Music > Live Reviews

Gaz Coombes @ Open

11/12/15

Gaz Coombes is no stranger to Norfolk. During the noughties Supergrass played the UEA four times to my knowledge, as well as appearing at the infamous Pop Beac' in 2004. Tonight, though, in a packed out club room at Open, Gaz is back, five years after the Supergrass split, four years to the day after his solo debut in Oxford, and hot on the heels of Matador being nominated for this year's Mercury Music Prize. In fact, good on you Norwich; this is the sixth of the twelve 2015 nominees to play the city so far this year, with C Duncan still to appear at Norwich Arts Centre in February.

The stage is bathed in red light for the duration of Hannah Lou Clark's support set. Possibly a new name to some of the 300-strong audience tonight, but familiar to many of us through her appearances at Norwich Sound and Vision, and her association with local label Gravy records, Hannah doesn't put a foot wrong, hauntingly cool yet with a fire that burns in tracks like Kids In Heat and Silent Type, as well as new song I'll Remember You This Way. This tour will undoubtedly have raised her profile in anticipation of an album release.

Those who have come simply to hear the old Supergrass hits had to wait until at least half way through Gaz Coombe's set before being indulged with an acoustic rendition of Moving, but the rest of us are lapping up the new material from Matador as well as enjoying Hot Fruit, Sleeping Giant and White Noise from the debut album and the beautiful One of These Days. The applause is warm and heart-felt, but the equally well-behaved silences in between songs, although normal for Norfolk, are always slightly unnerving to the bemused performers.

It all changes after the final song, 20-20, is introduced, and during the encore when Gaz returns to perform the title track Matador, and Caught By The Fuzz - “an old song written with some friends in Oxford”. As one wag from the audience shouts out, 'It's OK, we're warming up now'.

8/10