Tommy loved playing music since discovering metal as an early teen. His first foray was Green Jello covers band, Gorganzola with 2 friends. It required bass, so he got his first, a Sunn Mustang, for his 16th Birthday.
That band quickly became Negative Image with the addition of two more mates. It was a mix of Metallica covers and original songs written by Tommi. When they later reformed for Tommi's 40th Birthday they renamed it Sepia tones! After about 18 months the band split due to some going to university and, other than a handful of short term local practices, Tommi put his bass down and didn't touch it again for 18 years, instead fulfilling his love of music by becoming a rock and metal club DJ and metal celebrities interviewer.
What Tommi did get out of his school band was a love of punk. They already played Last Caress and Tommi stumbled across the Anti-Nowhere league thanks to a cover of For You by Wolfsbane when he was 17. Tommi bought a couple of compilations of classic punk and wrote his first punk song Fuck The nation there and then.
Tommi's love for all genres of punk continued and by his mid 30s he took up the bass again, played with a few bands briefly and then Formed the Small Things with his then Wife, which was a pop punk outfit. After that fell apart (the band and the marriage eventually...), Tommi put an advert online looking for people to form a more classic, aggressive punk band. Nothing really came of it and for 6 months Tommi did some projects with guys Like Richie Barret (Tony Hadley's Guitarist) and Metal Band Dragonforce’s vocalist Marc Hudson, but he lost heart and gave up entirely as these weren't original Punk.
Another 6 months passed and Monkey contacted Tommi asking was he still interested in getting a band together. Tommi said yes and with the addition of their first drummer, Captain, Rebel Station was formed.
Since then the band have played with so many of Tommi's heroes that it would take too long to list, but at 16 he would never have dreamed of achieving all that through just writing and playing Punk Rock 'n' Roll.
The latest dream come true is that, although there are many tales of hardship for people through lockdown, Tommi finally learned to play guitar and even some music theory so he can finally play the little red Korean guitar he bought from a pawnshop in 1992 that he dreamed of becoming a virtuoso on, but has sat in his childhood bedroom never played. Soon he'll be moving from bass and vocals in the band to playing 2nd guitar and singing, but doing both is taking a bit of practice. It's not as easy as on bass!
A surprising fact about Tommi that you probably don't know... he once shared Coke with Princess Anne (he was about 5 and it came in a can), he was once invited to meet the Prime minister of the time at 10 Downing Street because of his Jewellery (the day job), he turned down a sandwich from Geezer Butler from Black Sabbath (lovely guy) and he has even "heard of a tale" of someone defeating a vehicle forensics team and 2 sniffer Dogs to get a Large bag of weed into Glastonbury... for personal use... If you see Tommi at the bar, buy him a golden ale please!
Tommi's band before Rebel Station.
