Beer Bottle Joe MP3

Hello everyone (cavernous echo),

I wrote this new song today...the lyrics are the first from a whole bunch of stuff that I've been writing recently. It fell under my fingers in about 15 minutes. I'm quite pleased with this, its a good indication of my guitar playing. I thought about overdubbing some lead on it too, but decided that it would be better to keep it raw and pure here.

Its been nice to have my old fashioned analogue multi-tracker back at my disposal today. There is nothing like making music to take your mind away from your problems. I'm feeling pretty chipper all in all. Its been a rough few days, but I can see bright horizons. With some of the poetry that I've been writing recently I think that I will be able to fashion some fine songs out of them.

This track is about a guy who'd been beaten up, and who turned up during one of my gigs at the Beercart in Canterbury. He danced like a mad man, I was singing my track "Popular" for the second time. And after I finished it, I asked him to come and join me in the corner for a chat. He was in bad shape, and I wanted to help him. He used to busk on the streets in Canterbury. It was a powerful conversation that we had...I felt that he gave me my brief as a writer, I wrote about it in another song called "The Brief" about the contract between the artist and their audience. It was like God touching me on the forehead. Anyway, the twist to all of this was that when I went home and switched on the web at about 2 o'clock in the morning I read that John Entwistle, one of my true heroes had died.

The guy's name was John not Joe. There were times afterwards when he'd disapear for weeks or months, and then he'd turn up at a KIAD party. A gentle, kind and sensitive soul, with hands like that of an old man.

The Link is below:
Beer Bottle Joe


Hope that you enjoy it,

Tom.

Life To Life

Well, I sit here back with my old stuff, my favourite music is pumping
out of the stereo, we went down but then we came back up!
I'll be back on the road tomorrow, on the train yesterday I wrote something
called "Young and Overly Mobile".  Today I am full of fire, ready to jump new,
taller buildings.  Ready to booze, laugh, sing, joke and cry my way into the future
faster than the speed of sound, unrestrained by the past and charged the present.

Played this song first this morning (lyrics below).  I've missed my music, I love music more than
any woman, drug, bar or pay-cheque.  The urgency and the lyrics make me feel truly
powerful. I am ready to fly!

Watch me go!

Tom.


Life To Life
Words and Music by Pete Townshend. 
(Copyright Eelpie Music, 1986)
      
Gotta let my heart learn to talk

Must let my head learn to walk
                                
I must forget all the hopeless pain

Must bring my life back to life       once again

Never let them see you crying

Don't try to run before you figured how to crawl

They must believe they own the lions

Never let them guess you learned how to fall

                         
Let them brand you as a sinner

Let them think that your the one who has lost

You won't be charged with being a winner

You won't be saddled being called the boss

Bring life to   life

Life to life

Breath life into life

(life to life )
  
Give life back to life

Why pretend to be so rough and strong
When your weakness is your strongest hand
Why pretend to be so tough so long as you are really an ordinary man

Never let them see you dreaming
Never let them know you conquered your sorrow
Don't let them know your scheming
Don't let them know that you have plans for tomorrow

To bring life to life
Give life back to life
Life to life
(Life to life)
Give life back to life

Will you take the stand? Can you stand the shock?
               
They need an iron man, they wanna man of rock
        
You can keep all the games, the suicide leaps
                
Keep away from the flames, this time we're playing for keeps


Never let them see you crying
But make dang sure your not afraid to cry
Never let them see you trying
Don't let them know you're prepared to die

To bring life to life
Give life back to life
Breath life into life
(Life to life)
Give life back to life

Gotta let my heart learn to talk
Must let my head learn to walk
I must forget all the hopeless pain
Must bring my life back to life once again

What to do? Where to go?

Off in 10 minutes for lunch with my new boss.

Still don't know where I'm staying tonight...could be back in Rugby, if I can't pull things together here. Maybe not a bad idea if it allows me to recharge batteries, wash clothes, etc, etc.

Oh well, we shall see what happens for this Rock n Roll refugee tonight. I'll find a bed somewhere. I've been in tighter situations than this before. Sad to see a inspiring friend drop of the radar like this, but sometimes you just have to move on with people. How many deaths do we see in our lives, where one moment someone is living part of the fabric in your life and the next they're gone? Not even a ghost. Just cold black space.

