Ben Ottewell (Gomez) // Beats & Swing // Luke Fuller

Thursday October 12th 2023

Beats & Swing present:

BEN OTTEWELL
(GOMEZ)

“Bring it on” 25th Anniversary.
Playing the album in full. 

Support

SOUTHSEA ALTERNATIVE CHOIR

Staggeringly Good Brewery
Doors open at 7pm

TICKETS
£18 in advance

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As a singer and lead guitarist in rock band Gomez, Ben Ottewell is well known for his unmistakable voice and talent for blistering and inspired guitar solos. Rolling Stone declared, “Gomez’s not-so-secret weapon is Ben Ottewell.” And as GQ Magazine once wrote and anyone listening can attest, “[his] voice is not of this world.”

Since his first solo release, Shapes & Shadows (2011), Ottewell has been pleasing audiences with a series of successful acoustic tours across the UK, US and Australia. Now with a newly-recorded album of songs for his second solo project, Rattlebag, the singer is set to return to the road, performing his new music as well as a few Gomez favorites.

Simultaneously stripped-down and lush, Rattlebag is a collection of beautifully poetic tales of salvation and redemption, of sanctuary and braving rocky seas in search of distant shores. Ottewell’s infectious melodies and bluesy riffs will stick with you, and beg you to sing along.

“There’s a time and place for us / I will take you there,” he sings (“Shoreline”). Ben Ottewell proffers hope and promise accompanied by sublime acoustic and slide guitars, and that’s something we can all use.

Bring It On (Gomez album)

Bring It On is the debut album by English indie rock band Gomez, released on 13 April 1998 by Hut Records. Recording sessions for the album began in late 1997, during which time Gomez also toured the United Kingdom with Embrace. 

Bring It On experienced a boost in popularity when it won the 1998 Mercury Music Prize, beating favourites such as Massive Attack’s Mezzanine and The Verve’s Urban Hymns. 

Critical reception

Bring It On was released to critical acclaim.] Contemporary critics praised Gomez’s ability to “play the blues as though they were from the Deep South” despite the band members’ young ages and English origins, according to The Independent’s John O’Reilly, with the band being compared to numerous American artists. NME critic Steve Sutherland described it as “one of the most assured, poised, hilarious, out-there, plain don’t-give-a-fuck enjoyable debut albums in living memory”. Bring It On was awarded the 1998 Mercury Music Prize, beating out bookmakers’ favourites The Verve.

Track listing

All tracks written by Ball/Blackburn/Gray/Ottewell/Peacock.

“Get Miles” 
“Whippin’ Piccadilly” 
“Make No Sound”  
“78 Stone Wobble”  
“Tijuana Lady”  
“Here Comes the Breeze”  
“Love Is Better Than a Warm Trombone”  
“Get Myself Arrested”  
“Free to Run”  
“Bubble Gum Years”  
“Rie’s Wagon”  
“The Comeback”  

https://book.events/beatsandswing/2023-10-12/42908