Photo Credit: Cuffe and Taylor/The Piece Hall
Bursting on to the scene back in 1994, the iconic SUPERGRASS released their debut album ‘I Should Coco‘ the following year, consisting of beloved tracks and Britpop hits. Celebrating 30 years since its release, the Oxford quartet have taken the album on the road, capping off their anniversary shows with a sold out performance at The Piece Hall.
Local singer-songwriter ELLUR, who has had an incredible year in 2025, made the short trek to The Piece Hall. Releasing her EP ‘God Help Me Now‘ back in January this year, she has gone on to support the likes of Kaiser Chiefs during their hometown show, as well as festival appearances up and down the country, nothing quite beats a homecoming though. Opening the set with her latest single ‘Missing Kid‘, the audience soon warmed to the much more ambient vibe that ELLUR brings.
Following a brief detailing of the song’s meaning, ‘Your Dog‘ was met with an applause from the crowd prior to its unveiling, while the reception afterwards doubled that as expected. Despite ELLUR‘s material contain heart wrenching lyrics, the band as a collective perform each song with huge smiles on their faces. Now with a UK headline tour looming in October, the Yorkshire artist undoubtedly won over a number of new admirers from this performance, as she capped off with ‘Boys‘ and ‘God Help Me Now‘ to cap off her triumphant performance and return to The Piece Hall.
Following on from a stand out opener, SPORTS TEAM made their own spectacular debut to The Piece Hall. The band immediately warmed up the audience from the get go, with a background that displayed their logo in several Microsoft Word fonts to the delight of the audience. Their most well-received songs included ‘I’m In Love (Subaru)‘ and ‘Here’s the Thing’, which undoubtedly brought in a number of new fans on the night in preparation for their November UK tour, which sees them take on their biggest venues yet.
Since the news broke that SUPERGRASS will be performing at the Halifax venue, it has been one of the most anticipated events of the year as the Live from the Piece Hall summer series draws to a close. Although fans were aware that the band would be performing their legendary debut album in full, the band chose a different route with the set list. The order was a mixture of tracks from the record and their greatest hits, giving those who in attendance a surprise for what song would follow on from the next.
As the band stepped out on stage, they were met with a thunderous cheer from the capacity crowd. Wasting no time, the band kicked off with the first three tracks from ‘I Should Coco‘. Opening with ‘I’d Like to Know‘, followed by fan favourite ‘Caught By the Fuzz‘ and ‘Mansize Rooster‘, they soon spun the setlist around as they followed up with ‘Late in the Day‘ (taken from their second record ‘In It for the Money‘. A welcomed addition indeed, they soon returned to the Coco material. ‘Time‘ kicked things off before the almighty ‘Alright‘ had everyone dancing and singing along. The tempo increased during the song, with SUPERGRASS cramming everything they could into their performance.
The energy seemed to fade for a moment as they ploughed through the remainder of their set, but soon picked back up again as ‘Richard III‘ and ‘Moving‘ concluded the performance for the time being. An encore was clearly looming and the band quickly returned to the stage for two more songs to see off their ‘I Should Coco‘ celebration. Opening with ‘Sun Hits the Sky‘, quickly followed by ‘Pumping On Your Stereo‘, this was the perfect climax that SUPERGRASS fans could have hoped for. The Halifax audience went all out, singing back every word to capitalise a very positive reception for the band to bow out to.
SUPERGRASS‘ UK shows for 2025 have now come to a close after a successful run of performances to celebrate their debut album’s 30th anniversary. A stellar return that will be missed until next time…
Taped Magazine 