All things must pass.

Tom.

Ah, Shit!

Well, from 7pm tonight I will be homeless. Rather shocking...rather gruesome.

But right now I have to find some way to get a roof over my head.

I got a job yesterday. Its a new project. Not great money...but could really flourish in the future. Setting up the office today.

Cross your fingers for me, I'd like to make all of this work...I need to make some good luck for myself. I don't really understand why I've ended up in this position...its rather sad.

We shall prevail.

Tom.

Obsessive Writing

I'm a strange man at the moment. I feel okay today but I've been through a few days of really bad shit. Emotional stuff, tearing away at me inside...leaving me clinging to the bare bones of my hope, praying for the possibility that I can escape what is running through my head.

Not nice.

On the plus side...and this isn't related to the crap described above, I've found myself writing poetry again instead of just lyrics. Its increadibly liberating...I am reminding myself that I could write moving poetry long before I first picked up a guitar.

I hope that this will help me find words, new words that I can mould into songs.

I wrote A LOT yesterday, it flowed very easily. Its a great satisfaction and solace from my fragile ego at the moment.

Well, off to continue to mighty job hunt today!

Have a good one bloggers wherever you are. I'll check in later.

Peace and Love.

Tom.

Afterglow

Since my startling eureka! moment earlier I have applied for about eight different jobs.

I write to you now, basking in the afterglow of what happened earlier. I should light a cigarette, turn to my guitar and ask,

"How was it for you?"

Well, actually I haven't picked up the guitar yet. I don't know if I CAN write about this concept on just a guitar...our prospective keyboard player in The Change, Rafael, is one of the finest violinists of his generation. At 25 he's already been with the L.S.O for a few years. Royal Academy educated. I promise that I do not over state the case. I will need him to help me realise this new music. He has a much finer musical mind than I, I am a writer, I complain, argue, jump around, bash my guitar. Someone once told me that I play guitar like a prize fighter...my passion as a performer knows no limits, I can express myself in words...there are some good songs in my cannon that are evidence of the fact that I can join set these words in music. I believe that my friend will help us to achieve some fantastic things with this idea...if he believes in me enough to do it.

We have a new studio, to which we will have free access to in the near future. Rafa has access to fantastic technology.

I think that we can interface these things together. Its so exciting to have come to this realisation, I've been developing various ideas that could apply to the staging of this within a narrative form. This is the beautiful thing for me; it feels fresh, alive, unbounded, without the emotional baggage of my playscript about the redefinition of English national identity, without the twang of bitter memories that lurk beneath the surface of some of those songs.

The future, creatively speaking, is clear and bright.

Time to sparkle.

Tom.

Breakthrough...

I've just stumbled upon something.

Its a musical concept. Powerful, refined, beautiful, it brings everything into my mind very clearly. It dictates elegantly to me the role of the musician/artist within society, his audience, his art.

It is truly a eureka moment. It must have come from God, but if my initial inclination is correct then it will profoundly change my life, music, work, calling. It is a formula for music and its role within human consciousness. Ancient and futuristic.

I won't explain it here now. I feel very guarded about it. It will emerge, in what form I do not know. I would describe it in visual terms as electric blue with a soft golden light irradiating from its centre. I know that this must seem very abstract of me...but I have this image in my head. Maybe it might lead you into the same place. Imagine Brancusi's "Sculpture For The Blind", in my head I can picture the highly polished metallic version that he created. Now think of it blowing up...after the dust has subsided look closely in the wreckage, there is a tablet there. Marble. Hewn from the very fabric of earth. The tablet bares upon it this formula, a living computer program.

Please don't think of me as pretentious, I am writing merely a glimpse of what flooded through my mind. It is as though a dam has been burst by a flash of divine intervention. I didn't discover this, IT discovered me. It is true that I was searching, but I was reached out to...this is not born of my efforts. I can take no credit.

I must seem mad. Let me put it like this, I've either just had a direct call from the Universe or I am very naive and deluded. Maybe, this is the start of a new creative journey. I believe that I have been handed the road map. Please stick with me on this...maybe Douglas Adams had more effect upon me than I thought.

