You see, although originally being called just ‘Tom Gee’ was never a contentious issue for any of us in the band, it seemed more of a problem for venues and new listeners to get a grasp of. We were being billed on acoustic sets – thinking Tom Gee was just one person…which although may make perfect sense to the untrained viewer, you don’t see the likes of John Mayer or Bon Jovi needing to add a suffix to their name. However, others do use them – such as Dave Matthews Band or the John Butler Trio. And so, we decided to change to it too.

But more than this, moving to the new band name also represents a progression in the way we work as a unit. Tom, naturally comes up with all of the new songs. They are his lyrics and his ideas. But when he brings them to the table, they get somewhat morphed when put in front of the rest of the band. Take the ‘Superman Song’ for example (which if you haven’t checked it out yet – you should, here! ) This song Tom first showed me on his acoustic guitar. No sooner was he into the first chorus and this piece just screamed gospel to me! We knocked it out in the next full rehearsal, where the horns came up with a stonking line for the chorus, and the girls made their stunning impact known in the middle breakdown section. Not to be over-looked – I should also point out Gav’s subtle but funky keys riffs over Jim Jamm’s swaggering bass line which just locks the whole thing down…Can you tell we like this tune?!

So there you have it – we’re now the Tom Gee BAND, and things are shaping up nicely! We’ve got a string of gig bookings – including one in London on 5th May where anyone who fancies a free trip down to the big smoke should let their voices be known on the facebook page! It would mean a great deal to us if you could lend us a day of your weekend…its quite simply an important gig, as we’re being scouted by an agency down there…

Finally, check out the second track of the Peak Sessions tracks, ‘On My Way’ – its being pre-released TONIGHT to anyone who’s already signed up for the free downloads – and it will be with the rest of you very soon!!

Anyway, m’off – stay sharp, stay cool – and keep listening to the Tom Gee Band

Thad

The post Thad: What’s In A Name?? appeared first on Tom Gee Band.

Well, it’s afternoon technically but I don’t really care. I’m very pleased to announce that we are Tom Gee Band and we are 8 beautiful people strong; David Sudall, Jim Jamm, Gavin Stevenson, Joe Roughton, Matt Newby, Laura Popperwell and Bridie Burkinshaw. And me, but yeah. Sort of goes without saying doesn’t it?

We have a gig at the Library with our good friend Richard from the 360 Club. It’s 27th January a Friday night in Leeds. Get down for a chance to be on the Suzie’s Rendez-Vous video! AND our 2 new tracks will be available. AND it’s the first full band gig. AND it’s going to be awesome, fun-filled and groovy. One last plug, please please please like the fan page on facebook if you don’t already. If you do already muchas gracias. The new year looks exciting and hopefully we can make it as good as last year. Not much to follow is it really? UK & Ireland tour, 02 Arena, new EP….just casually. Crack that one out again? You bet. Here is a video of our misdeeds at the O2 last year. Thanks for your support from 2011 and as for 2012? (Cue cool sign off line in Lethal Weapon style) I’m gettin’ too old for this… doesn’t really work does it?

Schmeh (there’s an underrated word, yes it’s word) I’ll leave you with this gem, courtesy of Mr. Jamie Moore. Enjoy and See you soon.

Hasta luego

TG

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZpEDKwPUQ0

The post TG: New Year, New Tracks, New Band! appeared first on Tom Gee Band.

We launched the new EP Roots on 26^th June at the 360 Club in Leeds (the EP was mixed by Roni Szpakowski of Peak USA…in Chicago) and then played a load of gigs around the UK over the next two weeks on our “Get Out of Bed” tour.  We then managed to sell over 250 EP’s (which certainly helped the finances…mixed in Chicago) We’ve since sold over 150 songs on itunes and had a couple of tracks played on a Canadian radio show. (Chicago…huh?)

Then, you know, casually, we went to the O2 for the Live & Unsigned Grand Final, didn’t win but had an amazing time.

The next Friday Dave, Jamie and me received our degrees, Jamie from Hull Uni, me and Dave from Leeds College of Music. Had lovely day with our families, not forgetting Dave (Thad), who is probably a better musician than the rest of us, or at least he thinks he is, who is still working towards his forthcoming engineering degree. Multi-talented ba*%&rd.

Starting to book gigs for September once the August holidays are over. So keep your eyes peeled for new songs, new gigs and new band members! That’s all I have for you now.

Love and thanks for all your support. Let’s keep it going.

TG

The post TG: Degrees of EP sales and more appeared first on Tom Gee Band.

