Tom first started playing the guitar when he was a child. Apart from being shown a few chords by his elder brother, Tom was self taught. He initially, learnt his craft through interpreting what he heard on records and later through watching other guitar players. As an early teenager, Tom had become an accomplished finger style guitarist and recalls playing the Davey Graham tune ‘Angie’ at a school concert. He was, and still is avid listener and admirer of other musicians. Early influences included Renbourn and Jansch, Martin Carthy, Nic Jones, Big Bill Broonzy and Led Zeppelin.


In a road traffic accident in 1974, Tom permanently became a disabled person. His impairment also affected his fingers and prevented him from playing music. He recalls the frustration of creating music in his head but not being able to hear it in the air. With the tenacity and creativity of a new explorer, finding ways to work around his limits of hand movement, Tom has discovered how to return to being a musician. He has developed absolutely new and unique techniques for playing slide guitar, with a sensitive touch and full of feeling.

So started a continual journey to return to the passion that is his craft. Tom can truly be described as having a unique method of playing lap slide guitar. This man’s music is free again, full of expression and range, and makes addictive listening. Tom has recently released his first Album, ‘The Bell’ to critical acclaim and is playing regularly again in public. He was featured on The Paul Jones show on Radio 2 in December 2003, but with so much music inside him, defining him as an Acoustic Blues guitarist is too small to convey the range of moods and styles in his playing. Established slide guitarists such as Debashish Bhattacharya and Bob Brozman are fans of Tom’s music, finding it both expressive and refreshingly original.

• Blues
• Jazz
• Acoustic