I feel that its a huge breakthrough. It makes me feel alive.

Drank coffee at the 12 Bar Club, looking for jobs, some interesting looking bits and pieces. I hope that it comes together.

Tom.

Looking For Music

Well, its a sunny day today. I cringed in bed most of yesterday with an awful hang-over generally feeling pretty sorry for myself. There is the Royal Albert Hall poetry festival tonight, its going to be a big couple of years for me in terms of my interests in the arts. This event tonight marks the fortieth anniversary of a poetry festival at the RAH, which for many people marked the public emergence of mid sixties counterculture. Next year will be the 40th anniversary of Destruction In Art Symposium, and so I must soon get in contact with Ross Birrell of the Glasgow School of Art who is a fellow Metzger-man. I'd love to be involved, deliver a paper, or join in the debate. Gustav is showing at the moment near Angel in London.

I went to sleep quite late last night, lots of funny though trains racing through my head. I wrote lyrics for a couple of songs. They feel quite raw, I've been missing recently the magic link of inspiration when I write something down and then the music just follows. Gut turning chords drop out of the guitar, and 15 minutes later you have the makings of an absolute classic. I figure that this is because I'm living out of a suitcase again. I'm missing my CD collection particularly, and some of the rare MP3s that I usually listen to everyday. Hopefully it will come together soon, I just need someone to give me a break. Fuck it! I've got a film degree and an arts masters, and I'm still pleading with people to give me work a runner or as a go-for. I even emailed Harvey Goldsmith, and he ACTUALLY replied...doesn't sound impressive, but what I'm trying to say is that there are a couple of hundred companies out there with HR directors on huge salaries who NEVER bothered to even acknowledge my approach. So, thanks for the dignity Harvey...you're a gent. Though sadly a fully staffed one.

I've found myself rediscovering an old song of mine this week. I stopped playing it for a while, I even considered changing the lyrics...but then the other day I though "NO!". James fucking Blunt would sing it like that, Tom Matchett would do it like this!

So, I've restored it...to its former glory and look forward to playing it live again soon. Its called "The Cancer Is Within". Its not about cancer, its about the poison that collects within us when we don't communicate. I wrote it as a plea to a friend, not to eat themselves up inside with life's problems, and if they do then to go find the coast, kneel in the sea and pray for a cure.

Speak soon,

Tom.

Here's a taster of said song:

The cancer is within my friend,
The cancer is within my friend,

In memories alone and untouched,
In the torment of lovers lost,
In a heart which is solid with frost,
In the jar, and all that pot.

The cancer is within my friend,
The cancer is within my friend.

Take me to the river,
Lord,
back to the sea,
Please take me to the beach,
Where I can kneel in the sea,
Cure this disease.

Coasting For A Roasting...

Hot weather today here in London. The summer still clings for dear life.

I am looking dapper, wearing my traditional pin-stripe suit, I had an interview this morning and it went well (especially as I was 30 minutes late, bloody hard to find places here!)

I am beginning to find my feet here. One of the strangest things for me originally is total anonymity of people. You walk along, see a good looking lady, and hope that there is some eye recognition. This wasn't happening, it was like: NOTHING. Now, though I occasionally crack a smile and it usually earns me somekind of positive response. This is good. It reminds me that these people are in fact human.

So, I've been lost in London most of today. I'm trying to avoid paying for travel, so have been walking a lot but when you do this in London its very hard to stop and look around you. There is always an all consuming wave of faces attempting to drop, push and crush you into the pavement.

My psyche paid me a nasty trick in the kitchen earlier today. I thought about something negative for a moment and it brought me down. Broke the back of my confidence. Its a real roller coaster ride at the moment. A very fragile ego in very extreme circumstances.

Still though, maybe the job side of things is coming together. I hope so.

I need it to so badly at the moment. I have the whole game riding on it!

Fear not. I am good form today, hoping for better news soon, enjoying the sun.

