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August 31, 2018August 31, 2018

Gomez – Bring It On 20th Anniversary Tour @ O2 Institute 28.08.18

Words by Sam Lambeth / Pics by Phil Drury

Cailin Russo is excited. “This is the best night of the tour,” she beams, her bleach blond locks flowing vivaciously in an imaginary Birmingham breeze. RUSSO and her band are an adorable bundle of energy, sweeping through the jet-fuelled punk of ‘House with A Pool’ and the ‘Something’-pilfering ballad ‘Lonely’. As opening acts go, RUSSO packs a sweet, but mighty, punch.

“You lot haven’t changed much,” grins Gomez’s premier blues howler Ben Ottewell to the Birmingham faithful. You can see from his smile that it’s meant in jest, and while the Southport experimentalists pretty much look the same – Ian Ball is still cherubic and childlike, Tom Gray is the mischievous mouthpiece, and Ottewell has the hirsute beard of a part-time wrestler – the audience has aged somewhat. But lest we forget it has been twenty years since their landmark debut record Bring It On surprised and stunned the British music landscape with its dusty Americana, hazy rockers and widescreen balladry.

When released, Bring It On beat a plethora of perfect albums to win the Mercury Music Prize. On reflection at the 02 Institute tonight, such an accolade proved entirely earned – opener ‘Get Miles’, where Ottewell is first able to unleash that mighty croak, is cloaked in atmospheric bleeps and surging riffs, while lead single ‘Whippin’ Piccadilly’ is a playful toe-tapper built around slide guitars and Gray’s box of keyboard tricks. The beauty of Bring It On is in its bold imagination and restless creativity – on a balmy Birmingham night, the five-piece take the crammed audience to the dim dive bars of Tennessee (a stunning, jaw-dropping ‘Tijuana Lady’), the open highways of California (the beefed-up, chiming colossus ‘Here Comes the Breeze’) and the bug-addled back porches of Texas (the country ballad ‘Free to Run’).

The band are good hosts, Gray permanently geeing the crowd up during the skewed pop of ’78 Stone Wobble’ and the compact crunch of ‘Get Myself Arrested’. As they breezily trade instruments, share harmonies and extend songs into fluid jams, the sheer talent of the five-piece comes into play, as does the cruel reminder that it is perhaps this talent, this restless creativity and fearlessness, that meant commercial appeal never quite beckoned.

Once Bring It On comes to a close, there is still time for some old school Gomez classics. The menacing, snarling ‘Shot Shot’ and the straight-ahead shuffle of ‘Silence’ show that even when Gomez began losing their experimental roots for something more conventional, they were still making music that was far from ordinary. The beautiful, tear-jerking ‘We Haven’t Turned Around’ brings the 02 Institute to a stunned silence and the closing ‘Revolutionary Kind’ hammers home that a world without Gomez is one that is far too bland.

Whether or not there will be new music remains to be seen, but Gomez’s long-awaited return to the stage is a bold reminder of their unbridled talents. A new album and renewed recognition? Bring it on.

RUSSO – supporting Gomez, Bring It On 20^th Anniversary Tour @ O2 Institute 28.08.18 / Phil Drury

For more on Russo, visit www.russo.lnk.to/hwap

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Gomez, Bring It On 20^th Anniversary Tour @ O2 Institute 28.08.18 / Phil Drury

For more on Gomez, visit www.gomeztheband.com

For more from SJM Concerts/Gigs & Tours, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.gigsandtours.com

For more on the O2 Institute, including venue details and further event listings, visit www.academymusicgroup.com/o2institutebirmingham

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NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.

August 24, 2018August 23, 2018

BPREVIEW: Gomez – Bring It On 20th Anniversary Tour @ O2 Institute 28.08.18

Words by Ed King

Gomez perform at the O2 Institute on Tuesday 28^th August, coming to Birmingham as part of their Bring It On 20^th Anniversary Tour with support from RUSSO – as presented by SJM Concerts/Gigs & Tours.

Doors are open at the O2 Institute from 7pm with the minimum age of entry 14yrs, although under 16s will need adult accompaniment. Tickets are priced at £34.50 (including all fees) for both seating and standing – for direct event information, including venue details and links to online ticket sales, click here.

Gomez released their debut album, Bring It On, back in the tail end of a dance music Vs Britpop dominated 90’s – as Paul Oakenfold was battling Blur across the Matthew Bannister banished airwaves of Radio One, five lads in Leeds played their first gig together. And as the student throng staggered around Hyde Park, a well placed sign (and a catchy surname) gave the fledgling ensemble a name.

Pretty soon after that fateful night at the Hyde Park Social Club, Gomez had signed to Hut Records – a Virgin owned subsidiary that was set up to champion the burgeoning indie scene. And pretty soon after that Bring It On was out of the studio, on the shelves (oh yes, handheld purchases in them days), and burrowing its way into the shortlist for the Mercury Music Award. A self produced mix of growling vocals, stripped back indie swagger, words rhyming with Mexico, and short and curly grabbing melodies, Bring It On was a masterful debut – eventually beating some pretty tough competition for the aforementioned trophy.

