Page 12 - 364645 LP243221 A Love Supreme 48pp A5 Aug22

FAMOUS ON THE FULWELL: TOM A SMITH
On a warm Sunday afternoon anyone listening to BBC
Radio One will have heard an enthusiastic young man with a familiar accent telling everyone he was from Sunderland before his song was played, asking if he could live with being fake, the lyrics of the song suggesting that he is anything but fake. At just 18 Tom A. Smith is gathering a lot of attention and he’s a big Sunderland fan.
“Yeah, I’ve had a season ticket since I was 4. It was a massive part of my childhood. I used to
go with my Dad and my Grandad so that’s what football means to me, that family time together. So many great memories. My first away game was at Blackburn and I just remember that crowd. I think we lost 3-0 but it almost didn’t matter because you were just part of this wide collective family. The noise we made was incredible.”
A memory familiar to us all I’m sure, going away with the Lads and losing but coming away proud of the fans. Tom’s connection to Sunderland AFC runs a little deeper though, as his first introduction to musicianship
was when he went for singing lessons with Barry Hyde from The Futureheads who sang “Beginning of the Twist”, a former Sunderland run out tune.
“We used to go into Pop Recs every Saturday and Barry would have us singing all sorts. Old folk songs, Futureheads songs, then he got me into Led Zeppelin and Jimi Hendrix. I was with him for about five years just learning about music and harmonies and guitar. Pop Recs is a great place too, a really good environment. Barry is just a really engaging person and he got me into this great music.”
This evolution and companionship in Sunderland music is something that continues to grow and flourish and with Tom and bands like The Voyd starting to gather attention the legacy of the older school artists is starting to flourish. It was in fact Frankie
(of the Heartstrings) who brought Tom to the stage at the SoL.
“Yeah I remember the first time was when we played Derby and Frankie got me on the stage in the fanzone and then the next time was when England played Australia.”
For context that match was six years ago, when Tom would have been 12. Playing
in front of a crowd of England fans. Co- incidentally that was also the game when Marcus Rashford became the youngest ever debutant scorer for England. Tom has also supported Elton John. Now Tom is on the cusp of achieving some real commercial success, how is he coping with it all happening so quickly?
“You’re right, it has happened quickly. I’m just really enjoying it. Who knows how long it will last? The thing is we had this lockdown period which in some ways wasn’t great for music because there were no gigs or anything, but it did give musicians the chance to go away and create. That’s what I did. I just went away and started writing songs.
I think I wrote about 200 songs during that time.
I was messing around with drums and the piano too and learned a lot about mixing and recording as well so I’m now quite good at pulling it all together. Once venues opened again, I got a
slot supporting Gang of Youths and their singer (David Le’aupepe) was a really good mentor to me. He’s a great guy and he gave me so much advice. They’re an Australian band and they’re absolutely massive over there. They supported
12
ALOVESUPREME
ISSUE259