So we rocked up on the day of the audition, cranked out What’s She Gonna Say and got told to stop playing half way through. Not the best of starts. We went to wait outside and watched the organisers come out one by one to explain that various bands hadn’t got through offering feedback on their performance, things they can change and improve on. To be fair we were relaxed, didn’t really expect anything to come of it. “Tom Gee?” We all looked up. “Yeah you guys are through well done.”

So 2 months later there we were in the Regional Final on the 27th March at Dewsbury Town Hall. Lots of fans turned up to support us, people were nervous, still practicing before they went on. We were relaxed. Again. It’s not that we didn’t care I guess we just didn’t expect anything to come of it. So you can imagine our surprise when our name was called out saying we were through. I think that’s when it hit me that we were one step from the O2. That was a good feeling.

Sunday 8th May arrives, The Willows in Manchester. Again a huge crowd there to support us. Cracked out a Beyonce cover before the opening track of the new EP Roots called Little Late. Video here! (http://youtu.be/LZ_2s-nlbY4) And the final act going through to the Grand Final of the Live & Unsigned competition 2011 at the O2 Arena is….Tom Gee. Get out. No it’s not. No it really is. Wow.

Thanks to everyone who has supported us along our journey and thanks to those who are coming down on Saturday to see us. For those of you that can’t make it you can still show your support by texting unsigned62 to 84222 or watching the youtube video! http://youtu.be/LZ_2s-nlbY4

It’s Wednesday for God’s sake, the gig is on Saturday and it really hasn’t hit me yet. One thing for certain though; I can not wait.

See you Saturday.

TG

The post TG: The Road To The O2 appeared first on Tom Gee Band.

Live and Unsigned Votes Needed

Can you believe it’s just over a week to the Live and Unsigned Grand Final. Obviously the performance on the day is paramount but there are other factors taken into consideration; there are also competitions within the competition.
There are two ‘Video Views’ competitions (MUZU.tv and Youtube) and a text vote competition.

Text Voting is now live for the National Grand Final of Live and Unsigned 2011. As well as performing for the judges on the day, the public have the opportunity to vote for the act who they believe should win Live and Unsigned 2011.

Each act has been allocated a specific code (ours is unsigned62) and the public can now vote via a text, for the act they want to win.

In order to win Live and Unsigned 2011 we must be within the top 3 Judges scores. Those acts not in the highest judges’ scores cannot win! Those acts in the top 3 get their scores ranked and added to the audience text voting. The acts with the combined highest ranking will be the winners.

We have consistently been in the top ten leader-boards for each competition – So help us in the final push. Anything you can do would be great. View the videos a few times and if you’re feeling flush text our code – unsigned62 to 84222 (we’ll remember when we’re famous!!)

We have a competition running to win two free tickets to the Live and Unsigned final. It’s free to enter just click [HERE]

And the winner of Live and Unsigned 2011 is……….?   Go on you know you want to!

See you at the O2 – Thanks for everything

TOM

Tom Gee – Manchester 8th May 2011 on MUZU.

Live and Unsigned website

Live and Unsigned Leaderboard

The o2 Live and Unsigned page

Live and Unsigned facebook page

Live and Unsigned on Twitter

The post Tom Gee needs your votes for Live and Unsigned 2011 appeared first on Tom Gee Band.

With so much happening we thought it was time to completely renew the website. Time to introduce a new, clear, crisp, fan-friendly website. When considering the new site we had a wish list:

A good blogging platform making easy to keep fans up-to-date

A good music player

Fully integrated social media

Youtube integration

A Gallery 

A method of featuring the very latest breaking news

A great looking Gig-Guide.

A Newsletter sign-up.

A Free mp3 download facility.

Yeah that should do it we said. And just a few weeks later – Hey Presto! It’s here. Communicating to our fan-base (existing and new) has never been so easy. The site’s ability to seamlessly integrate all social media streams was a key requirement. It provides Facebook, Twitter and Flickr integration matching the site style and not some strange looking embedded bolt-on that make so many websites jar visually. Added to this is youtube channel feed to the video page.

The result is to give people who want to find out more about Tom Gee everything they need in one place. No need to surf Google back and forth, hopping around youtube, twitter, myspace etc. It’s all here and we hope you like it.

We aim to keep you right up-to-date and it’s never been so easy for us to do so.

So with news of the ‘Get Out of Bed’ tour, the E.P. launch and of course the build up to the Live and Unsigned Grand Final – You may want to add us to your favourites right now.

We’d love to here your thoughts and any feedback would be much appreciated.

The post TG: A website befitting a Live and Unsigned Grand Finalist! appeared first on Tom Gee Band.