Had an email from Harvey Goldsmith today...somehow I managed to get my hands on his direct contact...I won't reveal how...and asked him for a job as a runner/anything but unfortunately he's on the road at the moment and has someone on work experience. It was good of him to reply though...90% of H/R Officers don't! And he's the king pin.

If anyone out there needs someone to come and work for them in London, then I'm your man!!!! Just send me an email!

Peace. Out.

Tom.

Good For A Change...(Front Row For The Quo!)

So,

I had an interesting weekend. After a fairly adventurous Friday night out in the West End and Leicester Square, I checked out the Chris Ofili exhibit at the Tate. Amazing stuff. Some commentators are still banging on about his status as a "Brit Artist", and condemning his work a sensationalist purely because it uses unconventional materials such as Elephant dung. I really can't see where they're coming from. His works are intricate pieces of great sophistication and aesthethic richness. There is a wonderful balance (and so I figure also a reflection of culture around us) in this current exhibition...in that they are moving and beautiful pieces of art but they are also commerically HOT stuff. I can see people buying these and proudly displaying them in their homes or office blocks (only the very rich though), you couldn't say that about some of the more confrontational examples of Alison Lapper's work. I also saw the Eurofighter, Spitfire and Hurricane fly-past over the Thames. Those Merlin engines still make a glorious and unmistakeable sound.

Then on Sunday, finding myself short on funds I caught the tube down to the Thames where a rather colourful parade was kicking off. Unknown to most, was that Status Quo (oh, yes...The Quo) were about to play on a boat there to celebrate ITV's 50th anniversary (which has been boring me to tears with the self-congratulatory programming of recent weeks) and their own 40th anniversary. One of my friends was cheerleading for them too.

So, there was myself and a few friends and a handful of others watching the Quo MIME along to Rocking all over the world, My Sweet Caroline...and there latest single "The Part Ain't Over...Yet". Ha ! They didn't even play live, so maybe it was over a long time ago. I was pretty disappointed about it. They have a certain cult kudos these days. What was funny, was the mouthy young lad watching with his Mum who was shouting heckling the Quo.

"Turn it up! You're Rubbish! Boo!" Etc, etc.

His Mum turned and scolded him,

"You can't talk to them like that! Shut up!"

So, I lent over and said,

"Look. You can't criticise the Quo...they're the Queen Mother rock n roll!"

And Mother Brown, and her son all got their knees up...and had a good laugh.

I started writing what will become a truly great song on Friday. Every now and then, I find some chords falling beneth my fingers and I move. I had a moment like that on Friday...chorus, bridge, verse...they just dropped out in this wonderful melody. And straightaway I could hear the parts for the rest of the band.

Its a very contemporary sounding track. In fact, it's just the kind of stuff that I try to avoid listening too...but there is no denying strength of what has just poured out of me. I don't like contemporary...I like timeless. I want every song that I write to become a classic, or at least to have the chance. I think that rock music can do that particularly well because it is music which is about issues that transcend generations and eras. I love the Stones, The Who, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, etc, etc, but I love Radiohead and Mansun too. I even like Daft Punk and Air. But when people tell me that some of my tastes are old, I remind them that I also like Purcell, Bach, Mozart, Robert Johnson, even Gregorian chants. Its all just music...its all just notes that dial their way into our brains, hearts and souls. Wouldn't it be wonderful to think that all the music ever made was just some-kind of software that integrated within us to make us more human?

I think so. I suppose that this touches upon a story that I once wrote about a world of music, where even the buildings are constructed and sustained by the relationship and interactions and generation of vibration and energy (I am becoming convoluted here and so will stop). I will instead put it very simply in a personal perspective:

I remember being on stage. I remember the flesh being cut from my fingers as the guitar strings caught them. I can recall flying through the air. I remember her face as I battered the final note. I touched the face of God.

I wonder what I will do with my new song. I'm itching to play live at the moment, but I'm going job hunting mad. Once I have that sorted then I will be able to make music again, the way that I want to. I feel so frustrated at the moment that I can't even watch a band on television let alone in a bar.

Speak soon.

Peace and Love.

Tom

I like the fire...

Wrote a few lyrics over some coffee in the 12 Bar Club this morning. Strong coffee.

One is called: Charge Of The Sloane Rangers

Another is called: To The Blues.

