The first part of the name was dropped after the rest of the band realised it was "a bit rubbish", according to Mick Quinn.

Obviously the other three options were even more rubbish, having been made up by me.

Answer: Caught By The Fuzz

A classic debut, "Caught By The Fuzz" brims over with youthful exuberance and recounts Gaz Coombes' experience of being caught in possession of cannabis when he was fifteen years old.

"Mansize Rooster" was the band's first UK top 40 hit single, peaking at number 20, and is, allegedly (and controversially) about the surprising size of an unnamed person's manhood! Many people believe Gaz rather vainly wrote the song about himself!

"Lenny" was the first single by the band to dent the top ten. It was released in May 1995 and made number ten.

"Time" was a double A-side with the band's most famous song, "Alright", and the release was a number two smash, annoyingly being stopped from topping the charts by "Boom Boom Boom" by The Outhere Brothers.

Answer: Richard III

"Richard III" must be one of the loudest and noisiest records ever to scale the top two of the British charts, although it has nothing to do with the former king whatsoever. At that point in their career, Supergrass were prone to using people's names as working titles of their songs, and this one stuck.

"Going Out" was the predecessor of this fine single and peaked at number five. The song caused some tension between Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey, the latter believing the lyrics referred to a tabloid sex scandal he was allegedly involved in, culminating in the divorce of Jude Law and Sadie Frost.

"Sun Hits The Sky" saw the group showing off their fine pop prowess and reached number ten in June 1997.

"Moving" was, and still is, a personal favourite of mine, and tells of the monotony of being on tour for months at a time. It peaked at number nine in the UK top 40.

Answer: Gaz Coombes

You can't miss Gaz, due to the size of his enormous sideburns...

Rob Coombes is Gaz's brother. He only officially joined the band in 2002 as keyboard player, although he has toured with the band since the early days and can be found on most Supergrass recordings.

Danny Goffey plays drums for the band.

Ade Edmondson was my red herring, being an alternative comedian most famous for appearing in the cult eighties series "The Young Ones". I only put him in because of his starring role in the Comic Strip film "The Supergrass".

Answer: He sleepwalked out of a first floor window

Quinn sustained the rather embarrassing injury whilst staying at a holiday villa in France with his family.

I chose the trampoline option because it's the kind of quirky thing that the band are renowned for in their videos.

I thought falling off a ladder whilst fixing a television aerial was a feasible option because this is how UK entertainer Rod Hull, most famous for his puppet emu, died in 1999.

To my knowledge, nobody has ever sustained an injury by falling over because a dog barked loudly!

Answer: In It For The Money

"In It For The Money" was the band's second album and peaked at number two in the UK charts in April 1997, although it actually outsold its predecessor, the number one smash "I Should Coco".

The self titled 1999 album "Supergrass" is actually nicknamed "The X-Ray Album" due to its cover, which depicts the band as both humans and skeletons, depending on how you look at it. It reached number three in the UK charts.

"Life On Other Planets" had more of a glam rock bent about it and was the first since their debut in which the band washed their hands of production duties, instead enlisting the help of Beck producer Tony Hoffer. It made number nine in the UK charts.

The far more downbeat "Road To Rouen" was a number nine hit in 2005, its sombre feel being largely due to the death of Gaz and Rob's mother. Despite clearly being a "difficult" record, in my humble opinion it's one of their finest hours.

Answer: Steven Spielberg

I was lucky enough to have a chat with Mick Quinn in 2008, so I asked him why the band had turned the legendary director down. He replied that Spielberg "wanted us to act, rather than be ourselves...and none of us are any good at acting". Probably a wise move then...

I chose Scorsese as an option because of his high profile musical documentaries of Bob Dylan and The Rolling Stones.

As far as I know, neither Francis Ford Coppola or George Lucas have ever made any kind of musical documentaries.

Answer: The Diamond Hoo Ha Men

The 2008 album "Diamond Hoo Ha" saw the boys on top form and clearly no longer concerned about chart positions, having released the first two singles from it, "Diamond Hoo Ha Man" and "Bad Blood" on strictly limited edition formats only. As a result, neither of them managed to even dent the top 40. The album itself, however, still managed a respectable peak of number nineteen in the UK charts.
"It was an interesting time for me...", says Mick Quinn, "going out to watch Gaz and Danny going out to play all these low profile gigs where they murdered Supergrass songs!"

I made up the names The Coco Kids and The Rouen Roadies because of their obvious reference to Supergrass album titles, and The Jennifers were the band Gaz and Danny formed before hitting the big time shortly afterwards.

Answer: Danny Goffey

Goffey was at the helm of the rhythm section, a position that had previously been filled by Phil Collins on the 1984 original and Luke Goss on the Band Aid 2 version in 1989.