Riffs: The First and Latest Albums Bought by Gary Stringer of Reef

Jennifer Rodger
Friday 16 July 1999 00:02 BST
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High Voltage

AC/DC

ONE OF my favourite songs of all time is on here - "Rock and Roll Singer" - about being young, not caring about much, and wanting to be in a rock band when your parents think you should be a doctor or a lawyer. It made a lot of sense to me. I was in bands from the age of 13, and though I was pretty much supported by my mum and dad, it did lead on to my opting out of college to get a job that earned me pounds 73 a week. It payed for our first lot of music equipment. I absolutely love AC/DC, had the denim jacket, went down the pub thinking it's the best thing since sliced bread. AC/DC albums that I really like are the ones with Bom Scott; dirty rock'n'roll, wicked rhythms. Of course, I came on to them second-hand, but they were rock'n'roll before it turned into metal, the rhythm got lost and the lyrics became about medieval dragons. Theirs was a couldn't-care-less attitude. They were everything that was ugly to mainstream culture: the blacked- out eyes, the sweaty stage show, the tattoos. Or maybe that's just me, rounding off the corners to a childhood dream!

The Colour and the Shape

The Foo Fighters

THE FOO Fighters' frontman, Dave Grohl, was Nirvana's drummer, and there are some Nirvana sounds on here. Grohl plays guitar and sings on this album, as well as playing drums. It's loud rock'n'roll, again, but maybe metal by another name this time. So I've come full circle and I'm painting myself as a bit of a rock demon. There are great melodies in the vocals... a lot of good shouting. There are an awful lot of hooks; they come in at the beginning and keep popping up through the songs, and the guitar riffs are imaginative. It puts you in a certain upbeat frame of mind.

Reef's new single, `New Bird', is released on 23 August

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