Mercury Prize-winning, British band Gomez are sharing a previously unheard track today, called ‘Someday. the new Track is lifted from the band’s upcoming 20th-anniversary release of their triumphant second album ‘Liquid Skin’, remastered from the original tapes and due for release on July 12th via Virgin/UMC.
“This is genuinely a complete mystery to me” quipped singer/guitarist Ian Ball. “When we were compiling stuff for this special deluxe thing we’re doing here, I raided a bunch of CDs from my dad’s attic, he’d kept a bunch of stuff. I think when I moved to the States, some of my things stayed in England and my dad got it and shoved it up in Les’ Loft, as it’s known. When I was going through a bunch of the CDs just looking for stuff, alternate mixes what have you, I came across this tune that I personally have no recollection of whatsoever. So its possible I’m not involved in it, or it’s possible I was but I forgot it. But it’s definitely a Tom song, I could tell that much. It’s definitely us, our band. I thought it was fun, I’d be curious to know if any of the other guys have memory of it. Tom probably would, but my memory of it is definitely blank. Which is not surprising really considering it was 20 years ago and we did do a lot of recording back then – it wasn’t easy to keep track of everything.’
Surrounded by instruments, broken toys and a four-track recorder, Gomez recorded large parts of their debut album Bring It On in a garage in their hometown of Southport. To create its follow-up, Liquid Skin, the group would expand their horizons sonically and geographically, visiting America, an ill-fated English stately home & some of the finest recording studios in the world between 1998 and 1999.
There was no pause between Bring It On and Liquid Skin – the records were released just 518 days apart. “The first album and this one merge into one in a lot of ways. A lot of the tracks were written at the same time” explains singer/guitarist Ben Ottowell. “There’s a song called ‘Bring It On’ on Liquid Skin, which says it all really. They were made very closely together, so it seemed like part of the same process. We were constantly making records”.
As a result, writing and recording for Gomez’s second album did not so much have a definitive start but instead, it emerged out of the same creative energy as their debut, although it soon took its own distinctive path… Gomez’s drummer Olly Peakcock commented; “Liquid Skin was the step from the four-track and recording in a garage to us accepting – in the most ridiculous way – that we were now doing music professionally. ‘Oh shit we somehow got our record deal, we are a band and we go to the studio now. We’re not going to be hacking it all together.’ There was an excitement because there were less limitations”
“We were just using things we had access to… and for this album we had access to an orchestra! We just had a broader palette and we were getting more confident” added Ben.
Going to Number 2 in the UK Album Chart on its release in September 1999, Liquid Skin not only justified the label’s faith to allow the band to work how and where they wanted, but it saw the British band crystallize their unique sound & grow audiences in America, Australia and other parts of the world, confirming that their Mercury Prize-winning debut was no fluke.
The new Liquid Skin deluxe 2CD will include 5 previously unreleased tracks, 4 previously unreleased alternate versions and 9 live tracks recorded at The Fillmore in San Francisco in 2000. There will be an accompanying remastered double LP release on black 180gm + a limited D2C transparent edition too.
Listen to ‘Someday’ – BELOW:
In support of the release, Gomez have also recently announced a string of special headline dates and festival performances this July such as Latitude, Kendall Calling and London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire. The band also tour Australia and New Zealand later in the year, and will perform both Bring It On AND Liquid Skin in their entirety at both the Auckland and Brisbane shows. All dates are listed below.
TOUR DATES
UK FESTIVAL & TOUR DATES
JULY
18 Bexhill De La Warr Pavilion
18-21 Latitude Festival Suffolk
20 Larmer Tree Festival Salisbury
21 London Shepherds Bush Empire
23 Sheffield Leadmill
24 Glasgow O2 Academy
25 Kendal Calling Kendall
26 Manchester Ritz
AUSTRALIA AND NZ DATES
NOVEMBER
01 Auckland, Powerstation
03 Melbourne Lost Lands Festival
05 Sydney The Metro,
07 Perth Freo Social, – SOLD OUT
08 Perth Freo Social
10 Melbourne The Croxton, – SOLD OUT
11 Melbourne The Croxton
12 Adelaide The Gov,
13 Brisbane The Tivoli,
14 Brisbane The Tivoli, – SOLD OUT
ALBUM TRACKLISTING
CD1:
Liquid Skin REMASTERED
1 Hangover
2 Revolutionary Kind
3 Bring It On
4 Blue Moon Rising
5 Las Vegas Dealer
6 We Haven’t Turned Around
7 Fill My Cup
8 Rhythm & Blues Alibi
9 Rosalita
10 California
11 Devil Will Ride
Previously unreleased demos
12 Throwin’ Myself Away
13 Nobody’s Girl
14 Someday
15 Brother Lead
16 Summer
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