Tom Townsend is a talented multi-instrumentalist who has worked as a composer, performer, session musician and producer. Brought up on Woody Guthrie, Hank Williams, Buddy Holly, and The Beatles, Tom first picked up the guitar with purpose at the age of nine and, with his father’s help, learned to play, but it was the drums that really grabbed him, thanks to an appreciation of Jerry Allison and Ringo Starr.
Tom formed his first band aged eleven, which saw him and a couple of friends earning £30 per gig. His teenage years were spent skateboarding and playing grunge and alternative metal though by seventeen he became interested in Blues, Jazz, Funk, Soul, Hip-Hop and Drum & Bass, forming a Jazz/Drum & Bass collective in early 2000s with members from all over the country. Tom’s twenty year career in music has seen him touring with a huge range of artists, everything from a Skiffle band to Indonesian Blues-Rock mega-star Gugun. He’s busked all over the world and studied Jazz in France.
In 2015, Tom set up Village Records, a label designed to self-release his own material, as well as signing and promoting other talented local artists, prioritising fair deals as much as innovative and exciting emerging music.
September 2016 sees Tom Townsend back on the live circuit with a full band, including horn section. His ‘nobody-else-like-him’ blend of soul-soaked vocals and floor-trembling rhythms promise to make his live shows unmissable.
Live Dates:
21st Oct – Solo at the Old Ticket Office, North Ferriby Railway Station. £15 Tickets
22nd Oct – Solo at the Tap & Tankard, Sheffield
28th Oct – Otley Courthouse. Info/tickets http://otleycourthouse.org.uk/
29th Oct – The Milton Rooms, Malton. Box office: 01653 696240
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