Post by Fuggle on Aug 22, 2006 9:11:14 GMT -5
Smooth operators
James Wigney
August 21, 2006
Making a fresh start . . . the five friends who make
up the British group Gomez.
THE last time Gomez visited Australia, things were looking pretty bleak. The British quintet was at the crossroads. Its previous two albums had been lost in record company cutbacks, closing labels and radio indifference. The band members wanted to continue but without a record deal it was hard to see how.
“We had been trying to get a record deal for the best part of a year,” says bass player Ian Blackwell. “It wasn’t so much a matter of wanting to split – it was more a question of ‘How are we going to keep going?’.”
The band responded by doing what it does best – hitting the road. Always a favourite in Australia, Gomez headed Down Under to a rapturous reception. It was just the tonic the indie rockers needed.
“That was one of the best experiences we have had. That came at a bit of a low point for us as well and it was a definite revival and gave us a boost in attitude and raised our spirits,” says Blackwell.
It’s a much happier Gomez that begins its sixth Australian tour this week, with a new record label and a new, quite fabulous album, How We Operate, which is garnering some of the best reviews since the band’s 1998 award-winning debut, Bring it On.
Gomez’s salvation has arrived from the most unlikely of sources, US rock giant Dave Matthews, who signed the band to his ATO Records label and also invited it to play support for some of his US summer shows.
The US has been a lifeline for the five friends from the northwest of England. Guitarist and vocalist Ian Ball is based in Los Angeles and drummer Olly Peacock has set up camp in New York, and as sales slowly dwindled after their hugely successful debut, it has been touring the States that has kept them going.
Certainly the band is a little ambivalent about its homeland and particularly the UK’s fickle music press. Gomez’s ascent was so rapid after winning the prestigious Mercury Prize that bands which appear in a blaze of glory only to taper off alarmingly are said to be “doing a Gomez”. New sensations such as Bloc Party or the Arctic Monkeys are prime candidates.
“You can become a household name within two weeks of releasing your first record,” says Blackwell, who is somewhat bemused by the tag. “Then after that if you don’t achieve major status you have to be careful because you are out of the radar and there are other new bands coming up and all the talk is about them.
“The Arctic Monkeys are doing very well obviously, and Bloc Party, but you can’t really tell from the one-off – you have just got to see how it goes for the next couple of albums.”
Blackwell says the band feels like it is making a fresh start with How We Operate and enlisted the help of producer Gil Norton, who has worked with the Pixies and the Foo Fighters in the past.
Gomez’s live shows are known for their sprawling, free-forming nature, with unpredictable musical digressions, extended jams and band members playing each other’s instruments. But it can be a fine line between spontaneous and self-indulgent and one that Gomez has occasionally crossed in the recording studio.
Norton’s job was to trim back their excesses and rein in their penchant for over-instrumentalising, resulting in a more stripped back, accessible collection of songs.
Gomez
Sunday August 27, 7.30pm. Metropolis Nightclub, Fremantle. Tickets, $60.50 +bf from 78’s, Mills, Planet Video, Beat Music and www.heatseeker.com.au.
How We Operate is out now.
James Wigney
August 21, 2006
Making a fresh start . . . the five friends who make
up the British group Gomez.
THE last time Gomez visited Australia, things were looking pretty bleak. The British quintet was at the crossroads. Its previous two albums had been lost in record company cutbacks, closing labels and radio indifference. The band members wanted to continue but without a record deal it was hard to see how.
“We had been trying to get a record deal for the best part of a year,” says bass player Ian Blackwell. “It wasn’t so much a matter of wanting to split – it was more a question of ‘How are we going to keep going?’.”
The band responded by doing what it does best – hitting the road. Always a favourite in Australia, Gomez headed Down Under to a rapturous reception. It was just the tonic the indie rockers needed.
“That was one of the best experiences we have had. That came at a bit of a low point for us as well and it was a definite revival and gave us a boost in attitude and raised our spirits,” says Blackwell.
It’s a much happier Gomez that begins its sixth Australian tour this week, with a new record label and a new, quite fabulous album, How We Operate, which is garnering some of the best reviews since the band’s 1998 award-winning debut, Bring it On.
Gomez’s salvation has arrived from the most unlikely of sources, US rock giant Dave Matthews, who signed the band to his ATO Records label and also invited it to play support for some of his US summer shows.
The US has been a lifeline for the five friends from the northwest of England. Guitarist and vocalist Ian Ball is based in Los Angeles and drummer Olly Peacock has set up camp in New York, and as sales slowly dwindled after their hugely successful debut, it has been touring the States that has kept them going.
Certainly the band is a little ambivalent about its homeland and particularly the UK’s fickle music press. Gomez’s ascent was so rapid after winning the prestigious Mercury Prize that bands which appear in a blaze of glory only to taper off alarmingly are said to be “doing a Gomez”. New sensations such as Bloc Party or the Arctic Monkeys are prime candidates.
“You can become a household name within two weeks of releasing your first record,” says Blackwell, who is somewhat bemused by the tag. “Then after that if you don’t achieve major status you have to be careful because you are out of the radar and there are other new bands coming up and all the talk is about them.
“The Arctic Monkeys are doing very well obviously, and Bloc Party, but you can’t really tell from the one-off – you have just got to see how it goes for the next couple of albums.”
Blackwell says the band feels like it is making a fresh start with How We Operate and enlisted the help of producer Gil Norton, who has worked with the Pixies and the Foo Fighters in the past.
Gomez’s live shows are known for their sprawling, free-forming nature, with unpredictable musical digressions, extended jams and band members playing each other’s instruments. But it can be a fine line between spontaneous and self-indulgent and one that Gomez has occasionally crossed in the recording studio.
Norton’s job was to trim back their excesses and rein in their penchant for over-instrumentalising, resulting in a more stripped back, accessible collection of songs.
Gomez
Sunday August 27, 7.30pm. Metropolis Nightclub, Fremantle. Tickets, $60.50 +bf from 78’s, Mills, Planet Video, Beat Music and www.heatseeker.com.au.
How We Operate is out now.