Gomez
Formed in the latter half of the 1990s, British band Gomez started in the minds of lifelong friends Ian Ball and Olly Peakcock, whose common obsession with music and lack of enthusiasm for the Manchester ‘baggie' scene enthused them to move away from the current trends and forge a band with its own significant identity.
Recruiting Ben Ottewell (vocals, guitar), Tom Gray (vocals, guitar, keyboards) and Paul Blackburn (bass, guitar) over the following year, the new five-piece developed its unusual three-vocalist style that, despite its incongruent workings, quickly established the distinctive Gomez sound.
Through the '90s and into the new millennium the group continued to cultivate its talents, releasing a total of five studio albums, all of which received widespread critical acclaim. Debut Bring It On picked up the Mercury Music Prize for Album Of The Year in '98 and with releases such as Liquid Skin selling over a quarter of a million copies in just three months Gomez also gained notable commercial success.
More than a decade on, the finest of their audio and visual offerings have been brought together for the first time on double CD and separate DVD. From their very first single 78 Stone Wobble and including career highlights such as Whipping Piccadilly, Rhythm & Blues Alibi and Get Myself Arrested, the album chronicles the band's creative history via a band-picked selection of A-Sides, B-Sides and previously unreleased material.
And the band continues to push things forward, recently adding to the Protect The Places We Play benefit album, with a live version of See The World, plus touring the globe to deliver their strange fruit!
Witness the madness and genius live at Southbound.