Gaz Coombes at Autism Rocks

When pop historians write their chronicles of the 1990s, they’ll have to find a place for Supergrass. Best known for their ebullient single ‘Alright’, the Oxford-based three-piece blessed the decade with an era-defining run of singles matched by consistently rich albums. Drawing from the annals of British rock, they were a band able to switch from Radiohead-like crooning to dance-inflected beats – sometimes, as with ‘Moving’, in the same song. The Buzzcocks and the Jam, the Beatles and the Monkees, even Elton John and 10cc, no influence was too incongruous or uncool. After they fragmented in 2010, following handful of late records dabbling in both meditative orchestral colour and glam stomp, frontman Gaz Coombes struck out on his own.
Now, in anticipation of his second solo record, Coombes headlines the National Autistic Society’s first ever Autism Rocks night, in Camden’s stunning KOKO. 2012 debut, Here Comes the Bombs won praise for its fusion of gorgeous hooks and experimental genre-hoping, worthy of his band’s heyday. Opening track ‘Bombs’ marries a calm, reassuring tune with the tale of a bomb falling the ground, while ‘Simulator’ has punkish verses and heavy, doomy choruses. Best of all are faintly psychedelic jangle of ‘White Noise’ and the extended ‘Universal Cinema’, which builds from an unsettling opening to a distorted rock-out. Expect a mixture of new, recent and classic tracks when he takes to the stage, backed by his tight touring band.
Coombes will be supported by five other acts. Ealing trio White Lies fuse the darkness of Joy Divison with the shadowy melodicism of Echo and the Bunnymen, whilst Jupiter Falls bring epic, widescreen classic rock. The round-up is completed by singer-songwriters Laura Tapp, Ed Goodale and Sam Cooper. This promises to be a rich and varied night, in support of a very worthy cause indeed.