Benjamin Ely (born 13 September 1970) is an Australian musician and artist best known for his work with alternative rock band

Regurgitator Regurgitator are an Australian rock band from Brisbane, Queensland, formed in late 1993 by Quan Yeomans on lead vocals, guitar and keyboards; Ben Ely on bass guitar, keyboards and vocals; and Martin Lee on drums. Their debut studio album, ''Tu ...

Early life

Born in

Brisbane Brisbane ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the states and territories of Australia, Australian state of Queensland, and the list of cities in Australia by population, third-most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a populati ...

, Ely's family moved to the outer suburb of

Cleveland Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

. During his high school years he became friends with musicians members Dave Atkins and Jim Sinclair, with whom he would later form

Pangaea Pangaea or Pangea () was a supercontinent that existed during the late Paleozoic and early Mesozoic eras. It assembled from the earlier continental units of Gondwana, Euramerica and Siberia during the Carboniferous approximately 335 million y ...

. He met guitarist

Quan Yeomans Quan Yeomans (born 12 December 1972) is an Australian musician best known as the frontman of the band Regurgitator. Early years Yeomans was born in Sydney to a fifth-generation Australian father, Neville, and his mother Lien, a well-known Vi ...

in 1993, with whom he formed Regurgitator. He claims that meeting Yeomans is the most important thing that has ever happened to him, stating that "I am a big fan of his work. I guess that helps when you play in a band with them". With regard to his musical influences, Ely has previously stated "

Metallica Metallica is an American heavy metal band. The band was formed in 1981 in Los Angeles by vocalist/guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...

and

Black Sabbath Black Sabbath were an English rock music, rock band formed in Birmingham in 1968 by guitarist Tony Iommi, drummer Bill Ward (musician), Bill Ward, bassist Geezer Butler and vocalist Ozzy Osbourne. They are often cited as pioneers of heavy met ...

made me who I am today".

Music

Aside his tenure in

, Ely has worked on other music projects: *

is a

punk Punk or punks may refer to: Genres, subculture, and related aspects * Punk rock, a music genre originating in the 1970s associated with various subgenres * Punk subculture, a subculture associated with punk rock, or aspects of the subculture s ...

and

metal A metal (from Greek μέταλλον ''métallon'', "mine, quarry, metal") is a material that, when freshly prepared, polished, or fractured, shows a lustrous appearance, and conducts electricity and heat relatively well. Metals are typicall ...

band from

, Australia that Ely fronted since the early 1990s. *

Jump 2 Light Speed Jump 2 Light Speed is an Australian band from Brisbane, Queensland fronted by Ben Ely. Members *Ben Ely bass & vocals (Regurgitator, Pangaea, Broken Head, The Stalkers) *Stella Mozgawa drums 2005-2006 (Holidays on Ice) * Tim Browning drums 20 ...

released a self-titled album in 2006 and featured Ben Ely on bass and vocals, Graeme Kent on guitar (later replaced by former

Channel V Channel '' ("V" standing for the letter, not the Roman numeral "5") is a Chinese and former Asian pay television musical network originally launched by Star TV Hong Kong (now Fox Networks Group Asia Pacific). It was part of the unit of Disney ...

presenter Steve Bourke), Keita Tarlinton on keyboards and Stella Mozgawa on drums (later replaced by Tim Browning). *

Broken Head Broken Head (also styled as Brokenhead) is a dub band from Brisbane, Queensland, which was formed after a six-hour jam session in 1996 by Regurgitator's Ben Ely on bass guitar, Skritch from Gota Cola on drums and Guy Webster on guitar. The ...

is a dub band featuring

Skritch Skritch is an Australian musician. He sings, plays drums, guitar, bass and keyboards and has been a member of The Long Johns, Gota Cola, Broken Head, Mary Trembles, Tex Perkins' Dark Horses, SKAM Artist and Ranger A Ranger is typically someon ...

and Guy Webster and formerly Ely. *

The Stalkers The Stalkers are a rock band from Australia. They formed in April 2002 when Regurgitator was taking a break. Members *Ben Ely (Regurgitator, Pangaea, Broken Head, Jump 2 Light Speed) *Peter Kostic (Regurgitator, Front End Loader, Kryptonics, ...

is a punk band with Regurgitator member

Peter Kostic Peter Kostic is an Australian drummer best known as a member of Regurgitator and prolific black metal band Nazxul. Kostic joined Regurgitator in 1991 after its original drummer left. He has also been a member of Hard-Ons, Front End Loader, Krypt ...

along with Ray Ahn and Raymond Lalotoa. * Ouch My Face is an experimental punk band from Melbourne, Australia featuring Ben Ely on Bass, Celeste Potter on guitar and vocals and Ben Wundersitz on drums. * Pow Pow Wow * Ben Ely's Radio 5 released his first official solo album, ''Transcending Reality'', in 2008. The band is unusual for its set-up where Ely performs lead vocals while standing up and drumming a simple drum kit made up of flat-lying kick drums, cymbals and snare. * Solo album "Goodbye Machine" was released in 2015. The back of the album cover states: "Over the last 2 years Ben collected many lyrical ideas in a strange kind of therapy that reflects his discomfort with the current government, state of the environment, and our place as human beings in this world." A different musical direction once again for the highly versatile Ely. Ely also co-wrote, (together with

Decoder Ring Decoder Ring is an experimental electronic-rock crossover group from Australia. History Decoder Ring was formed in 2001, in Sydney, Australia. The original line-up consisted of Tom Schutzinger (Keyboards, drums), Geoff Towner (bass, El Mopa) ...

), the music to the 2004 Australian film ''Somersault'', starring

Abbie Cornish Abbie Cornish (born 7 August 1982) is an Australian actress. Cornish is best known for her film roles as Heidi in ''Somersault'' (2004), Fanny Brawne in '' Bright Star'' (2009), Sweet Pea in ''Sucker Punch'' (2011), Lindy in '' Limitless'' (20 ...

. The soundtrack won an

AFI Award The Australian Film Institute (AFI) was founded in 1958 as a non-profit organisation devoted to developing an active film culture in Australia and fostering engagement between the general public and the Australian film industry. It is responsi ...

for Best Original Music Score and the song 'Somersault' won the 2004 Best Original Song Composed for a Feature Film, Telemovie, TV Series or Mini-Series Award at the Australian Screen Music Awards.

Personal life

Ely is also a successful practising artist and has exhibited work at The TAP Gallery in Darlinghurst, Sydney, and Flipbook Gallery in Brisbane as well as an exhibition in Fitzroy, Melbourne with his female Ouch My Face bandmate. ''Game Over!'' art exhibition. Ely was the partner of

Yumi Stynes Yumi Tasma Stynes (born 2 June 1975) is a feminist television and radio presenter, podcaster and author. She is the co-host of KIIS FM's 3PM Pick-Up radio show and presenter of the ABC Radio podcast ''Ladies, We Need to Talk'' about female heal ...

from 2001. They separated after eight years, in 2008. They have two daughters, Anouk and Dee Dee. He later remarried and had more children with his new partner "Regurgitator still getting their roxx off" SMH https://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/music/regurgitator-still-getting-their-roxx-off-20180731-p4zund.html

References

External links

Ben Ely Facebook

Regurgitator On Tour
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ely, Ben 1970 births APRA Award winners Living people Musicians from Brisbane Australian songwriters People from Redland City