Britpop favourites Reef (Place Your Hands, Come Back Brighter) have reformed after seven years and are set to rock the Temple House Festival in Sligo, which takes place from September 10-12.
JOE was lucky enough to catch up with frontman Gary Stringer for a chat about the pleasure of performing his ‘hometown’ gig of Glastonbury this year, why the band split in the first place, and whether we can expect new material from the four-piece.
Stringer rocks out at the Cornbury Festival in July
JOE: How are you doing there, it’s Emmet Purcell from JOE.ie – just hoping to speak to Gary Stringer?
Gary: That’s me speaking pal, how are ya getting on?
JOE: Not bad, not bad. And yourself?
Gary: Doing fine, doing fine. I’ve just had a swig of water and I’m ready and raring.
JOE: Excellent to hear. Well, basically we at JOE wanted to give you a quick ring, as we’re looking ahead to Reef playing at the upcoming Temple House Festival. I suppose the main question which a lot of our readers are going to be wondering is – Reef had four top twenty albums, what prompted the split in 2003?
Gary: The truth was we needed a break. When we got signed I was, I guess, maybe 19 or 20. I left school at 16 and worked some shitty jobs for a few years, but as soon as I got signed we had 10-12 great years with Reef. It was a real blast. We were touring Europe, Australia, Japan, just blinding times, all the way through my twenties and to my early thirties. I wouldn’t have changed it for anything.
In 2003, we came back from recording our fifth record, which ended up being a ‘Greatest Hits’ in the end, so we only ended up recording five songs. They were five crackers though, I absolutely loved them, but even in the airport you could just tell something wasn’t right. Everyone was tired, maybe we were starting to take it for granted, but when we reconvened in January 2003, Dom (Reef’s drummer) said he wanted out. We did a couple of shows afterwards but it was the right thing to stop.
JOE: So what prompted the Reef reunion after seven years, as your Them Is Me project (with Reef co-founder Jack Bessant and Reef’s original replacement drummer Nathan Curran) has a very similar lineup?
Gary: Well Them Is Me is pretty different, more of a knucklehead sound. Probably around 2005 myself and Jack met up and started jamming again, a lot of which went into our acoustic album (another side project, the acoustic outfit of Richard and Jack, named Stringerbessant. The debut album is Yard), which went by last month. We wrote the Them Is Me album too and set up our own label (Garston Records).
JOE: Originally, did you get a lot of people badgering you for Reef requests at the first Them Is Me gigs?
Gary: Yeah, there was a handful of that, but not a whole lot. We toured for 18 month, long story short, we came up to London last Christmas to tout our acoustic demos. That Christmas, our old manager said ‘Come and have a curry, Dom’s coming’. I didn’t think much more of that but I think the healing power of the chicken jalfrezi worked wonders. We had a good laugh and within ten days of that curry our manager let us know that Live Nation had come in with an offer for us to do six shows as Reef. It’s nice to be hanging out again.
JOE: It must be pretty gratifying to know that you’re able to have a comeback and play gigs as big as Glastonbury and the Isle of Wight Festival this year, to know you still have that fanbase and appeal?
Gary: I was flabbergasted. I thought the shows would sell okay, but I didn’t think they would sell that well. Suddenly you think, ‘Hang on?!’ I went onto YouTube and started reading some of the comments people had left on our videos.
JOE: Do you think that in terms of reunions and so on, that the proliferation of your videos on YouTube really helps build up the nostalgic factor, as people can revisit your back catalogue whenever they want?
Gary: Maybe you’re right. I think 60 per cent of the crowd during the summer were our old fans but maybe the rest started listening to us from there. I think that’s fantastic.
JOE: Would Glastonbury be the highlight of the year so far? Would you consider that a hometown gig?
Gary: Absolutely, yeah. I grew up in Glastonbury Town and moved out when I was about 14. That’s my first time there, I was absolutely stoked. It’s flattering.
Reef first came to prominence with Place Your Hands in 1996
JOE: Can we expect Reef to be around a few more years now? You’ve got new material from Them Is Me, you’ve got new material from Stringerbessant – can we expect new material from Reef as well?
Gary: I don’t know is the honest answer, I’m not trying to be evasive. It’s constant rehearsals and gigs for the rest of the year. There’s no time set aside from writing… I’m not saying it won’t happen. At Christmas we’ll take a rest, it’s been a busy ole year. We’re just booking up some shows for next year in Ireland as Stringerbessant, so we’re hopefully coming to Dublin, Belfast and Sligo. Me and Jack want to go surfing in Sligo.
JOE: Did that make the decision to come to Sligo’s Temple Music festival a little easier?
Gary: [Laughs] No, we’ll be flying into Dublin and driving up to Sligo, staying a night and coming back. Maybe next year. Jack’s already done it but I’ve never surfed in Ireland.
JOE: So do you really enjoy touring that much or are just making up for lost time in the past few years?
Gary: No, we did enough touring in the first place, I guess. I’ m not absolutely loaded but I don’t really need to go out and tour as much I do – I do it because I love it and I’m keeping that as my rule. As I said, that’s the reason Reef originally stopped but for now I’m happy, I’m loving it. When we (Reef) flew out to the Isle of Wight Festival, it just felt like ten years ago.
JOE: Aside from football, you’re an avid Wolves fan. Are you looking forward to seeing (transfer deadline surprise signing) Marcus Bent warming the bench at Molyneux?
Gary: I can’t really get excited about Marcus Bent! I hope he does well but when did he last score a goal?
JOE: Exactly, that always seems to be Wolves problem. I’m not sure if he’s the guy you need.
Gary: Well yeah but Doyley (Kevin Doyle), a fine Irishman, he had a good season. I think he’s absolutely fantastic and when we were playing five through the middle for the latter half of the season he was running the line on his own. Just fantastic.
JOE: And I suppose the reason we’re talking here is that you’re playing The Temple Music Festival in Sligo on Saturday 11 September. Excited?
Gary: Absolutely excited. Me and Jack always had a great times whenever we had media trips in Ireland. Talk your talk during the day and head to the pub, usually hanging out with the person you just did the interview with afterwards. We always had a good time in Ireland so we’re looking to come back full stop. I don’t know a whole lot about the Temple House but it looks like it’s in a beautiful spot.
JOE: That’s perfect Gary, we’ll be looking forward to it ourselves.
Gary: Take it easy my friend.
Reef are performing at the Temple Music Festival in Sligo, which takes places from September 10-12. You can visit the official Reef website here, the official Them Is Me Facebook page here and the Stringerbasset site here.
