Lead vocalist, songwriter and drummer, Tom Cridland, met his girlfriend, Debs Marx, at Bristol University in 2009 and, upon graduating in 2014, he founded an eponymous fashion brand with a government loan. He has since been regularly featured in the international press for The 30 Year Sweatshirt and for making clothing for the likes of Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Craig.
Tom also developed a friendship with one of his heroes, Elton John’s longstanding drummer, Nigel Olsson, through making him clothing. Inspired by Nigel to take up playing and singing, he then met Nick Whitehead, a piano player and fellow rock n’ roll fanatic in 2015, at an Elton gig. Nick and Tom started jamming together, then writing together in 2016, subsequently forming The Tomicks, together with Debs.
Tom is a flamboyant personality, who wears outrageous colourful clothing and sings whilst playing drums that are parked firmly at the front of the stage. His struggles with alcohol and life in London have often informed his lyric writing, and, before meeting Nick, he had never found someone who shared his huge passion for old school pop, rock, blues and soul music. Nick, a virtuoso piano player from Manchester, is the instrumental heart and soul of the band, always playing with meticulous precision and taste, often extending songs with incredible improvised jams. Debs, as Tom's girlfriend and business partner is not only the inspiration for many of The Tomicks' songs but also a classically trained vocalist, pianist and violinist, who sings lead and backing vocals as well as playing keyboards in the band's live set up.
Tom and Nick write all The Tomicks' music and their process is truly collaborative. Tom arrives at sessions with almost finished song lyrics, Nick with riffs and chords. They then develop these ideas together to create the finished songs in piano and vocal demo form. The piano is, therefore, the crucial instrument when it comes to The Tomicks' song writing and sound.
The band were so happy with their first original material at the end of 2016 that, using money earned from Tom and Debs' businesses, they self-funded sessions to record an album at the legendary Village Recorder in Los Angeles in February 2017. This was released on February 22nd and has received rave reviews.
Having been on tour since December 2017, The Tomicks are excited to bring their live show to PizzaExpress Live in August, where they’ll play original material such as “Closing Time” and “I’m Gonna Quit” alongside covers of classics by the Eagles, The Beatles, Elton John, Electric Light Orchestra, Queen and Fleetwood Mac.