Reef are celebrating the 30th anniversary of their debut album Replenish with a UK tour, playing the record in full – a landmark moment for the Somerset rockers. I caught up with lead singer Gary Stringer to talk about revisiting those early songs in their 50s, the legacy of their biggest hits and what it feels like to still be rocking stages three decades later.
Firstly, congratulations on the 30th anniversary of Replenish! Super exciting. On your upcoming tour, you’ll be playing the album in full. Do any of the songs feel completely different to perform in your 50s than they did in your 20s?
No, not really. There’s been occasions where we’ve played End, and I’ve sworn in it, and Together, and I’ve sworn in it, and I think, ‘Oh my god, there’s really young kids in the audience!’ So that’s the only weird one. But I hadn’t listened to Replenish, start to finish, since we mastered it back in 1994. So I’d never listened to that album start to front. I’d listened to some singles and B-sides and bits over the years. But to put it on, I was driving back from London, funnily enough, the lyric on Feed Me is ‘driving home back from the city’ – that’s the first line – and I happened to be in the van, and I put it on and played it from start to finish. And I was really excited and happy and relieved to hear how good it sounded. So yeah, it was a really good listen to go start to finish. And yeah, that’s the first time I’ve done that, in 30 years. It’s crazy, isn’t it?
What a good feeling to listen to that back and be like ‘yeah, I’m a fan’ – that’s great.
Yeah, well, it was a relief as well, because you never know as you move on and there are some songs that you’ve recorded and you think, oh, not sure about that lyric or we should have done a different change. I was really happy with Replanetition. It just sounded, it sounded banging and the songs were really strong and they held up. So, yeah, I’m really looking forward to going out and playing it to people. We had a rehearsal the other month, we got together and I literally played it like twice and I got all the words right. So it was cool. It must be like muscle memory.
Like riding a bike! Well, despite what you’ve just said, if you could re-record one track from the album with the benefit of 30 years worth of experience, not to fix it as such, but to reimagine it, do you have one in mind that you would redo?
We just re-recorded Naked, so we went in and we recorded at the end of last year, we recorded The Chain and Naked and we went and sung them three months ago and we’re going to put a 7 inch out with the Replenish tour, so a sort of double A side of new version of Naked, so with Amy (Newton) playing guitar, she’s such a talent, and Luke Bullen, you know, world-class drummer on the drums. So that’ll be a double A-side, The Chain, the Flute with Max Song, a three and a half minute edit of that, and Naked. So Naked’s the only one we have re-recorded. Just to give it a new lease of life. Obviously the original’s banging. So the answer to your question is no, I don’t think I would. Although, yeah, we’ve just done Naked, but that’s really more about just doing something new for people to listen to and, you know, with the new band and see how they feel about it.
Can’t wait to hear that. Which modern artist or band would you love to hear cover a track from Replenish in their style?
Wow. Anyone would be the answer, because no matter if you like it or not, it’s cool when people reach back and do versions of your music. I’ve heard a couple of bits and bobs, but I mean, I went to Glastonbury this year. I really enjoyed Glass Beams and Amyl and the Sniffers were cool. But I think if you’re going to have someone cover your tune, I’d want GOAT. So yeah, they could pick any song, that would be funky as you like, and yeah, it’d be great fun.
Speaking of Glastonbury, you opened the NME stage there in the mid-90s. How different was the atmosphere then compared to playing the big festivals that you are now?
