The band’s original line up consisted of Gary Stringer on vocals, Kenwyn House on guitar, Jack Bessant on bass and Dominic Greensmith on drums. The foursome met in London in the early 90s, looking to put together a band, and soon started jamming together. They produced their first demo, ‘Purple Tape’. 1994 mainly consisted of promoting this demo through touring and trying to build up a fanbase. They were eventually signed by S2 of the Sony music label, and released their first single ‘Good Feeling’. This was soon followed by ‘Naked’ which gained the band a lot of publicity as it was used by a Sony advert.
Reef has toured with a number of high profile artists, including Paul Weller, Soundgarden and music legends The Rolling Stones. They have also been supported on their own headlining tour by Feeder, who has now made a very successful career for itself. Their debut album, from which the afore mentioned tracks came from, ‘Replenish’, was certified Gold. This was followed up by their 1997 album ‘Glow’ which spawned the hit singles ‘Place Your Hands’, ‘Come Back Brighter’, ‘Consideration’ and ‘Yer Old’ which increased the band’s commercial success and fan base both in the UK and overseas. ‘Place Your Hands’ placed at number six on the UK charts and is the band’s most successful single as of 2014.
Reef are one of those bands that always seem to pop up at English summer festivals, and who can, in my experience, always be relied upon to put on a foot-stampingly, arm-wavingly, thoroughly enjoyable performance of no-nonsense, riff-driven indie-rock music.
The band, hailing from Glastonbury, UK, formed in the early 90s and had a steady string of hits from their 1995 debut 'Replenish', including the singles 'Naked' and 'Good Feeling'. However, their most enduring song to date is the party playlist classic 'Place Your Hands', on which vocalist and frontman Gary Stringer's signature deep, rasping tone is accompanied by steady blues-inspired drumbeats and infectious guitar riffs.
These were all staples of Reef's set when I saw them play a festival in the O2 Arena, London, way back 2003, where the crowd went wild for 'Place Your Hands' and formed a huge circle-pit! Since then however, they've only added to their repertoire of catchy tunes with later releases such as the commercially viable grooves of the single 'Set The Record Straight' produced by former Pixies mixman Al Cay. Their musicianship has also progressed since the early days, and their experimentation with a wider range of instruments on later albums further adds to the complexity and feel-good nature of their sound.
Reef are guaranteed to put on a solidly rock 'n' roll show, whether you see them in an intimate venue, huge stadium or outdoors at a festival. You'll be singing the words to songs you didn't realise you knew, and will definitely be smiling long after the curtains come down.
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