Gomez Aside, Ball Does Bad Elvis

From Step Inside

Gomez aside, Ball does 'bad' Elvis

PAUL STEWART 19 June 2005 Sunday Herald Sun

Ian Ball has a strange way of passing his spare time, PAUL STEWART reports.

WHAT do rock stars do in their spare time? If you are Ian Ball of popular English act Gomez, you conduct your own "musical experiments".

"At the moment I am performing a number of solo shows around Los Angeles," he said this week while promoting his band's latest double live CD Out West.

"The difference with these events, though, is I am only performing songs that Elvis Presley recorded in his really bad movies. "My favourite at the moment is a song called Queenie Wahine's Papaya from the Elvis movie Paradise Hawaiian Style," he said.

"Some of these songs are really just absolutely shocking."

Ball said the experimental shows provided him with "an ideal break from the band and a chance to try something completely different".

"I am amazed at how many bad songs Elvis had to record and sing in his Hollywood years but how on each one he would sing as if his life depended on it," he said. "That is what I find interesting and is the reason why I am conducting an Elvis bad-song experiment."

Gomez has attracted a worldwide cult following since winning a prestigious UK Mercury Award in 1998 with debut album Bring It On. Oddly, the band did not even have a name when it performed its first show.

"It is the stuff of legend now," Ball said. "We had a friend whose last name was Gomez, who had a really poor sense of direction and got lost on the way to the show. "One of the guys in the band placed a large sign next to the English pub's door that read `Gomez -- the gig is here!'." Ever since then, the six-member group has gone by the name Gomez.

The band's new album is a two-disc live effort recalling a successful run of shows at San Francisco's Fillmore Theatre in January this year. Ball said the band had originally recorded more than 50 songs for the album, including its own hits, as well as versions of Tom Waits' Going Out West and Nick Drake's Black Eyed Dog.

He said the Fillmore Theatre in San Francisco had been the band's second choice venue to record a live album. "Honestly, we really wanted to record it in Australia as we love it there so much, but we could not get the technical side of it happening in time," he said.

"The only problem with touring Australia is that we tend to party on with the locals far too much and things can get out of hand. "Touring Australia can be bad for your health."

Recently, Gomez suffered a major setback: the band lost its English record label. US musician Dave Matthews' new label, ATO Records, was quick to snap up the band. "There is a huge sense of catharsis in finally enjoying the chance to record a live album," Ball said.

"The world is so small though it does not really matter where we live. Besides, we are always on the road touring, so we all do not really call any place a permanent home."

An indication of the strong Gomez work ethic is how the band members go out of their way to thank their live crew on the new album. "Obviously, having a good crew around you makes life so much easier for everyone," he said. "These guys are good friends of mine."