Well, we were obviously 30 years younger, I’d have been 22 years old, and we’d made our record. I think it probably was just been released, I can’t really remember. It’s June time, isn’t it? So I guess it would have just been released. We played on the other stage, middle of the afternoon, and the crowd was huge, it was absolutely huge. We’d done festivals up to that point but I don’t know whether it was back then, there was a lot of locals there as well, and I mean, in the front row, there was people I knew, you know, I mean, I grew up in Glastonbury town, so I know what the festival means. It’s been really good to us over the years. So what’s different about it, I mean, I don’t know all the politics of it, but I think it changed management, the festival. But it’s so big and so special, that makes sense, I guess, for things to change. And there’s a lot of people who knock it ‘oh, it’s getting too big, oh, it’s too expensive’ blah, blah. But at the end of the day, if you’re paying £375 for a ticket and you can see hundreds of huge bands, I mean, if you went to watch Rod Stewart, you’d be paying £150 for your ticket anyway, you know? So yeah, I still think it’s great value and the best festival in the world.
Yeah, I’m yet to go. Ticketmaster isn’t my friend at the moment.
Good luck with the lottery! It is a lottery.
Yeah, it’s a wild ride. I’ve got PTSD from the online queue but it’s okay. It’ll be worth it one year.
It’ll blow your mind. The size of it will blow your mind. I mean, you know, there are some great festivals, fabulous festivals up and down the country, but they pale because there might be three or four stages with 40 or 50 food outlets, and this is a whole valley, you know, with hundreds of stages and thousands of food vendors, anyway, enough of my advertising pitch.
I’m sold already! I hope to see you on a stage there in 2027, that’s what I’m manifesting.
But whilst I’ve got you, I have to touch on Place Your Hands, because it’s still such an anthem. It wasn’t on Replenish, but it’s a huge part of your legacy with Reef, and it came from a personal place after sadly losing your grandad.
When you wrote it, did you have any sense at all that it would connect with so many people the way it did and have the longevity that it does?
No is the answer to that because it’s young guys writing songs and we thought they were all great. And, you know, it was our first, second record with Glow. So, you know, you’re in love with all 10, 12 songs on the album. You think, yeah, these are great. And we were writing and enjoying that. But looking back, you could tell that Muff Wynwood, so we were signed by Lincoln Elias at S2, a Sony offshoot, and Muff was the boss. Muff went with the bass player from the Spencer Davis Group. Great musician, great producer, great music guy. And he only turned up to the studio twice in our whole career to come down to the studio. And once was when we recorded Place Your Hands. And the second time was when we recorded I’ve Got Something to Say off Rides, the third album. And it makes me wonder, looking back, at the time, you didn’t know you were young and just having a great laugh. But at the time, that makes you think, oh, he knew that those songs could go on and be something special. And In Place Your Hands is crazy. It’s got a life of its own. It’s still selling 500 to 1,000 copies a week. It’s absolutely bonkers. And I love it. And I’m really proud of it.
So you should be, it’s insane!
What’s the most unexpected or random place that you’ve heard a Reef song playing? Can you think of anything off the top of your head?
Well, sometimes when I walk into a pub, it comes on magically in the bar or in the back, you know, where that’s happened. That happens probably every couple of months. You walk in somewhere and maybe someone clocks you and they start playing it and you realise you’ve been clocked. I mean, get messages through the socials now with, you know, beautiful messages, you know, my dad passed away, I played this song at the funeral, we’ve just had our wedding, and this song was our, walking down the aisle or whatever. It’s beautiful.
Thanks to Gary Stringer for sharing these honest and insightful moments from Reef’s journey. With Replenish still sounding fresh after 30 years, the upcoming tour promises to be a real celebration for the band and fans alike. If you get the chance, don’t miss them revisiting the album that started it all.
REEF 2025 LIVE DATES
16th October – Rock City, Nottingham
17th October – SWG3, Glasgow
18th October – UEA, Norwich
23rd October – O2 Academy, Bournemouth
24th October – O2 Academy, Bristol
25th October – 1865, Southampton
30th October – O2 Ritz, Manchester
31st October – O2 Academy, Liverpool
1st November – De Valence Pavilion, Tenby
2nd November – Patti Pavilion, Swansea
6th November – O2 Academy, Leeds
7th November – O2 Institute, Birmingham
8th November – O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire, London
Tickets on sale now here: https://www.reeftheband.com/#live
