Born in the last third of the 20th Century, Tom discovered at a very young age that his life would be defined by the obscure funk and soul 45” discs that he’d play non-stop. Throughout his youth, his music tastes evolved to embrace everything from punk, jazz, disco, Black Sabbath, electro before eventually, overwhelmingly, he discovered house music. Spending daylight hours kicking footballs, at night he’d set about learning keyboards and guitars in his bedroom. By the age of 16 he was DJing at parties. You could say he had no choice: music chose Tom.

Born in Cambridge – the town that also gave dance music DJ Harvey, The Idjut Boys, Secretsundaze and Tim ‘Love’ Lee of the Tummy Touch label – Tom was a familiar face in the free-rave scene. In 1991, he signed up to Manchester University. Upon realising that he was spending more time in the Hacienda nightclub than at his lectures, he and a few likeminded friends (now better know as Grand Central and Simian Mobile Disco) launched what would become hugely successful international music careers, by beginning their own weekly club night. At a course placement at an Afro-American college in America, Tom embarked on a lifelong love affair with the sound of black America, a groove that would form the foundation of all of his later productions.

Tom’s studies then moved him to New York City’s West Village where for six months he worked ‘as a lackie’ at Empire Productions. Working for Guru (Gangstarr), Jeru the Damaja and the Brand New Heavies he’d be in charge of wooing the Naomis and Kates off the catwalk and into the glitzy celeb-bashes that the company was promoting. Returning to London, a spell in PR was short lived. Luckily Tom’s friendship with Yorkshire’s 6-feet-and-rising Andy Cato wasn’t. The two met through Cato’s girlfriend and not that long after they’d started discussing music, they were promoting their first London club night together. Called ‘Captain Sensual At The Helm of Groove Armada’ it took place at the Gardening Club 2, Covent Garden, getting off to a shaky start. They’d booked the house DJ Dave Seaman for the first night, almost going bankrupt over his DJ fee, amazed to read the next day’s Euro ‘96 football tabloid headline referring to his goal-keeper namesake: ‘Seaman sinks Armada’.

Undeterred and, indeed, spurred, Tom and Andy pooled all their exuberant enthusiasm and experience together, eventually tapping into huge vaults of previously undiscovered talent. Groove Armada was born. Their first production, a 700 limited edition 7” ‘At The River’ (‘if you’re fond of sand dunes and salty air’) surpassed everyone’s expectations in the world of dance and media. From such instantaneous success it felt like a short hop and dancefloor skip to worldwide fame, to becoming one of the best known and most loved dance acts. Uniquely, Groove Armada have always managed to straddle the worlds of upbeat dance music and mellow chill-out tunes. The former filled stadiums with crowds bouncing along to the big band sound while their downtempo work made it on to the thousands of chill-out compilations that saturated the 1990s – and can still be heard advertising Marks and Spencer’s food on British TV today.

Groove Armada continue to be a global force in dance music having incorporated everything from folk to psychedelic soul to country-rock into their bassy house style. Their parkland affairs, Lovebox, (Clapham Common 2003/04, Victoria Park 2005-07)