Gomez is perhaps the most obvious student band of the past 10 years. A slothful-looking collective of school friends from Southport, the background of various members belies their current chosen field: Ian Ball (guitar/vocals/harmonica) and Olly Peacock (drums/percussion) once spent time in Southport's local heavy metal circuit in a hard rock band called Severed. While at Sheffield University, Ball met Ben Ottewell (vocals) and subsequently formed a band that began to record demo tapes in a Southport garage. The name? Kill The Vortex. Clearly, some things (i.e. the band's heavy metal obsessions) would have to change. Gomez it would have to be, then.
Snagging a manager in the shape of Stephen Fellows (a former member of highly regarded UK 1980s band, Comsat Angels), the demo tapes soon wound their way to various record companies, prompting an A&R scatter for the band. A tour with Embrace in 1997 followed, and then an album, Bring It On, in early 1998. And that's when the floodgates opened. Come September of the same year, Bring It On won the UK's Mercury Music Prize, and Gomez said goodbye to Southport forever. But have they won too much acclaim too early on in their career? Not according to vocalist Ben Ottewell.
"It's definitely a blessing, because it was a roller-coaster rather than a hype" he said recently. "We were also lucky that right after winning the Mercury Prize we went off to tour the US. All the fuss and the press didn't have that much of a chance to affect us, because we were too busy working to get swell-headed."
Some would say that Gomez's music has no glamour, only hints and shades of unfinished third level courses, oft-repeated Big Train sketches, the woodland rustic stain of dope 'n' Rizlas and sniggering conversations about sex. Others say that underneath the band's expansive take on music (a stew of funk, Tom Waits, dub, Steely Dan, Captain Beefheart, Americana, Grateful Dead, bluegrass yodels, gospel screams and heavy metal yelps) is a lingering doubt that the members aren't really experts at all, but dilettantes. They claim that labelling them a roots band is lazy. "We've always had that complexity." stated guitarist Tom Gray, "that eclectic range of stuff we love. Listen to our vocal harmonies and you'll find Simon & Garfunkel as much as Ladysmith Black Mambazo."
There's more to Gomez than mere comparisons, however. In the space of two years they have blossomed from a bunch of hardy hopefuls to a band with the potential to dream up anything. A major part of their appeal is that they have successfully managed not to know the rules of the corporate game, and to engage with music on their own terms. Not to be pigeon-holed is a priority for Gomez, an easy thing when the band's all-encompassing music is taken into consideration.
A smaller but no less important part of Gomez's success is that they are one of the few current UK bands who sound as if they enjoy themselves. If criticism of Gomez's musical stew justifiably points to a bunch of likely lads who are willing to experiment in the face of adversity, then at least they do so with smiles on their faces.
Do they feel they're competing with anybody? Nobody, they answer; music isn't about competition. Okay, then, what would they do if and when other bands come along, apply a commercial marketing sheen to the Gomez blueprint and reap the rewards? "Manage them" says Tom Gray. "Then we'd make enough money to do what we want to do forever."
Gomez play Dublin Castle on Sunday April 30th in support to The Charlatans.