And the best one is: I like The Fire.

I like the fire,
I like to burn,
I like the fire,
the fire makes me turn.

I feel wired,
But I have to yearn,
I feel wired,
so wired that I burn.

I like the fire,
I want to burn,
caught by the flame,
and hooked on the game.

Just a few stanzas. The last one is the chorus. Not my best stuff. Not by a long way. But I like writing about fire and ice as metaphors for drive, the need to create, to express, to catch fire like a beacon until others see the flame.

That kind of thing.

Right! I have to go. Just one more thing. It went through my head when I was in the Twelve Bar. When Joe Strummer died, my grandfather (the Masonic Lord no-less) had just arrived for Christmas. He said that no-one would care that this fellow was dead. I can't remember if I'd cried...but I felt a big hole inside. Strummer and The Clash were/are big heroes of mine...and he'd always seemed like an absolutely top man. Strange how I can see the value in my 89 year old Grandfather's heroes, that I can empathise with him but that the man writes off Joe.

I shouldn't be so harsh on him. It was just a thought.

Blogs breed spontaneity (?spelling?).

Tom.

Apologies for the lack of photographs (there are some earlier in this blog, but I don't have my digital camera here and am in the web cafes).

Chasing The Silver Thread

The room that I woke up in this morning was very cold, something that I'd dearly wished for last night when the atmosphere was so stifiling, but the sky is crystal blue today outside and I can don my Ray Bans and wonder around with a degree of confidence once again.

I've had a phone call today from the Roundhouse, for whom I've had great affection for ever since researching 1960s counterculture and the alignment between rock and the avant-garde arts world. The venue was almost abandoned ten years ago, but somehow they've managed to get things together with a £29 million refit. The great thing is that the people working there are keyed up on the whole ethic of the place's past. I'm off soon to help them mail out some things (all voluntary, but believe me...its a pleasure), they're going to publish one of my articles in the forthcoming copy of their newsletter. A humble start, but if nothing else I am pleased to contribute.

I felt quite depressed yesterday, wandering through Leicester Square by myself. The great irony is that I find myself quite a fascinating person, but that people tend to find people who find themselves interesting the most boring! Ha ha. Such is life, but you can't change who you're made up to be. Anyway, as found my way through the streets I remember a lyric that I wrote in one of my songs:

When I start to drown,
I feel for the thread,
its still in my heart,
and its still in my head.

And I thought, hmmm well if that's what you preach then Tommy you should fucking well stand by it shouldn't you. So, I pondered it and agreed with myself. I was right then, and I'm right now. It was from my song (Don't you ever lose) The Silver Thread, which is about how no matter how much spiritual torment, suffering or pain you go through, there is always a thread of hope, call it the trace of God, whatever...I always found this quite an elegant concept.

So, today I am looking forward to my trek up to Camden to help out the Roundhouse. I've reminded myself that I can write good things that have good intentions.

All shall be well.

Tom.

"Well, you gave wine,
and you gave me faith,
you cracked my lip,
and I liked the taste!"

My Grim Adventures In Job Hunting...

Hello,

Believe it or not bloggers, some of us are desperate to get a job. But here is the problem. I'm a naturally honest chap and so in an interview if the interrogator asks me:

"What is it that you really want to do?"

I feel the urge to respond:

"I want to be a rock musician."

They roll their eyes and then I'll probably enter into one of my twenty minute lectures on the difference between a rock MUSICIAN and a rock STAR, and how I believe that rock has the power to move people and change the hearts of people more than politics, the encroachment of civil liberties, etc, etc, etc. If they don't cut me off, then I might even add that I believe that this music can belong in spaces where it is tied in with other more art forms (HA! Why the hell not? Gustav Metzger used to do amazing light shows for Cream and a few other bands and although he's the hard, controversial edge of Flux art,...he told me that it was one of the highlights of his life!").

Nonetheless, I need to get a job as my money is running out and I can't impose myself on my friends for too much longer. I'm asking around, submitting articles to and c.v's to newspapers, etc, etc. Very frustrating though... and I am one man all alone in a collosal city. I can feel the occasional twang of uncertainty eating away at my gut.

