Guest blog by Lucy Donnelly
You know, there’s a lot of pressure on a ‘guest writer’. I liken it to ‘the plight of the substitute teacher’- remember those poor souls that used to come in for a day when Miss Whatzername was taking her fortnightly sick day? (I’d curl up with my hip flask for a few Mondays too if I had to teach a bunch of adolescents trigonometry all year) It could go one of two ways: Teacher could either come in with poise and don’t-fuck-with-me-I-know-what-I’m-doing glint in his/her eye, triggering instant (yet somewhat sulky) respect…or, more commonly, they find themselves mercilessly consumed by a class of ravenous carnivores, screams and shouts of ‘PUT DOWN THE BUNSEN BURNER!!! PLEASE!!!! FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, JUST… JUST… AAARRRRGHHH!” audible from outside. They have a tiny window of opportunity to prove themselves, before it’s slammed shut – usually on their fingers. Not unlike the tale of the guest writer: One shot, knowing you’ll always be compared to the regulars and (in this case) knowing the said regulars have already covered most of the songs that you wanted to do (selfish pricks). Knowing this, I tried to get some tips from the head honcho: “Ohh you know, just write about a song you really love. Nothing hipster”. And that was really all I was given to work with.
Thankfully, I chanced upon a rather large void in their collection, begging to be filled. Boys and girls, it is my pleasure to present Gomez. English indie-oldies Ian Ball, Olly Peacock, Paul Blackburn and Tom Gray have been a happy little quad since way back when in ’96. Legend has it they were nameless until their first gig, when the band left a sign out the front reading ‘Gomez the gig’s in here’ as a message for a mate (named ‘Gomez’, funnily enough). People saw the sign and assumed this was actually the band’s name, so they ran with it. I guess the real Gomez could have been either flattered or creeped out by that, but either way the name stuck. And he didn’t sue them, which is always nice. Poor old Santo -woops- ‘Santigold’.
After signing with Virgin Records in 1997, Gomez later released this track, ‘Whippin’ Piccadilly’ as one of the initial singles from their debut album, the Mercury Prize winning Bring It On. And it really is a superb album – beats me why it never actually made it onto the charts, when its inferior, yet still very decent successors all managed to wriggle their way in there. As my Ipod has recently decided to establish even more control over our relationship by refusing to do anything but ‘shuffle’ – the damn thing knows I’ll cease to function if anything happens to it, therefore I’m forced to grit my teeth and endure its various malfunctions – I was pleasantly surprised when it landed on this little forgotten beauty this morning.
‘Whippin’ Picadilly’ is one of those songs everybody recognises but can never quite remember the name. And it’s a crowd pleaser – the opening few bars of guitar chords, simplistic and upbeat, never fail to prompt a little smile on one’s dial. It basically tells the story of a few fun-loving chaps, out for a day of larking about in Manchester – the title referring of course to the Manchester Piccadilly Station. How they got such a carefree, happy-go-lucky sounding tune out of that though I’ll never know. Anybody who has ever been to the station itself knows that the only thing it inspires is misanthropy and consistent, violent urges to stab the bloke standing on your toe with your umbrella.
After a few bars of the catchy guitar riff, Ben Ottewell’s husky, laid-back voice comes in with the first verse and you notice a few things: firstly, he just sounds so damn sexy! I’m sorry but there’s not really a better adjective I can use there, besides, my thesaurus concurs. It’s understated, relaxed and slightly rootsy. In fact I have actually been known to mimic it in my various seduction attempts – though disturbingly I always seem to get closer to Louis Armstrong. Probably why they remain ‘attempts’. Another thing, rather than draw on that whole whiny Brit-rock groove that was so popular at the time, the guys veer away and tap into a more ’70s Californian vibe. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, nor try too hard – they sound like what they are (or were): a bunch of talented twenty-something year-olds, makin’ music and enjoying it.
Lyrically the song is pretty straightforward, though I myself find the refrain of ‘We like loving, yeah, and the wine we share’ to be quite poignant – but then again I have just spent the day guzzling Moroccan wine and unsuccessfully attempting to spoon the housecat. But you know what? Who freakin’ bloody well cares that it’s a happy little song about a simple scenario, totally devoid of ‘deep and meaningful’ subtle symbolism and other poetic blah? Sometimes you just need a feel-good track that makes you want to don a silly boater hat, grab a cane and dance like somebody from Mary Poppins in a public place. And that’s exactly what you get from this track. Well, that and you find yourself really craving a joint.
And so, the moral of the story is this: if you do get a sudden yearning for a Gomez album in the near future, skip past the 2006 How We Operate (yes I know sweetie, I know.. it HAS had tracks on a few House and Grey’s Anatomy episodes, but just do yourself a favour here and tell the 46-year old hormonally unstable woman in your head to shut up for a few hours) and grab Bring It On. Comfortable, mellow and lazily experimental, it’s not a purchase you’re likely to regret. Class dismissed.
Gomez – ‘Whippin’ Piccadilly’
ED: Lucy has been a subversive part of our existence for nigh on two years, since we fatefully met during an awful marketing exercise gone wrong which involved lots of race cars and morons in a regional town. She’s frequently seen collecting ticket stubs at dance music festivals, writing music news and engaging in random activities that most people only write songs about. We would like to point that she wrote this piece in a different timezone and a country where their keyboards are notoriously fucked up, so extra credit points there. If she didn’t get blackballed by our previous work, Lucy was going to post on Blink 182, Crazytown or probably Marilyn Manson. She’s awesome like that.
Tell Gomez the gig’s in here.
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