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Live Music Guide, November 1999.

It's getting a bit late in the millenium for such retro references, but do you remember the TV advert for Denim aftershave? Y'know "For the man who doesn't have to try - too hard."

Well, ballboy are the band who don't try too hard. Opting for a simple and pleasant melody courtesy of synth effects and drifty, dreamy keyboards, with uncomplicated guitar and bass combinations, ballboy's sound soothes your nerves and invites you to daydream to their lyrics.

Not too out of the ordinary observations and idiosyncracies of life drift over the music, softly spoken in straightforward lingo. Kinda like a half-spoken word album with gentle indie-loungecore accompaniment. And even though their tales are about parts of their own lives, the situations always seems to tenderly apply to a part of your own.

Despite the slivers of Belle & Sebastian and The Wedding Present you can trace in their sound, ballboy still seem very fresh in a unique way. When you hear something as special and quietly joyous as this, any such comparisons seem irrelevant anyway.

Tall Paul R

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Gratis Magazine, April 2000.

Who hates Scotland?

Dave Beacontree questions the frontman of one of Edinburgh's finest - ballboy

HARKING from Edinburgh, four piece band ballboy have been playing with the current line up - Gordon McIntyre (vocals and guitars), Nick Reynolds (bass), Katie Griffiths (keyboards) and Gary Morgan (drums) - for a very hectic thirteen months. Along the way they have released EP 'silversuitsforastronauts', recorded a session for BBC Scotland's alternative show Beat Patrol and have just played a session for the John Peel Show. Meanwhile key track - 'donald in the bushes with a bag of glue' - has enjoyed regular radio play North of the border and on both the John Peel and Steve Lamacq shows. Why do you need to know this? Because we reckon ballboy are onto something and, with their second EP 'i hate scotland' in the can, we think its time to give them your attention. To help you we met up with frontman Gordon just after a sell out Edinburgh gig.

Is 'i hate Scotland' anti-Scottish?

'i hate scotland' is obviously not an anti-Scottish song, although it does address many of the things which I think prevent Scotland from becoming a more forward thinking nation. The central theme of the song is personal freedom versus social responsibility and I think that in Scotland we often have an in-built inability to allow ourselves to treat people how we would really like to. There is, in a sense, a culture of failure, of underachieving. But, at the same time, there are some wonderful and inventive things which break free from this - and those are what make living in Scotland interesting and worthwhile. I think I would just like Scotland to have broader horizons. We need to move away from the half-arsed rantings of Alex Salmond and his cartoon nationalism towards a more thoughtful way of interacting with each other.

You have a song called 'Sex is Boring'. Is sex with you boring?

Aye - sometimes.

Are your song titles deliberately controversial?

No, they're deliberately interesting. That might sound a bit wanky, but I don't see the point in spending time on a song just to give it a boring title. I see the titling of songs as a wee reward for having finished them.

On 'silversuitsforastronauts' you begin the song 'dumper truck racing' with the line, 'it's time to start a new world order' is it?

That's not a political song. The line refers to sorting out your own life and making sure that you have your priorities right. The rest of the song is about friendship and hope and love and confidence.

And do you have your priorities right now?

Getting there, I think, at last.

You have been regularly compared to other Scottish bands such as Belle and Sebastian and Arab Strap - does this please you or not?

Whilst it's always nice to be compared to bands who are admired and admirable and whilst I understand the need for journalists to make comparisons, I think that the comparisons made are lazy in the extreme and are based on the fact that we're Scottish rather than anything else. To be honest the whole thing annoys me more than it should.

What has been the highlight of your musical career so far?

Coming off stage in Princes Street Gardens in Edinburgh after winning a battle of the band competition thing to be told by Edward - who runs SL records - that he had enough money to finally release our first EP. Either that or the recording of the Peel Session earlier this year. Or perhaps hearing John Peel play us and say how good our song was. Or perhaps ... etc ... etc ...

Do you listen to your own songs when you're at home?

Absolutely, I like our songs.

Do you have a favourite ballboy song?

It changes all the time, but at the moment it's a song called 'Swim for Health' which I wrote when I was unusually low and it helped to get things out of my system and stop me becoming a miserable bastard.

What does the future hold for ballboy?

Basically just getting stronger and stronger, I think, until someone with money gives us some so that we can do this full-time. I used to think I'd like to sign to a record company who had some integrity and cared about the band, but they don't exist. Well they do exist, but they don't have big piles of money.