Still though, I'm a man of ideas and I'm sure that things CAN come together. One of the twists of having a self-obsessive, imaginative nature is that you can have ideas that seem so good but are always competing for the necessary personal attention to make them fly. Occasionally, my poor battered ego does for my confidence too at the moment.

I keep on trying to write songs when I'm back from job hunting each day. Its NOT happening. I feel starved emotionally at the moment, despite the intensity of what's going on, the emotions are blunt and foreboding instead of bright and inspiring. I'll keep the faith nonetheless. If anyone is looking for a chap with his acoustic guitar and some songs to support them then give me a call. I'd feel a lot happier if I had some momentum for music RIGHT NOW, it might even help my spirit for job hunting.

The weather is gruesome today here in London Town. Wet, sweaty, euuugh. There's a picture of James Jagger (Mick's 19 year old son) in the Evening Standard with a couple of blond beauties. Good on him, but you know what? These people should give the fella a break and not stick him in the bloody paper over it. He has the right to become famous, attain celebrity status on his own merits. It should be his choice (but then again, maybe he likes it...who knows?). As the days go by here, I am learning more and more about the superficial micro-environment here...its interesting how Sloane Rangers are still in the loop without much effort. All of this said, I would rather be ugly and angry than just confused and gorgeous. Life is much more interesting that way. The downside (but hopefully creative positive) to being so interested in oneself is that it reveals the cracks in your own character, and pretty much all the time at the moment I'm thinking negative things about myself, my vocation, my need to work creatively and to choose music as my medium. Then again of course, music chose me...and if I recounted a couple of stories about my "brief" as a writer here (which I'll do another time) then you'd realise why I'm so serious about the whole affair.

Apologies for rambling, I have rambling on my mind at the moment. I feel cold, my stomach tight, surrounded by people but isolated. SPEAK TO ME BLOGGERS!!!!

Peace and Love.

Tom.

Being There...

Well,

four days into my London experience I've had an intense day. I walked the mile or so from where I'm living to Trafalgar Square and cheered with 100000 other English cricket fans as the Ashes winning team arrived there.

Great atmosphere. I was impressed.

Thank God that no-one had a bomb. It went through my head. Sad, that we have to contend with such things but nonetheless, today was a remarkable one.

I played a few songs last night, I can feel my creativity charging itself up! I'm hoping to write some songs later tonight.

Peace and Love.

Tom.

Here we go...

Hello,

Well, here I am...writing this in an Internet Cafe in Camden after meeting up with my old buddy Tim (and former bandmate) for a drink.

The cricket is making me a nervous man today (as is the dodgy London water down here...eugggh!) but, nonetheless I am having fun and making some headway. I've got so much to do and am feeling the pressure somewhat but am sure that all shall be well. I'm living in Warren Street, so everything is local to me here (I don't even need busses or tubes, which is a money saver). We are hoping to get a concert/exhibition off the ground for December and we've been looking at who we can get involved and where we might host it.

If anyone has any suggestions for a location, then I'd love to hear it! Money is pretty tight for this at the moment, but maybe we can get some patronage. I hope so.

Okay. I'll be blogging again soon.

Tom.

Hair Cut!

I gave my mighty locks o' rock a chop today. I now sport a more considered looking mod cut. Timely, as I read in the style columns at the moment that the hippy/folk look is out now (SURELY NOT!!!!) and the Bohemian/NY 60s look is in. Not that I care for this, but I thought that I would mention it. Actually, my new cut makes me look much tougher and meaner than the old one.

I have a flat spot on the bridge of my nose, its a family trait going back at least four generations...and when I look in the mirror it makes me look like a younger version of my grandfather, who amongst other things used to be a nifty bantom weight boxer. Well, either that...or as I still proudly wear mighty side-burns, cult TV Kung Fu hero "MONKEY"!

Seriously, I keep turning around and seeing Monkey in my own reflection.

This is good, as I think that hair-cuts should always be entertaining.

The picture is of me mid-windmill at the Penny Theatre, Canterbury. Its a venue with some remarkable heritage. Oasis (aka The Rain), Kula Shaker, Blur, Suede and Radiohead have all played there.

