FORMER Supergrass frontman Gaz Coombes roped in fans to help shoot a music video at an iconic Oxford venue.

The singer, who is from and still lives in Wheatley, shot footage for his latest single at the Ultimate Picture Palace in East Oxford.

Fans dressed up as mechanoids – part human, part robot – for the music video for single Simulator, which will be released in the coming weeks.

Mr Coombes is best known for forming alternative rock band Supergrass in 1993.

Their first single, Caught By The Fuzz, was released in 1994 and propelled them to fame as one of the leading bands of the mid-90s Britpop scene. They went on to record six top 20 albums – three, I Should Coco, In it for the Money and Supergrass, went platinum.

But Supergrass split up two years ago and Mr Coombes has just released his latest album, Here Come The Bombs, which was recorded at the family home in Wheatley where he grew up, as well as at Templesound Studios in Oxford.

The 36-year-old dad-of-two said: “It was great to be able to shoot the video in Oxford.

“The Ultimate Picture Palace worked out to be the perfect venue for what we were trying to do. It was great to get loads of fans participating in it to make the whole thing really exciting.”

Mr Coombes, who used to live in the Cowley Road area, wanted to shoot the video in a cinema and approached the Ultimate Picture Palace team.

Cinema owner Becky Hallsmith said: “It feels sometimes that this cinema is the forgotten cinema on the corner of Cowley Road, so anything that raises the profile is lovely for us.

“But it is very strange looking at all the film stuff set up in a cinema. There is something surreal about filming in a place people usually watch films.”

The cinema was built in 1911 but closed during the First World War when its owner was called up. It was reopened in the 1960s by BBC radio presented Bill Heine.