Tim Hughes talks to Reef singer about being back on the road

For Reef frontman Gary Stringer, being in a band was all about one thing – playing live.

So when, after 10 years at the helm of his chart-topping band, it started to feel like a chore, he took the only viable option, and called it a day.

That was 13 years ago. This week Reef are back on the road, bashing out their trademark uplifting brand of rock – and, says Gary, they are loving it.

“We are a rock ‘n’ roll band, who never forget about the ‘roll’,” he tells me in his warm West Country accent. “For us it was all about the gigs.

“This tour has been a few years in the brewing. We came together for a small tour in 2010, then a slightly longer one in 2013. Then we chatted and decided that if we are going to start working again, we’ve got to create more music, so that we’re not just on a mercenary heritage maraud!”

What has emerged is a set which fuses nostalgia for the glory days of Britpop, along with fresh songwriting and virtuoso musicianship – the band, bassist Jack Bessant and drummer Dominic Greensmith, now augmented by the Ronnie Wood Band and Faces’ guitarist Jesse Wood, who replaced original guitarist Kenwyn House, who quit to focus on his new band, Goldray.

And while the band have picked up a following of gig-goers who never heard them first time around, Gary admits it is the fans of old who are packing out their gigs to sing along to their favourite tunes.

Reef as a band date back to 1993, at first trading under the name Naked, before being told to desist, as the name was taken.

They instead went for Reef, though that later also landed them in court – the lads being threatened by the US owners of the trademark for flip-flop makers Reef Brazil. The band won.

They started big, involved in a campaign for the Sony MiniDisc, and supporting Paul Weller, The Rolling Stones and Soundgarden.

First album Replenish went gold, but it was their second, Glow, recorded in Los Angeles with Black Crowes’ producer, George Drakoulious, which hit the stratosphere – with its singles Come Back Brighter, Consideration, Yer Old and the top six hit Place Your Hands.

Their third album, Rides, was also cut in LA – this time at Ocean Way Studios, famous as the birthplace of The Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds and Michael Jackson’s Thriller. It was another massive hit, reaching the top three.

Follow-up Getaway was critically acclaimed but didn’t hit the heights of its predecessors. Other than a compilation, it was also their last, Gary and Jack instead focussing on side act Them Is Me and an acoustic project called, reasonably enough, StringerBessant.

“We had had 10 years of fun with Reef,” says Glastonbury lad Gary, “But then we didn’t do anything with Reef until 2010.

“I don’t want to look like some guy in the Oxford Mail going on about what a drag it is being in a rock band, but I didn’t want it to become a chore.

“We were doing it for ourselves and the people coming out to watch us, and had no agenda for anything outside music.

“When the Reef opportunity came up it seemed the natural thing to do – like getting back on the party bus.”

In between, Gary, 42, and Jack pursued their other passion for surfing, and, he says are hoping to fit in some waves in Devon before heading to Oxford for the start of the tour.

“It’s good fun to be working with Jesse and writing new songs,” says Gary. “But the best thing is playing gigs, going out, rocking, tossing your hair about and having fun.

“We chuck down a ball of energy, it comes back to us – and then balloons!”

SEE THEM
Reef play the O2 Academy in Cowley Road, Oxford, on Saturday. Tickets from ticketweb.co.uk