Be lucky!

Tom.

Classic (Apology)

Hi,

I've just read over my blog and have to apologise for my excessive use of the word "classic". It must be very annoying, and is a poor reflection upon my rather good vocabulary. I promise to endeavor to avoid the word in future, but if I fail then please put it down to my addled rock n roll memory.

The sky is blue outside my window today...I've almost got my way through the mountain of paperwork that has been keeping me chained to my desk but will be leaving for the big smoke tomorrow. Exciting stuff!

What isn't so exciting is that I was up until 3 am last night doing my fucking ironing, and in a heroic attempt to get ahead of myself I was up at 7am this morning. Not very rock n roll.

Today I am drinking sparkling mineral water, which unfortuantely isn't San Pellegrino.

I had some exciting news last night, when a friend of mine called me to invite me to play a gig at the Benn Hall in Rugby at some point in October. This is the biggest venue in my home town, and I can either play it as a solo gig or with a band. I'm really looking forward to it because I haven't played a gig in Rugby for four years and they were only small pub gigs. Its going to be fun!

Peace. Out.

Tom.

Top Hat But No Tails!

Hello,

This is me and my friend's recent wedding. Please note the classic silk paisley tie and classic Ray Ban Aviator Golds.

Everyone seems to be getting married this summer. Poor souls! You can't live the life of a libertine with a ball and chain in tow.

I remain happily single, young and free.

Seriously though, I wish all my recently wed chums the best of luck...because they'll need it. I've met their wives. ho ho ho!

Just kidding. I've cleared my paperwork today and am all ready to rock n roll in London town. I've even splashed out on some new threads today with a pair of chocolate brown boot cut jeans. Classic! I've been wearing a lot of Harris tweed in the last year. This is, believe it or not, completely by accident. Personally, I'm a coudroy man but all my jackets ended up getting covered in blood from my hands after gigs, and I haven't found any suitable replacements in charity shops yet.

I might post another picture or two later. By the way, here is a link to my website. Just click here. Enjoy.

England are 301-7 at the moment. I'm planning to do a rain dance at some-point this weekend. We need the draw!

Before I go, I should mention that I'm probably going to have a solo gig in London next week. So, I'll mention it here.

Peace and Love,

Tom.

Dark And Mysterious...

Spooky, eh?

I snapped this on a desolate Norfolk beach earlier this year. I'm wearing, a classic Chrombie overcoat in this. Finest coat ever made!

Peace and love,

Tom.

When In London One Must Blog!

Hello to those from Blogspot, and hello to those who followed the link from The Change's website!

I'm moving down to London tommorrow, to kick off my grand plan for things! There'll be lots to do, and I've got about a million ideas waiting to make happen.

I've started this blog because I won't have access to my Dreamweaver or my PC to update thechange.org.uk, which is both the band's website and my personal creative playground. So, this will be my way of keeping in touch with people, and keeping news flowing about what The Change will be up to. I'm hoping that things are about to go nuclear musically speaking! Rafa, our keyboard player should be getting us the keys to a new and amazing studio and the plan is to go and cut some demos there in the next month. Its early days this particular incarnation of our band, we need to complete a new line-up...but I'm certain that we'll get things together.

I'm also trying to cut my teeth at the moment as a writer and as a practicing artist. I've got some big projects in mind, one of which will be a truly monumental public art response to suicide bombers and will be the largest of its kind ever realised. I can't give over too many details, but suffice to say that conceptually its in a similar vein to Gustav Metzger who I wrote my Thesis on and had some fairly lengthy chats with. He's an inspiring, life changing fella!

Ok, I'll post some more here soon! Thank God for internet cafes...and rock n roll!

Peace. Out.

Tom.

And Afterward...

And this is my hand half an hour of rocking later.

I think that I'd cleaned the blood off before this was taken ...and as nasty as it looks, you have to remember pop pickers that playing guitar is a serious business and you can't let a few cuts and bruises get in the way between you and your music.

Peace and love,

Tom.

Some Photographic Introductions

Hi,
I thought that it'd be good to post some photos here of me, so that you know who is the chap behind the blog!

This first one is me before a gig...