So hear we are, back on the sunny Bristol Harbourside for the latest round of Bristol Sounds gigs. Always a highlight at the start of the summer, for those of that didn’t get tickets (or didn’t want them) to the much larger part up the road in Pilton. Almost certainly planned that way in fact, I hazard a guess, as you have some pretty impressive musical names already in the vicinity to tempt over.

Kicking off proceeding this year is Oxford’s finest, Supergrass and their 30th anniversary of ‘I Should Coco’. So as have become standard in these sort of mark the dates shows, play the album in question, play a few additional belters at the end and we all go away happy. Which I am very pleased to report is pretty much what happened, Well if it isn’t broke, I guess.

The good thing about ‘I Should Coco’ is it has quite a few bangers on it and most come at the start of the album, so we go headfirst into the Britpop fuelled rollercoaster. With ‘Caught by the Fuzz’, coming right before ‘Mansize Rooster’ before they casually announce “this was track 4” it’s called” ‘Alright’. The energy is still there, which is even more impressive as he was at his daughter's wedding yesterday and “off his tits”.

‘Strange Ones’ about the strange people, including the many students the band encountered in Oxford. Having gone to university in Oxford (Brookes) I can certainly confirm that Oxford is definitely full of strange ones. While I say the play the album in order thing is good, is also has it down sides where we get the album tracks, that people never knew or have forgotten. So we had a bit of a lull in the energy levels.

That is soon rectified when we get to the additional belters section I mentioned before with Richard III sonically lights up the River Avon, swiftly followed by ‘Late in the Day’ a reminder of the slightly softer side of the band. You forget just how many songs they’ve had that are etched into our musical memory, with ‘Grace’ ending the main set with it’s reminder to “save your money for the children”.

Finally as the sun starts to set on the Harbourside, it time for ‘Sun Hits The Sky’ again reminding us why we’ve loved this band for 30 years. Final songs is ‘Pumping on your Stereo’ the quirky yet wonderful number that has become a fan favourite. Overall a wonderful night and great way to kick off Bristol Sounds for another year. Is this is the standard, we’re in for a great week.