Supergrass
The Pyramid Stage, Friday, June 27, 2025
The sun is out, the sky is blue, and, reassuringly, the Wolverhampton Wanderers flag that is always in the crowd at Glastonbury is fluttering in the breeze. The festivities are about to begin, and like did Squeeze so consummately last year, the onus is on the opening band on the biggest stage to set the tenor and tone.
They were here 30 years ago and again in between, and Supergrass rise to the occasion from the off. With debut LP’s I Should Coco chimpish face-meld artwork as backdrop, and the band only slightly weathered by time, they frontload their set with side one of that essential Britpop long player. It’s hard to argue with a triple-punch of Caught By The Fuzz, Mansize Rooster and Alright. The first’s lyric, “If only my brother could be here now” is happily borne out by singer and guitarist Gaz Coombes’ sibling Rob being onstage on keyboards: the second channels Madness with a speeding ticket, and the third couldn’t be more perfect for the sun-kissed occasion, as enduring an anthem of its time as Mungo Jerry’s In The Summertime.
Course, the intervening thirty years do influence matters, lending a surprisingly elegiac dimension to songs including Time for those who were here too in ’95. The latter part of arguably reverse-order set does lean to the ‘Grass as purveyors of British rock of a classic 60s/70s sort. The band play it loose but together, harmonising as they skirt with derailment: think Syd Barrett-era Pink Floyd, The Who, the Stones and heavy-end Small Faces. Time and Strange Things strike oddly plangent notes (does MOJO detect a Peter Green influence in Gaz’s guitar playing?). Mary’s crunching riffage drives all before it and the closing Sun Hits The Sky (a song about the psychedelic experience, Gaz tells us helpfully) and Pumping On Your Stereo crank it all back up, now with their four-man, fists raised band graphic, with a crowd clap and sing-along to finish.
“What a privilege and honour” says Gaz graciously. The warmup music included EMF’s Unbelievable and The Sweet’s Block Buster: high bar for soundtracks for getting on it – but Supergrass had it covered.
Supergrass Glastonbury 2025 Setlist:
I'd Like to Know
Caught by the Fuzz
Mansize Rooster
Alright
Lose It
Lenny
Strange Ones
She's So Loose
Time
Sofa (of My Lethargy)
Richard III
Late In The Day
Mary
Moving
Sun Hits the Sky
Pumping on Your Stereo
Follow all of MOJO’s Glastonbury 2025’s coverage HERE!
Photo: Supergrass at Bristol Sounds, June 25, 2025 (credit: Mike Lewis/Redferns)