Ben Ottewell & Ian Ball – Tuning Fork: November 26, 2025
When is a Gomez show not a Gomez show? Tonight’s sold-out concert at the Tuning Fork is ostensibly billed as a Ben Ottewell and Ian Ball concert, but the tour itself is called Gomez by Request, and when the tour was announced earlier this year fans were asked to submit (Gomez) song requests for the setlist via an electronic form. Talk to anyone in the crowd tonight (or check the tee shirts) and it’s clear for fans this is “a Gomez show” in all but name.
Gomez emerged at a time when the English music scene was in a state of flux. Only a few years out from the 1995 “Britpop wars” of Blur versus Oasis, and Britain’s appetite for arch songs about cups of tea and/or boorish terrace anthems about drinking and shagging was rapidly waning. Oasis’ 1997 Be Here Now hadn’t been the earth shattering creative peak people had expected, Blur’s self-titled album the same year moved them sideways, taking new cues from Pavement and Helmet rather than The Beatles and The Kinks, and Pulp’s world-weary This is Hardcore the following year felt like a final nail in the musical coffin of a scene that had burned brightly, but briefly. Meanwhile, former “one-hit wonder” Beck, previously known as “the guy who sang the Gen X novelty slacker anthem Loser” was suddenly everywhere, with his sample-heavy folk/blues/indie Odelay raking in sales and critical acclaim in equal measure.
Cue the British music press searching for some kind of “new Beck” to champion. From the ashes of Britpop two bands of weird, slacker outsiders appeared – The Beta Band and Gomez – both bands mixing up freak-folk, indie, blues and a sprinkling of lo-fi electronics over the top of stoned melodies, creating a sound and a scene not really heard since the heyday of the British folk scene of the late 1960s.
Gomez were always pretty popular down here, and it’s clear from the incredibly polite, mostly Gen X crowd that they’re still a draw, even as a duo. Support tonight comes from Buddy, an LA based band whose frontman also appears to be called Buddy. Tonight Buddy is a solo act, although he’s joined in a few songs by Ian Ball. Given the enthusiasm for the headliners, it’s a tough crowd to win over, but Buddy’s earnest alt-country tunes (think a less problematic Heartbreaker-era Ryan Adams) and a valiant attempt at a “kia ora”, and by the end of his short set he’s won himself a few fans.
But it’s the headliners that everyone’s here to see. Ball and Otterwell amble out and kick off with Meet Me in the City from Split the Difference, followed by Here Comes the Breeze from the band’s critically acclaimed, Mercury Prize-winning debut 1998 Bring It On. As mentioned, tonight’s setlist is “by request”. I’m not a hundred percent sure whether every country / city gets a bespoke setlist, or whether the poll just helped create a generic pool of songs, but tonight’s show is heavy on tracks from their debut and its sequel, 1999’s Liquid Skin.
There are few bands I can think of where the two co-frontmen sound so different as Gomez. Ben Ottewell’s deep, gravelly blues-influenced vocals are a million miles away from Ian Ball’s self-described “light indie whine”, the effect of which is that Gomez often sound like singers from two completely different bands – different genres even – have somehow stumbled into the same room and started jamming. It’s an idiosyncrasy that I initially found quite jarring when I first heard them in the late 90s, but on hindsight it’s one of the factors that has made Gomez one of the more interesting bands to emerge from the post-Britpop scene, and it’s that “oddness” that has led to the band’s longevity and critical acclaim. And live, it all works. For an ostensibly “solo”-ish tour the two of them, accompanied by a drum track on a few songs, sound incredibly muscular. By Bad Moon Rising (NOT a CCR cover) the two have locked into an easy camaraderie indicative of two guys who have obviously spent decades playing together, trading instruments and banter. Ben Ottewell’s ferocious slide guitar and deep vocals dominate most of the songs (“I just play guitar and shout” he quips), with Ian Ball alternating between bass, electric and acoustic guitars and keys.
Not that Gomez ever really had bona fide “hits” (a peak chart position on 17 in the UK singles charts Ottewell tells us), but it’s in the final third of the set that the real crowd faves appear. There’s a salvo of “should have been massive” songs, Get Miles, Rhythm & Blues Alibi, How We Operate and Whippin’ Piccadilly before the finale of Bring It On. And after a very short pause in proceedings they’re back, bringing their buddy, Buddy, with them. Two more songs – an extended jam on California and the almost inevitable set closer, Get Myself Arrested and we’re done, the crowd lapping it up and singing along to every word.
Gomez have never officially broken up, but have been on a semi-permanent hiatus since the release of 2011’s Whatever’s On Your Mind. It’s unlikely we’ll see them touring as a full band again any time soon, but Ian Ball and Ben Ottewell – neither of them strangers to touring downunder – promise to be back again next year. It’s a promise I hope they keep.
Lawrence Mikkelsen
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