And whilst Gomez’s sophomore album, Liquid Skin, was arguably as lauded – and the band’s following five albums showed confidence, exploration and range – it is perhaps this 12 track introduction that gets more hairs on certain necks still standing up on end. Mention to anyone over 30 you’ve “got some friends in my BMW…” and chances are they’ll know what to say.

It is also the reason Gomez are back on the road – playing nine dates across the UK and Republic of Ireland as part of their Bring It On 20^th Anniversary Tour, which kicked off across North America in June.

And for those (lucky-life-still-ahead-of-them-bast*rds) who are too young to remember flicking through HMV racks on a Saturday afternoon…

’Get Myself Arrested’ – Gomez

Gomez come to the O2 Institute with their Bring It On 20^th Anniversary Tour on Tuesday 28^th August, with support from RUSSO – as presented by SJM Concerts/Gigs & Tours. For direct event information and links to online ticket sales, click here.

For more on Gomez, visit www.gomeztheband.com

For more on RUSSO, visit www.russo.lnk.to/hwap

For more from SJM Concerts/Gigs & Tours, including further event listings and online ticket sales, visit www.gigsandtours.com

For more on the O2 Institute, including venue details and further event listings, visit www.academymusicgroup.com/o2institutebirmingham

________

NOT NORMAL – NOT OK is a campaign to encourage safety and respect within live music venues, and to combat the culture of sexual assault and aggression – from dance floor to dressing room.

To sign up to NOT NORMAL – NOT OK, click here. To know more about the NOT NORMAL – NOT OK sticker campaign, click here.

February 23, 2018

ALBUM: Autonomy – Table Scraps 23.02.18

Words by Ed King / Lead pic by Meg Lavender

Reasons to be cheerful: 1) Winter has fucked off, 2) Winter II has also fucked off, 3) It’s Friday, 4) Table Scraps’ new album, Autonomy, has been set free into the wild.

I’m feeling a little spring in my step, pun intended, so the ten-track-quick-hit-monster that is Autonomy could not have come at a better time. Just when I’m starting to plan my Fear & Loathing summer road trips, Table Scraps have come along with the perfect soundtrack to a bit of windows down anarchy.

Opening with ‘Sick of Me’ (which has a gloriously literal video – see below) the repeated riffs and dual vocals punch through with simplicity and style. Ain’t alliteration ace..? Garage rock as its most gorgeous, the 2 ¼ min opener sets us up for the slightly faster and drum punched ‘Always Right’, before a little dark self (kinda/sorta) deprecation with ‘I’m a Failure’. “I hate everything I do”… surely not. “And it’s all because of you”. Fair enough.

It’s difficult not to review this album track by track, but if you can listen to ‘Takin’ Out the Trash’ without thinking of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club with elephantiasis of the kahunas… awesome stuff. Then just past the midway point we get the album’s lead single, ‘My Obsession’, which Birmingham Review saw smash itself into the world at the Hare & Hounds back in April 2017. ‘Fierce and threatening, in a good way, like some clever simile involving Christian Slater and a Magnum .44’ were the words I used then, and I’m sticking with ‘em.

And whilst the first half of Autonomy was full of summer fun and ferocity, like Day #3 of a barbecue hosted by The Beach Boys and the Ramones, the latter half turns a little more dark and twisted. As David Lynch gatecrashes with “some special meat for the flames… sshhh, just eat”.

‘Frankenstein’ leads the charge with some oil drum vocals and good ol’ fashion twisted blues rock, before one of my favourites, ‘Treat Me Like Shit’, stomps out with a heavy drum spinal chord and guitar lead skin from the off. I’m pretty sure there’s a Theremin in there too, but I can’t be certain. ‘More Than You Need Me’ pulls the foot off the gas a tiny, weeny, little bit, but makes up for any perceived loss by stretching it across the longest song on the album – before Autonomy comes to a close with the lighter, almost jangly, ‘Do It All Over Again’. Which is ironically what I did. And again…

A pretty ball out of the park release from one of Birmingham’s best bands (any beyond, but fuck it – a bit of civic pride), Autonomy is a step up from an outfit that didn’t have much room to maneuver in that direction to begin with. And if you didn’t know, Table Scraps will be unleashing this particular beast at an album launch party at the Hare & Hounds on 2^nd March – presented by This Is Tmrw, with support from Yo No Se, The Hungry Ghosts, Captain Süün and a DJ set from Black Mekon.

Otherwise, or even as well as, go out and get yourself a copy of this album – for the tiny rays of sunshine expected this year WILL MEAN LITTLE without it. Fast, ferocious, fun fun FUN, Autonomy is full of summer smashing rock and roll goodness. TVs and toll booths beware.

‘Sick of Me’ – Table Scraps

Table Scraps release their latest album, Autonomy, on Friday 23^rd February – with a nationwide tour, kicking off at the Foodhall in Sheffield (23^rd Feb) and coming to the Hare & Hounds in Kings Heath, Birmingham (2^nd Mar). For direct info on the Autonomy album launch party at the Hare and Hounds, click here.

For more on Table Scraps, including full tour dates and online purchase points for Autonomy, visit www.table-scraps.bandcamp.com

For more from This is Tmrw, visit www.thisistmrw.co.uk

For more from the Hare & Hounds (Kings Heath), including full event listing and online ticket sales, visit www.hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk