Reef

Led by front man Gary Stringer's bluesy, gravelly howl, Reef injected a slice of rollocking, good-time, rock'n'roll into the mid-1990s Brit pop scene. Originally going by the name Naked, they cut their teeth playing support slots for Paul Weller, the Rolling Stones and Soundgarden before debut album Replenish (1995) was named by Kerrang! magazine as the 10th best album of the year, and produced the small hits Good Feeling and Naked. Fourth single Place Your Hands was their major breakthrough becoming one of the biggest anthems of the year. When the follow-up Come Back Brighter also made the Top 10, second album Glow (1997) was catapulted to Number 1 in the UK album charts. Despite a raucously good live reputation, the band failed to reach the same levels of success with later albums Rides (1999), Getaway (2000) and Together (2003) and as Brit pop fizzled to an end they split in 2003. Reef reformed in 2010 to play the Glastonbury and Isle of Wight festivals.