Mischief-makers do whatever they feel like

By TIM LAMB

You know you are making it big as a band when the quality of knickers being thrown on stage is improving.

"I've had the big giant drawers with messages written on them, but it was a higher class of underwear," says a surprised Gomez vocalist/guitarist Tom Gray about the incident at a Melbourne concert earlier this week.

The five British lads have been in Australia kicking off a world tour, where between performing sell-out shows in three cities, they have been consuming copious amounts of alcohol and, I suggest, getting up to mischief.

"It depends on what you call mischief," Gray replies. "I'm not much of a smasher, I prefer more abstract mischief to the destructive kind."

When asked to explain a typical example of Gomez post-concert mischief, Gray recounts a wrestling match that took place between the guys on a pool table in an Aussie pub.

"I don't remember who won," he adds, "I don't think anybody did. But it was entertainment for everybody. It's been a bit of a 24-hour party in Australia and everyone's hangovers are at critical mass now; the collateral damage is starting to build up."

Gomez play Wellington tonight and Auckland tomorrow on the back of the release of their fourth studio album, Split the Difference.

The album has delivered 13 concise, punchy, blues/folk tracks with more of a rock edge than their previous works. In the process, the new songs signal a departure from the studio-influenced experimental work associated with earlier albums, becoming a more direct, live sound.

So, not surprisingly, it's a tour that brings with it high expectations, both from fans and the band members themselves.

"We started off very much as a studio band, because that's all we were, we did not play live music," Gray says. "Now I feel like I'm in a touring band who just happens to put out albums. I think the studio is somewhere we really excel, but anyone who listens to this record is going to instantly know how much more visual it is than the last one."

The 26-year-old's enthusiasm turns to great surprise while recalling the band's evolution. "Some nights I look at us on stage, with all the lights and everything, I think, 'When did we all get so slick?' I remember when we first used to tour we were just a dodgy band that just used to hope it would stay together long enough to sound okay."

Gomez have been together since 1996. A mixture of school and university friends, the bandmates found fame early in their careers when their 1998 debut album Bring It On won the top British music trophy, the Mercury Music Award.

They have successfully toured the United States on numerous occasions, but only now is their partially American-influenced sound beginning to draw mainstream acclaim.

"Amazingly we are starting to get radio play there for the first time in seven years of touring there, which is a real big step in the right direction, as you can imagine," says Gray. "But I don't think we want to end up playing in arenas, because Gomez don't really suit that anyway."

With the cancellation of the touring festival Lollapalooza, which Gomez were supposed to play, they will make their own way around the US in a new tour Gray calls "Gomez-apalooza".

"It's just a great place to tour because you can keep going, in Britain you do like 12 gigs and you've done the whole country. A lot of British bands aren't touring for that reason. We now have a reputation as a touring band, which is quite unusual for a British band, or is novel I suppose."

Gomez will depart for New York after their Auckland concert, which also signals the opening of the city's newest live music venue, Studio in K Rd.

"I don't think we've opened a venue before in our entire existence," Gray deliberates and pauses for a few seconds. "We might have closed a few."

He has a few suggestions of how he would like Studio opened; by cutting a giant ribbon across the stage, a bunny girl jumping out of a cake, or simply explosions.

Even if those proposals aren't taken on board, Gray is confident Gomez will deliver.

"It's quite hard to get bored at a Gomez show, because it's always changing. It's not like you're coming to see one band, it's like you're coming to see six bands all performing at the same time.

"Everything we have ever done is just a reflection of what we felt like doing.

"We can be everything or nothing; we can be hippies and hipsters, mods and rockers, all wrapped up in one band. I think anybody can like one Gomez song."

Performance

* Who: Gomez

* Where and when: Studio, 340 Karangahape Rd, Saturday, 8pm