This UK rock band was originally formed by four school friends from Southport, Ian Ball (guitar, harmonica, vocals), Tom Gray (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Olly Peacock (drums/percussion) and Paul Blackburn (bass). Ball and Peacock’s musical background included a period spent on the local metal circuit in heavy rock band Severed. Ball met Ben Ottewell (b. Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, England) while studying at Sheffield University, inviting the fledgling vocalist to join the band. Briefly known as Gomez, Kill, Kill The Vortex, the band began recording four-track demo tapes in a Southport garage. They attracted immediate interest when tapes from these sessions were posted to record labels, triggering a frenzied A&R scramble for their signatures. With Stephen Fellows (ex-Comsat Angels) in position as their manager, the band signed to Virgin Records subsidiary Hut.
Gomez toured with Embrace in late 1997 and spent time in a 16-track studio polishing off their raw demos. Their debut single, ‘78 Stone Wobble’, was released in March 1998, and was followed a month later by Bring It On. Acclaimed by critics on both sides of the Atlantic, the album drew comparisons to a diverse range of American artists including Tim Buckley, Tom Waits, Al Green, Marvin Gaye and Jimi Hendrix. Ottewell’s raw, bluesy vocals added a further touch of authenticity to the band’s stylized fusion of various forms of American roots music, with the songs often struggling to rise above their influences and establish an identity of their own. One of the stand-out tracks, ‘Get Myself Arrested’, was released as a single in May 1998. Bring It On won the UK’s Mercury Music Prize in September the same year, boosting sales past gold and pushing the album to a UK chart high of number 11. The following month the band completed a US tour opening for Eagle-Eye Cherry, and continued working on recording sessions for their next album. A new single, ‘Bring It On’ (not featured on their debut), was released in June 1999. Liquid Skin was a remarkably mature collection from a band under pressure to produce a worthy follow-up to their acclaimed debut.
Both In Our Gun (2002) and the Tchad Blake-produced Split The Difference (2004) satisfied Gomez’s loyal following but were unable to expand their music into wider territory. The band switched to the Independiente (in the UK) and ATO (in the USA) labels for the 2005 live album Out West. Their next studio album, How We Operate, received positive reviews and saw the band making a notable breakthrough in the US charts.
