Gomez

"I think it becomes a lot easier to get up on stage...You kind of enjoy it a lot more in certain ways. Initially, when you're that young, when you get on the road you get hammered every night, but as time goes on you slow it down a bit."

Paul Blackburn, Gomez vocalist/keyboardist/bassist is a little unsure about the idea of being a rock music veteran. Indeed, it is hard to believe that Gomez are aging and that the fresh sounds that the band continually produce are now coming from a band in their tenth year running. It's a fair call that the band are taking it a little easier, but surely it's not their bodies that are slowing down?

Blackburn is adamant, "Oh no - not in that way, we're doing fine. We're not quite at a stage of Cliff Richard or anything yet. Not to say anything against Cliff Richard of course."

Touring their seventh album, 'How We Operate', Gomez would have reason to be feeling weary. Like most bands these days, their tour schedule has been hectic - most of the northern hemisphere's summer is filled with USA Gomez shows.

"But we've got some time off at the moment, then we're at festivals in Portugal, Belgium and then we're off to Australia."

And yet, the time-off is obviously used up to keep the PR machine running with interviews such as these - I can appreciate the work ethic of rock stars.

Talking about travelling, it came as a humourous surprise to find, through Wikipedia of all means, the trivial statement that Gomez drummer, Olly Peacock, is an 'avid collector of Igaunas and ceramic monkies from his travels.' Except for the spelling mistake, I put it to Blackburn whether this was true, he replied in the positive.

"He's a bit of an odd one. I'm not too sure what other skeletons he's got in the closet either...Yeah [Gomez] have a few [skeletons]...I'm sure if you jump back on Wikipedia from time to time some more quirks will pop up."

After ten years of committed rock marriage, despite Gomez maintaining their original line-up, one would assume a few problems would have arisen. As of late, Blackburn tells me, the problems revolved around record company stresses on their previous two albums, 'In Our Gun' and 'Split The Difference'.

"The records almost weren't even released...It was very stressful."

Listening to Blackburn, it is clear that administration and business headaches are prevalent, but it sounds like the personal front was all clear sailing.

"Yeah but the stress from trying to work out the record deals put tensions on personal relationships - it made it tough at times...But yeah, we're all friends, so it all works out."

The latest album, 'How We Operate', has been described by a variety of critics as the 'most honest' Gomez album to date. 'Honest', to Blackburn, is a bit of an ambiguous term.

"It's a more open album. Instead of layering the sound, I guess we've stripped away a lot of layers...A lot of electronica, for instance..."

One thing that's for sure is that their latest album is generating a whole lot more conversation than their previous two efforts, which seemed to slip past people's consciousness.

"It's had the best promotion as an album, so that's probably why it's got the strongest reaction...It's a more cohesive-sounding album, whereas 'In Our Gun' for example was a lot more wild and all over the place...People choose what they like, there's nothing wrong with having a preference either way."

For the old-stuff-is-better-than-the-new-stuff Gomez fans, the imminent tour will play host as much to the band's back catalogue as much as the new material.

"Yeah, there'll still be plenty of room for a lot of old stuff...Umm, there'll also be a lot of nudity...Ceramic monkeys...Fireworks...And fire - lots of fire!"

I ask Blackburn whether the stripped-back nature of 'How We Operate', coupled with the smaller-sized room of the Gov, would provide a more intimate show.

"Oh, definitely - our stage and production manager know about all the bookings and figures...We'll have to sort out if the stage is big enough for all our gear, but yeah, once we get to a venue, we size up the room and the show will get planned from there...Yeah, it should be a really nice, intimate show."

Steven Williams

Gomez play at the Governor Hindmarsh on Thurs 24 August. 'How We Operate' is out now through Shock.