He is a singer-songwriter and guitarist born in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, England, and studied at Sheffield University where he met his co-bandmember Ian Ball.
He became a co-founder of the group Gomez . They debuted in Leeds in 1996 and soon were recording demos, with an album being released in 1997. 1998 brought them success with their first single release which also became a chart hit,”78 Stone Wobble”, and since then have had over a dozen chart entries as well as a No. 2 UK album chart hit with Liquid Skin in 1999 and a No. 1 hit with the album How We Operate on the US Billboard Heatseeker chart in 2006.
As a songwriter and co-writer his songs include the Top 40 hits “We Haven’t Turned Around” and “Whippin’ Piccadilly”.
He has worked with acts such as Jimmy Buffett as a guest vocalist and albums he has appeared on include Abandoned Shopping Trolley Hotline and Out West with Gomez, Take The Weather With You by Jimmy Buffett and Beauty in Madness by Hobotalk.
In the world of television and movies his songs have appeared in the films American Beauty, Forces of Nature, Gone in 60 Seconds, The Hitcher, Lost Souls and Robots among others and also in the TV series Kyle XY.
In recent times he has appeared as a solo artists in his own series of concerts.
Here he is singing “Free to Run”…
Sources:
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Ottewell
- http://www.myspace.com/gomez
- http://www.gomeztheband.com/news/
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomez_(band)
- http://www.ilikemusic.com/interviews/Gomez_Ben_Ottewell_interview-2704/1
- http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Ben%20Ottewell:1927457232?sort=za
- http://www.buffettnews.com/resources/coralreeferband/?bid=250
- http://us.imdb.com/name/nm1224606/
- http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:jcfqxqekld6e~T4